Classic Crisco Pie Crust Recipe + Deep Dish Adaptation - Unsophisticook (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you use too much Crisco in pie crust? ›

When there is too much fat in the pie crust, it crumbles. There isn't enough flour to form the flakes, so the extra fat just melts as it bakes and the pie crust falls apart as you cut into it. Baking is a precise art; you must measure the flour, salt, fat and water carefully or your pie crust won't turn out well.

To correct the problem you'll need to add more moisture by incorporating an additional teaspoon or so of water into the pie dough, being careful not to add too much otherwise the baked crust will be more bread-like in texture rather than the desirable layers of flakiness.

In order to compete, Crisco had to change its recipe. Since 2007, the brand has eliminated nearly all of the trans fats in its Crisco products. The new Crisco recipe has removed cottonseed oil from the equation, and the easily recognizable tubs of Crisco are now filled with a mixture of soy and palm oils.

Butter: A rich flavor and a flaky crust, but harder to work with. For some pastry chefs, butter is the obvious choice. “My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does.

As a hydrogenated oil, Crisco is loaded with trans fats. Trans fats have a chemical structure that our bodies have trouble recognizing, and they create free radicals in the body.

For Flaky Pie Crust, Keep Everything COLD, Especially Your Butter. If your kitchen is above 73°F, you can refrigerate all of your ingredients and equipment including your bowl, rolling pin, and pie plate until it's between 65-70°F (dip an instant-read thermometer into your flour to gauge the temperature).

Whether you use a food processor, a stand mixer, or your hands to incorporate the ingredients together, overmixing is a common mistake that leads to a chewy crust. It's tempting when baking to combine the ingredients completely, but the texture should resemble a coarse meal before adding your liquid.

2002 – PRESENT. Over the past decade and a half, the Crisco brand continues to evolve– like in 2007 when our all-vegetable shortening became 0g trans fat per serving.

In 1988, Puritan Oil was switched to 100% canola oil. In 2002, Procter & Gamble divested the Crisco (oil and shortening) brand, along with Jif peanut butter, in a spinoff to their stockholders; the two brands then immediately merged with the J. M. Smucker Co. B&G Foods acquired the Crisco brand in December 2020.

The Pie Crust Takeaways

This time, though, there was one very clear victor. Butter made a tastier, flakier, sturdier crust by far.

What is the purpose of vinegar in pie dough? ›

The acidic properties of vinegar inhibit gluten, some will say. This theory proposes that once the water and flour are combined, gluten starts forming, causing the dough to grow tough. Adding an acid, the theory goes, stops the gluten in its tracks and rescues the crust from toughness.

Too much shortening makes the pastry crumbly. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Health Concerns

Shortening is made from hydrogenated vegetable oil which can contain trans fats – meaning they increase your bad cholesterol levels while decreasing your good cholesterol levels. This type of fat has also been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular problems.

Shortening has a higher melting temperature than butter. However, this also means that unlike the very hard chunks of cold butter that remain in the control dough, shortening is soft enough that it is easily overworked, resulting in a crumbly crust instead of a flaky crust.