My grandma's pie crust recipe says 'cut in butter until it looks right' and I finally get why that bugs me

Logan Bell · 2026-10-15T17:00:09.646111+00:00

I've been baking pies for about 15 years now, and for the first 10 of those I kept wondering why my crusts came out tough when hers were always flaky. Turns out I was overworking the dough because I kept trying to get it to look exactly like hers, but she was working in a hot kitchen in Phoenix with butter that was already half soft. The old recipes assume you know what room temp butter feels like on your knuckles, and nobody teaches that part anymore. Last Thanksgiving I finally just stopped at 6 pulses in the food processor, left some pea-sized butter chunks, and it worked way better. Does anyone else have an old family recipe that skipped the one instruction that actually matters?

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My grandma's pie crust recipe says 'cut in butter until it looks right' and I finally get why that bugs me | Baking Fails And Wins - Librear