My grandma's pie crust advice finally backfired on me

My grandma always told me to add ice water to pie dough one tablespoon at a time and stop the second it looks shaggy. I've done that for like 10 years and my crusts always came out perfect. But last week I was making a double batch for a church bake sale in Boise and I followed her advice exactly. The dough felt dry and crumbly but I figured it was fine since grandma never steered me wrong. Well I rolled it out and it cracked all over the place, I had to patch like 6 spots on each crust. The pies still baked up okay but they looked terrible and one lady actually asked if my cat walked on them. Has anyone else had a trusted tip suddenly not work out?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_reed10d ago

Guess grandma's crust advice doesn't travel well to Boise.

river_allen10d ago

Oh man, did you try to use her recipe exactly as-is? I did the SAME thing with my own grandma's pie dough and it turned into a crumbly mess out here in Colorado. Her instructions said "add a little water" and that little bit was nowhere near enough with our dry air. I ended up having to tweak the flour amount a ton before it stopped cracking apart on me.

noahmartin9d ago

Right? Grandma's recipes are basically a physics problem depending on your zip code. Glad Boise taught me I need like double the water or my dough turns into drywall.