Cutting Butter - Pastry Beater

How do I get the best butter breakdown with the Pastry Beater?

When cutting butter into flour for pastries, you typically start with butter cut into ½” cubes. For pie dough and many other pastry recipes, the butter needs to be cold, so keep it in the fridge until ready to use it. You do not need to freeze your butter because the Pastry Beater makes quick work of breaking butter down while minimizing melting.

What speed should I use when I’m mixing with the Pastry Beater?

You can start on the lowest speed to initially mix ingredients and then use Speed 2 for tilt head mixers (Speed 3 for bowl lift mixers) until your butter is the size you’d like it to be. Many pie dough recipes call for pea-sized pieces of butter, while biscuits, tarts, and scones call for breadcrumb-sized pieces of butter.

How long does it take the Pastry Beater to break down butter?

For pea-sized pieces of butter for pie dough, the Pastry Beater will typically take 1-2 minutes to break down the butter. For breadcrumb-sized pieces of butter, the Pastry Beater will typically take 2-3 minutes to break down the butter. Your mixing time could be shorter or longer depending on the type of butter you use, the type of flour you use, the size of your initial butter pieces, and your desired ending butter size.

Do you have a QuickStart Pie Dough recipe?

The Use and Care Guide for your Pastry Beater include this Quick Start Pie Dough recipe:

Ingredients: 

Two sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (230g), chilled and cut into ½” cubes

2.5 cup All-Purpose Flour (315g)

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

6-8 Tbsp ice water (90g), more as needed

Instructions: 

1. Assemble pastry beater to the mixer: mix flour, sugar, and salt on Stir to combine. Add chilled butter and mix on Stir for 30 seconds.

2. For the tilt head mixer, increase to Speed #2 (for the Bowl-Lift mixer, increase to Speed #3) until the mixture resembles cornmeal with pea-sized pieces of butter throughout. Scrape bowl and paddle with a spatula if needed.

3. Drizzle half of the ice water, 3 Tbsp, over the surface of the flour mixture and run on Stir for 5 seconds. Stop the mixer, and drizzle the remaining 3 Tbsp of water evenly over the surface of the mixture. Mix on Stir for 10 - 20 seconds until it makes a shaggy dough. Add more water and stir again as needed.

4. Form the dough into two disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Set in refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight. Remove from fridge and roll to 1/8” before baking to the instructions provided on your chosen pie recipe.