Roll Out Pie Dough With A Frozen Vodka Bottle For Ultra Flaky Results

Jun 29, 2023

Chilled butter is the key to a really good, melt-in-your-mouth flaky pie crust. Why is that? For starters, when a cooled crust hits a hot oven, the drastic change in temperature causes the cold butter to evaporate and form layers within the dough. If you use room temperature or melted butter, this will yield a cracker-like crust with chew and zero flakiness. Therefore, the colder the butter, the better the pie.

This is also why many recipes say to fold in ice-cold water tablespoons at a time until the dough comes together. The cool water will help keep the butter cold, seeing that the heat from your hands during the kneading process can do the opposite. And while whipping out the rolling pin might seem inevitable, we've got the perfect swap that does the double duty of rolling out the dough and keeping it nice and chilled. Grab that bottle of vodka from the freezer and let's get rolling.

Instead of using a room-temperature rolling pin, try your hand at a frozen bottle of vodka or any liquor you have on hand in your freezer. However, the bottle must have a long, cylinder shape in order to achieve a flat, even surface. Start by placing your slab of dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, placing another sheet similar in size on top, and rolling it out with your chilled bottle. Because your frozen glass bottle will produce condensation, the parchment is a perfect barrier to prevent any water from altering the dough.

From there, once your pie dough is to the thickness you desire, simply transfer it to a pie plate like usual and continue with the recipe you're working on. This is the perfect way to keep your pie crust at the chilled consistency you want, for the most melt-in-your-mouth results. But keep in mind that a frozen glass bottle can be really cold to roll using just your bare hands, so in order to make it more bearable try oven mitts or even winter gloves. This hack is perfect in the warmer months when it seems impossible to cool off the kitchen or when the oven is working hard during your holiday baking.