Has anyone ever tried half butter and half shortening (lard included.) The recipe I use for snickerdoodles is like this and makes for my absolute favorite snickerdoodles. Wonder how it would work for crust.
I have done it but still prefer lard.
I grew up on Southern biscuits, pie crusts, etc. all with Crisco. I am sorry to be a snob but butter really is better. I feel like Southern cooks came to over-rely on Crisco after it outlived much of its usefulness. It was such a boon to their parents and grandparents, being cheaper than butter, and something that keeps on the shelf forever whether or not you have a working fridge. These are great things, and Crisco biscuits are far FAR better than no biscuits, but now that we (mostly) all have refrigerators and can (mostly) all afford butter (for now), it seems like the obvious way to go. I use a food processor; I can see how it’s much easier to mash Crisco into the flour with a fork, if you don’t have a processor.
Southern cooks tend to also swear by self-rising flour (for my mom it was Martha White; she used to pack a suitcase full of it whenever she came back from visiting her folks) but it too isn’t magic, it’s just a convenience. Perhaps the magic is in the specific variety of flour, but baking powder/soda and salt are the same whether pre-mixed or added at home.
As others have noted, the thing I really had to teach myself was to work the dough a bit. There’s the totally valid idea that overworking pastry is bad. Take this to an extreme: therefore the less handling the better; therefore the ideal is NO handling. Wrong. This produces biscuits that don’t hold together. It needs a little gluten development, just not a lot. I’m finding that folding/patting a specific, counted number of times (YMMV) is an easy way to impose mindless control over that part of the process. 4 pats/3 folds seems to be the right number for me.
@Beckdawrek I knew you’d be all over this thread before I popped in. May I ask, do you pre-heat the skillet, or put the whole thing in cold?
I used to do that but prefer all butter
Sorry, I know that now. I didn’t know it when I was a kid. But thanks.
Pre-heat with about a teaspoon of lard
Not much. Or your bisciuts will be greasy.
Oh. Sorry..didn’t mean to offend.
There’s my problem! We recently moved to an Irish butter and the rising issues started then.
also Missouri
I thought McD switched from beef tallow because of lawsuit?
No offense. Didn’t want you to think I was an ignoramus!
Saw this article and thought of your post as it has a recipe for biscuits with Irish butter.
And I also use a food processor for pie crusts. I make 3 at a time and freeze the other two, so it makes it worth it for making a mess of the food processor. Because the butter here (Switzerland) is different than the U.S., I usually decrease the butter a bit, if I’m using a U.S. recipe.
I usually make two crusts at a time, top and bottom. The idea of making 4 or 6 at a time is interesting. I suppose i could freeze it at the “form a half to ¾ inch disk and allow to rest in the fridge” stage. I wonder how big a batch i could make in the food processor.
Also, that last strawberry rhubarb pie was so good that i made another, yesterday. I’ll try it after lunch today. But the crust cookies (scraps of leftover crust sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and baked above the pie after i turn down the heat) were excellent, so i think this crust will be better.
Thanks. She has a good technique. My biggest problem with it is that I have no freezer space, although I suppose I could take things out temporarily while refreezing the butter. Interesting that she preheats to 475F instead of 450. I may try that and see if it solves my browning problem. Preheating the baking sheet is also a good move.
Before my mom went back to work fulltime, she’d bake pies occasionally. More than the pies, I loved the cinnamon rolls she made from left over pie dough.
Roll out the dough into a large retangle-ish shape. Spread with softened butter and a generous mix of cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough from the long edge until you formed a tight dough “snake.” Prick it with a fork and arrange on a baking sheet to bake. When it has cooled slice the “snake” up into pieces about 1.5-2 inches wide. I’ve never had a cinnamon roll I’ve like more.
Note: this is very similar to rugelach (which usually has raisins – blech), and my mom’s parents were Hungarian immigrants. So, I think this is something she saw her grandmother make.
I don’t rework the dough. I lay out the scraps, sprinkle some cinnamon and some sugar (sometimes i skip the sugar) on them, cut any large pieces into smaller ones, place them on a small cookie sheet, and put above the pie, after the initial hot temp cook.
I love them.
Also, today’s Mother’s Day pie is super.
I would never think that about you! 
Peeps get mixed up about lards, oils and fats all the time.
I found my daughter melting a whole box of real butter one time
She was tryna fry some frozen tater tots in it.
Eh. She was young and dumb.
She had a lesson in the subject of what to fry or sauté something in, that afternoon
Sprinkle crushed pecans on that dough before you roll it into a snake.
Do the next steps.
You now have a southern specialty…Pecan rolls
(That would be “PEEE-CON” not pee-CAN, just sayin")
Nah. I prefer my pecans on sticky buns. I’m a cinnamon role purist.