It’s Great To Grate Your Butter!

Don’t you just love flakey piecrusts? How about fruit crisps covered in a buttery crumble.  Best of all for me are scones that melt in my mouth.  There is a common denominator in all of these. I bet you are thinking butter. Well you are partially correct. It is grated butter! Butter makes all these treats taste rich and delicious. Incorporating cold butter into flour can be time consuming and even a bit tricky. Using a dinner fork works, using a pastry blender works too. Yes, you can drag out a food processor and turning your butter and flour into even size crumbles becomes easier if you  don’t think about the clean-up.. The very easiest and fastest way for me to evenly work butter into flour for a baked recipe is to use a box grater and grate my sticks of butter.  Grating frozen butter is quick and easy, especially if the butter is frozen. (Chilled butter works too – but not as well.)  Tender little flakes of butter result, and these quickly melt into the flour evenly. I like to keep a stick or two in the freezer for grating. Grating butter into a chilled bowl helps keep the butter cold until is it added to the flour. Once my butter is grated I often set the bowl of butter in the freezer while getting everything else ready. If I happen to be very organized the grated butter goes right into the other ingredients. Try this little trick and you will love the buttery result.