Talking to a pastry chef at a farmer's market made me rethink how I handle butter

I was picking up berries at the Saturday market in Portland and this older pastry chef was demoing croissants. She said something about letting butter sit at room temp for exactly 18 minutes before cutting it into dough, not cold from the fridge like I always do. I tried it on my scones yesterday and the texture came out way flakier than usual, less dense. Anyone else have a weird specific time or temp trick that changed their baking?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.pat7d ago

Swear by this, @fiona_murphy, but hear me out. I used to keep my butter in the freezer for pie dough, thinking colder was better, until I had the opposite problem - tough, dense crusts every time. Then I read somewhere that butter needs to be soft enough to smear into thin layers but cold enough to not melt into the flour. So I started taking it out for 15 minutes on the counter, not 18, but the point is the same. What worked for me was cutting the butter into small cubes first, then letting it sit for exactly 12 minutes before working it into the dough. That timing gave me the flakiest scones I've ever made, no joke. So 18 minutes might sound gimmicky but the principle of "not too cold, not too warm" is real.

fiona_murphy7d ago

18 minutes sounds way too specific to be anything but a gimmick. I've been making biscuits and pie crusts for years with butter straight from the fridge and they come out fine, this whole timing thing feels like overthinking it.