Hi all,
Just wanted to mention that this is a great tip, but if you have forgotten to freeze the shortening and/or butter then you can get a similar effect by using a food processor (e.g., Cuisinart). I generally do this by putting the dry ingredients into the work bowl, cutting in the shortening, and then pulsing the processor until the shortening appears "grated", as was suggested in the excellent tip below. Do NOT pulse/process it too much! Then I add the liquid ingredients, pulse just until it's blended (the mixture may be a shaggy mass, or not even holding together), then dump it out on my pastry board, quickly press it together, cut, and bake.
Cold shortening is really excellent for making pastry and flaky baked items such as biscuits -- one reason they suggest a marble pastry board for making pastries and such, and work fast to keep the temp cool/cold (or put half in the fridge until you're ready for it).
Thanks for sharing this excellent tip.
Joan
-----Original Message-----
> From: "Linda Grande" <LGrande@koin.com>
> Subject: Misc. baking
> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 16:45:33 -0500
> I ran across this item posted to a baking board and though it would be
> of interest to the folk here:
> "I came across a tip from a well known pastry chef. He said that if
> you want to get a high rise then freeze your butter and then grate
> it. I tried this with my biscuit recipe. I use mostly solid crisco
> shortening so I froze both the shortening and the butter and then
> grated them directly into the flour. With a spoon I turned the flour
> every minute or so so I would not be grating shortening on top of
> shortening and thereby creating a huge clump. It really did work well
> and the biscuits rose even more than they normally did."