How A Dry Knife Could Ruin Your Pie Crust
Any pie lover's dream is to cut into a warm, freshly baked pie. Whether it's apple, cherry, or decadent chocolate, various fillings suit anyone's dessert craving. Even rapper Megan Thee Stallion craves the sweet baked pastry, so she created her own H-Town Hottie Pie consisting of butterscotch, coconut, and pecans (via Goldbelly).
Baking a homemade pie can be tedious. It usually doesn't come out as perfect as those stunning pie crusts in photos on the internet. Once you've perfected your art, the next step is learning how to slice and serve a sliver of the sweet stuff. If you aren't careful, your prized crust will crumble, crack, and split, creating a mess of your masterpiece. How do you cut through the pie without ruining the crust? Use a serrated knife. Here's more on how you should prep your knife to slice the perfect piece of pie every time.
Cut pie crust with a wet or buttered knife
The beautiful, flaky homemade pie crust you meticulously baked deserves a delicate slicing treatment. Don't ruin the pie by cutting it with a dry knife. Instead, slice the perfect piece by running the knife under warm water or add a small amount of butter to the blade beforehand. The knife will easily slide into the pastry (via Taste of Home).
However, between these two options, butter works best for gliding through the crumbly dessert, according to The Kitchn. Wipe a small amount of butter onto the blade, then slice away. This prevents pie crust crumbles and allows your masterpiece to be destroyed by the mouth of its beholder instead.
A crumbly crust may also indicate that you used insufficient water to make the dough. BBC Good Food says to add very cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time when combining the dough's ingredients. Then, lightly flour the work surface and gently roll out the dough, turning it over every one to two rolls.