Even if you’re lazy like me and don’t make your own pie pastry, a pastry blender can be a very helpful kitchen gadget to have around. Pastry blenders are designed to act like a bunch of coordinated knives to ‘cut’ fat (butter, shortening, lard, etc.) into a flour mixture.
Given that I’m about to post two recipes that require the use of a pastry blender, I thought I’d talk about how to pick a good quality tool.
You might remember your mom or grandma having something like this… The problem with this style is that the tines can easily get bent out of shape and the handle isn’t stable enough to provide enough force to be efficient.
You want to look for something that has an oval grip (vs. round) and rigid metal tines. You want to make sure that the grip is solid and doesn’t roll (like grandma’s was prone to doing). Ergonomics is key! You’ll also want to make sure it’s dishwasher safe because cleaning between the tines is a pain in the ass.
Mine is similar to this Cuisipro from Amazon.com. As usual, Oxo makes a pretty good version as well.
Even though it’s not something you’ll use every day, I guarantee getting an updated pastry blender (or having one period) will exponentially decrease the amount of swearing you’ll do the next time you attempt a pastry or crumb topping.
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