11 tips for making the perfect A2/A2 all-butter pie crust

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November 4, 2022

It’s definitely pie season. And, if you value the most delicious and nutrient-dense foods, you’re likely making (or are interested in making) your own pie crusts at home.

I mean, I don’t think you can buy A2/A2 einkorn or A2/A2 spelt or A2/A2 gluten-free pie crusts in any store. If you want it, you have to make it. And, in my opinion, it’s worth the extra time and effort.

Pie crust can be a little finicky. That’s why I put together an A2/A2 Einkorn All-Butter Pie Crust Recipe for you plus the following 11 tips for success:

1. Butter quality matters A LOT.

Last year around this time, I wrote about why butter is the most important cookie ingredient, with some great tips to make the cookie of your dreams. Just like with cookies, butter is the most important pie crust ingredient, too!

Butter is what gives pie crusts their flavor, its tender texture, those butterfly flaky layers, and that golden color.

Since fat holds most of the flavor, butter from 100% grass fed cows will create the most delectable pie crusts. Compared to conventional butter, grass fed butter will lend a deeper earthy or nutty flavor to your pie.

Then there’s the butterfat, and when it comes to pies, the more butterfat the better. Our butter is more of a European style butter with 82-86% butterfat, which is more than the standard 80% butterfat in conventional American butter. More butterfat means less water, which means better structure in your crust.

And then, of course, there’s digestibility. There definitely needs to be more research on this topic, but from my understanding, A2/A2 dairy is better tolerated and digested by most people.

**2. Always use unsalted butter.**

Different companies use different amounts of salt in salted butter. So, for absolute control over flavor, it’s best to begin with unsalted butter.

**3. Always keep it cold.**

Keep the butter in the fridge until the moment you’re ready to make your crust. Use ice water, not room temperature water, to keep the butter cold in the mixing process. You want the chunks of butter to stay together, not melt into the flour. That means it needs to stay cold.

If your kitchen is hot and the butter is warming up, move the whole pie crust operation to the fridge for 30 minutes to harden it back up. Then, continue on.

4. Don’t mix too much. Those visible butter chunks are a good thing!

Butter chunks in your crust keep the bits of flour separate. They melt away in the oven and create the flakiness of the crust.

5. You don’t need a fancy pastry cutter or a food processor. You can use a couple forks instead.

Cross and pull the forks through the butter, flour, and water to mix and create the dough. It’s a little bit of a workout and takes about 5 minutes.

6. Glass pie dishes are best.

Compared to ceramic or metal pie dishes, glass pie dishes more evenly disperse the heat. This helps the crust bake more evenly all around, giving you that perfect golden crust on the sides and bottom.

7. Use pie weights for pre baked crusts.

Pre baking a pie crust is necessary with wet pies like custard pies or fresh fruit pies, because soggy pie crusts are sad.

When you pre bake a pie crust, always use pie weights. This makes sure the shape of the crust remains and you don’t get puffy bubbles coming up from the bottom and sides that shrink when the crust cools. Then, you end up with a misshapen pie.

You can purchase fancy ceramic weights designed specifically for pie making. Or, simply use uncooked beans or rice. Line the unbaked crust with parchment paper and fill to the top with weights before baking.

8. Always use a pie crust shield.

Keep the crust edge covered with a silicone or metal pie crust shield. Or, you can use aluminum foil. The goal here is to prevent the crust edges from over-browning or burning. You want that even golden crust all the way around.

9. You can freeze pie crusts for 3 months.

Once you perfect making homemade pie crust, you can make a lot ahead of time. This definitely reduces stress around the holidays or big celebrations.

Roll your crust and put wax paper on top. Gently fold it into a neat little square or roll it. Put in an airtight bag and then into the freezer.

When you’re ready to make a pie, put the crust in the fridge to defrost a day beforehand.

**10. To prevent a crumbly pie crust that tears when you’re rolling it, use enough ice water.**

Too little ice water makes an unworkable dough. If you’re already at the rolling stage and you’ve used too little ice water, sadly it’s too late. You’ll need to start from scratch.

**11. To prevent a tough or hard pie crust, then there wasn’t enough fat or you overworked the dough.**

Make sure to use a high quality butter with a high butterfat content (80%+), and make sure that those big butter chunks are visible; don’t over mix!

You might be wondering - what about flour? Well, yes, flour is definitely important and imparts some flavor and texture. But, to me, as long as it's an "all purpose" flour, the choice is more about the digestibility.

If you are intolerant to gluten, then conventional flour is likely your nemesis. But, that doesn’t mean pie needs to be your nemesis, too.

Many who are gluten intolerant can handle einkorn flour well. Einkorn contains a different type of gluten than conventional wheat. You can learn more about einkorn here. And there are others that do well with spelt flour. If you are truly allergic to gluten, then an all-purpose gluten-free flour is the way to go.

Are you baking pies this holiday season? I’d love to hear about the yummy things from your kitchen and any tips you’ve learned along the way.

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - start typing for the guest option to appear) or contact us .

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Raw Dairy

From farm to fork: Understanding the value of sustainable pork

Raising Pork the Old-Fashioned Way: Miller's Bio Farm's Commitment to Quality At Miller's Bio Farm, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, we're bringing back the farming practices that sustained communities for generations. As an Amish farm, we understand that good stewardship of the land and animals isn't just about business; it's about honoring creation and providing wholesome food for families. When you buy pork from us, you're getting more than just meat. You're getting the result of careful, intentional farming that puts the well-being of our animals, our land, and your family first. Let's be honest: most grocery store pork comes wrapped in pretty words like "natural" and "humanely raised," but these labels often don't mean much. It's easy to put nice words on a package, much harder to actually do the work of raising animals properly. We'd like to show you how we do things differently here at Miller's Bio Farm. What Makes Our Pork Different Good pork starts with good practices. For us, that means healthy soil, happy animals, responsible harvesting, and thoughtful management of everything that happens on our farm. Here's what that looks like in practice: Pasture-Raised the Way Nature Intended Pigs aren't meant to spend their lives standing on concrete in windowless buildings. They're curious, intelligent animals that need fresh air, sunshine, and room to express their natural behaviors, rooting in the dirt, foraging for food, and socializing with other pigs. On our farm, hogs live outdoors on pasture in the woods where they can do exactly that. We move them regularly to fresh ground, which keeps them healthy and gives the land time to rest and regenerate. This practice, sometimes called rotational grazing is farming wisdom that's been passed down for centuries. When pigs root and forage on fresh pasture, they're naturally fertilizing the soil and helping plants grow back stronger. The land becomes more fertile season after season, storing carbon and building topsoil instead of depleting it. No chemical fertilizers needed, just pigs doing what pigs do best. This kind of farming takes more work than confining animals in one place, but it produces better results for everyone involved: healthier pigs, healthier land, and better tasting pork. Raising Animals with Respect Our approach to animal care reflects our values as an Amish farming community. We believe animals deserve to be treated with dignity and respect throughout their lives. Processing with Care When harvest time comes, we work with a small processor who shares our commitment to humane treatment. Our animals are handled calmly and respectfully, with immediate stunning to ensure they feel no distress. This isn't just the right thing to do, it also affects meat quality. Animals that are stressed at slaughter produce tougher, less flavorful meat. Properly handled animals yield tender, delicious pork that you can taste the difference in. Studies also confirm what traditional farmers have long known: animals raised on pasture produce meat with better nutritional profiles, including higher omega-3 fatty acids and more vitamins. Wholesome Feed, No Shortcuts We raise heritage breed pigs, traditional breeds known for their hardiness and flavor. These animals thrive on pasture with supplemental non-GMO grain, and they don't need antibiotics or growth hormones to stay healthy. In industrial pork production, antibiotics are mixed into feed daily to prevent disease in overcrowded conditions. This practice is creating drug-resistant bacteria that threaten public health, a problem we don't contribute to. Our pigs build strong immune systems naturally through good nutrition, clean living conditions, and low-stress environments. It's the way farming worked for centuries before shortcuts became the norm. Caring for God's Creation As stewards of the land, we take seriously our responsibility to leave it better than we found it. That's not just good farming, it's part of our calling. Building Soil, Not Destroying It Industrial agriculture depletes soil through intensive tilling, chemical dependence, and continuous monoculture cropping. This approach might boost short-term production, but it's not sustainable. We farm differently. Our rotational grazing actually improves soil health year after year. As pigs move across pasture, they naturally incorporate organic matter into the ground. Rest periods allow plants to regrow with deeper roots, which prevents erosion and captures carbon from the atmosphere. The result is living, fertile soil teeming with beneficial microorganisms soil that produces nutritious forage without synthetic inputs. Handling Waste Responsibly Large scale pig operations often store waste in enormous lagoons that leak pollutants into water supplies and release harmful gases into the air. These systems create environmental and health problems for surrounding communities. Our approach couldn't be more different. Because our pigs are spread across pasture and woodlands in manageable groups, their manure distributes naturally as valuable fertilizer rather than concentrating into a waste problem. When winter weather requires us to bring pigs into shelter, we bed them deeply with straw or wood shavings. This creates a composting effect that safely breaks down manure without environmental contamination. We also plant diverse pasture species specifically chosen to absorb nutrients and maintain ecological balance. Not all pigs like to go in the open shelter in the winter time and that's perfectly fine with us! The Real Story Behind Your Pork Chop Many people wonder which type of meat is most environmentally friendly. The truth is, it's not so much about whether you're eating pork, beef, or chicken, it's about how that animal was raised. Take beef as an example. You've probably heard that cattle are terrible for the environment. That criticism applies to feedlot operations where thousands of cattle are confined in small spaces and fed grain-heavy diets. But cattle raised properly on well managed pasture actually improve the land and sequester carbon. The animal itself isn't the problem; the farming method is. The same principle applies to pork. Factory farmed pork has serious environmental and ethical problems. Pasture raised pork from a regenerative farm like ours is a completely different product. One challenge specific to pork is that pigs need grain as part of their diet, they can't survive on grass alone like cattle can. This means sustainable pork production requires access to sustainably grown grain, ideally non-GMO corn and soybeans from farmers practicing regenerative agriculture. On our farm, we're committed to sourcing feed from responsible growers who share our values of soil health, biodiversity, and chemical free farming. What You're Really Buying When you purchase pork from Miller's Bio Farm, you're not just buying bacon or pork chops. You're supporting a way of farming that's been proven over generations, one that respects animals, regenerates land, and produces genuinely nutritious food. We're proud to raise pork the right way, even though it's more work. Because at the end of the day, that's what good stewardship looks like. And that's something worth bringing home to your table. Check out our: ✔️Corn & Soy Free ✔️ Vaccine, Drug, GMO-Free ✔️Heritage Breeds ✔️Woodland Raised PORK COLLECTION HERE: https://millersbiofarm.com/sto...

Eggnog's Medieval Magic

Well now, friends, let me tell you about eggnog - it's no yolk, this drink has been around forever! While history scholars are still whisking through different stories, most agree it sprouted from a Medieval drink called posset. Posset was hot milk curdled with wine or beer, served in a two-handled pot when folks caught the sniffles. Yup, that's right, I said sniffles. The warmth would settle your bones, the milk kept your strength up better than a day of plowing, and the alcohol and spices worked like nature's own medicine chest. Posset recipes were as varied as quilting patterns, every homestead had their own way to make it, and from this patchwork of kitchen wisdom grew a whole crop of milk based treasures, including... eggnog itself. Eggnog is a rich, chilled, sweet dairy drink that'll make you smile like you just finished morning milking. It's made with milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and spices, simple as that! Most folks only raise a glass during a short spell around Christmas. It was those fancy British folks in the 1700s who turned eggnog into a holiday tradition. They'd add expensive spirits and spices to milk to preserve it through winter (yep, aged eggnog, just like preserving pickles in the cellar). Eventually, eggnog crossed the ocean to the Thirteen Colonies. As times changed and food became easier to come by, common folk adopted it as a cherished holiday drink. Today, food is everywhere you look, but finding the right kind is harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Store-bought eggnog is stacked in every store, but I won't hitch my wagon to it. Store-bought eggnog is cooked up in factories to taste good and stay the same every time. But it's packed with additives, loaded with more sugar than a honey wagon, and has less than 2% egg yolks. Might as well call it milknog! And don't get me started on all that pasteurization business. If you've got the time, eggnog is easier than feeding chickens. Here's what you need: 4 egg yolks (fresh from the henhouse) ⅓ cup maple syrup (the real stuff, tapped honest) 2 cups raw milk (straight from Bessie, if you're blessed) 1 cup raw cream 1 tsp nutmeg (or whatever spices suit your fancy) 3 oz bourbon or rum (if you're of a mind to) You can mix these ingredients raw (like we do on the farm) or you can warm it up. Your barn, your rules. For a fuller eggnog, beat those yolks until they lighten like sunrise. Then fold in the rest. For a frothy eggnog that'll make you grin like a cat in the creamery, beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form, then stir them into your finished batch. I highly recommend doing this whether you bought it from a farm stand or made it yourself. It's wonderful. So please, enjoy your eggnog this winter season. When you raise your glass, think on what you're celebrating. Toast to home remedies, good health, the wisdom of those who came before us, and honest food that comes from the land.

From Grass To Glow: Tallow Skin Care

Tallow might sound old-school, but this grass-fed goodness is pure skin food. Packed with vitamins A, D, E & K plus CLA, it mimics your skin’s natural fats for maximum absorption. The result? Happy, nourished, glowing skin, without the chemicals