Fraisage seems like it breaks with many American “rules” for pie crust — namely, it asks you to work the dough a bit in order to create layers. Instead of pulsing the butter into tiny pieces in a food processor, this method uses a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into large, uneven chunks.
It also coats much of the flour with fat, which inhibits gluten development, preserving tenderness. The method is a hallmark of classic French pastry, and Julia Child herself wrote all about it in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Other bakers, such as Joanne Chang and Cheryl Day, are huge fans too. "I love the fraisage method," says Cheryl.
This method can also be used to make doughs other than just pie crust: In particular, you can use it for biscuits (like Cheryl) or enriched bread doughs like brioche (but that’s a whole different blog post). Why does fraisage work? With fraisage, the butter is smeared into thin layers that become coated in flour, almost like a laminated dough.
Pie has its own version of this: fraisage. It’s a foundational French pastry technique and certainly not new — in fact, it’s rather classic. But it does veer from common beliefs about the best way to make pie crust, and that’s a good reason to try it out. It also makes incredibly flaky crust, and that’s a great reason to try it. What is fraisage?