In yesterday's Game of Thrones episode ("Stormborn"), Arya Stark compliments the young character Hot Pie's most recent pie. He replies
The secret is browning the butter before making the dough. Most people don't do that 'cause it takes up too much time.
For context, this is a double-crust meat pie. Game of Thrones is set in a world that is technologically similar to our European Middle Ages.
I've always heard that one of the most important elements of making a flaky pie crust is keeping the fat as cold as possible right up until the pie goes into the oven. Is there any technique for pie dough that includes browned butter that would make a great crust?
Notes: I thought at first that the browned butter must be an ingredient in the filling, but the reference to dough makes me doubt this. Also, Game of Thrones has had recipe advice in the past that sounded crazy but is actually based in real culinary practices, namely, Hot Pie's Cherry Crumble topped with ground cherry pits. Finally, in looking around for an answer, I came across this technique for making crust with a mixture of flour/fat paste + more flour, which sounds promising but doesn't mention anything about browned butter.
Added: This isn't part of the question, but I was originally interested in what makes such a technique work compared to a cold butter crust.
Best Answer
Any kind of crust that doesn't use cold fat could be made with brown butter easily. You can make crust by melting butter (with water and oil) then adding flour, and it's flaky - though not exactly the same texture as you get with cold fat. So just do that, except brown the butter first.
Or you could brown the butter, cool it til solid, and make a crust with a more normal recipe. I don't know if I've seen a pie crust calling for that, but I've seen it in cookies. I doubt it'd be exactly the same texture as with unmodified cold butter, because you lose some of the fat crystal structure in the butter, but it'd probably still be fine, and it'd taste like brown butter, which I assume is the goal.