Rose Levy Beranbaum's Favorite Flaky and Tender Pie Crust
Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust
In my book The Pie and Pastry Bible I have many pie crusts, but in recent years, when I bake a pie, the pie crust I always turn to is this one. I am offering it here for all the different sizes of pies in this book and also for a convenient half size pie. If you want to use this pie crust for a savory pie, use one and a quarter times the salt.
I always use pastry flour because it produces the perfect ratio of tenderness to flakiness. Bleached all-purpose flour, with its higher protein content, will not be as tender, and unbleached all-purpose flour will be less tender still. There are two solutions if you are unable to find pastry flour. The first is to cut the all-purpose flour with cake flour (2/3 bleached all-purpose flour to 1/3 cake flour). The second solution is to work the dough as little as possible to create a minimum of elasticity.
Be sure to keep the ingredients very cold to maintain flakiness.
Notes: Baking powder containing aluminum has a bitter flavor. Most health food stores and many supermarkets carry the calcium variety. You can eliminate the baking powder and double the salt but the crust will be less tender.
Dough for a 9 inch standard pie shell
Makes: 11 ounces/312 grams
- 1
Ingredients
- 6 T unsalted butter, cold
- 1 1/4 c + 1T (or 1c +3T) pastry flour (bleached all-purpose flour)
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/8 t baking powder (aluminum free variety)
- 1/4 ccream cheese, cold
- 1.5 T heavy cream
- 1/2 T cider vinegar
Preparation
Step 1
Makes: 11 ounces/312 grams
Process flour, salt, and baking powder to blend.
Add cream cheese and process until coarse.
Add butter cubes and pulse until peanut size.
Add cream and vinegar and pulse until butter is the size of small peas.
Scrape dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Use latex gloves or cover hands with plastic bags and press dough until it holds together in one smooth flat disc.
Wrap, and refrigerate 45 minutes before rolling.