I have made a number of updates to it since my favourite piecrust appeared in The Pie and Pastry Bible (now in its twelfth printing), and I’ve a number of new tricks to share. I’ve many pie and tart recipes within the ebook, however the one I flip to as my normal is the Flaky Cream Cheese and Butter Pie Crust. In fact, for pies or tarts that require refrigeration, I desire the crumb or cookie (a.okay.a. pâte sucrée) as a result of it stays tender when chilly.
I created this crust as a result of I beloved the flavour of the unique 1-2-3 (equal components cream cheese, butter, and flour) crust, good for mini tartlets however far too tender and crumbly for bigger tarts and pies. By including water, it strengthened the flour sufficient to be flaky however was a bit robust, so I then changed it with heavy cream, which gave it the right texture. Then I added vinegar to loosen up the dough for rolling, which made it potential to switch lattice strips with out tearing. Lastly, I added nonaluminum calcium phosphate-based baking powder corresponding to Rumford so it might create tenderness by rising barely whereas baking.
The kind of flour performs a big function within the high quality of the crust. For years, I solely used pastry flour, however as a result of it’s not available in supermarkets, I began experimenting with all-purpose flour. To my amazement, I found that if I added 1 tablespoon/12.5 grams of sugar to both bleached or unbleached all-purpose flour, it had the very same tenderness as pastry flour and was wonderful for a single-crust pie! As a result of double-crust pies take longer to bake, the marginally increased protein content material made it brown sooner, so it wanted to be tented partway via baking.
I counsel refrigerating the crust for 45 minutes earlier than rolling so it’s chilled sufficient but additionally mushy sufficient to roll with out breaking. When lining the pie plate or tart pan, ease it in with out stretching to keep away from shrinking. And to make sure a crisp crust for a single crust, it’s perfect to freeze it in a single day and blind-bake it by lining it with parchment and including pie weights. It’s simple to make your personal foil ring to guard the rim and finest so as to add it proper from the start of baking as a result of it’s going to nonetheless brown beneath the foil.
