Dough

For the flakiest crust, make sure all ingredients (including the flour) are cold before you begin.

This dough gets its texture from a combination of butter and shortening.

Pasta frolla is commonly used in Italian pies and tarts. It can be frozen for up to one month; thaw before using.

The dough can be frozen, wrapped well in plastic, for up to three weeks before using.

The addition of grated Parmesan cheese makes this savory piecrust even more rich.

This is a laminated dough that is created with layers of dough and butter. It’s the foundation of many breakfast pastries, such as the ones on the following pages. This recipe makes enough dough for two batches.

This dough is the building block for many classic French pastries.

You can crush the crumbs using a food processor, rolling pin, or kitchen mallet, whichever you prefer. This crust should be baked before filling. If you use pie weights or beans to keep the crust from bubbling during baking (highly recommended), remove the paper and weights for the last few minutes of baking so the crust will brown well.

This versatile crust, which is extremely easy to make, adds zip to any pie, and its enticing flavor offers many intriguing possibilities. In this book it’s paired with the Never Fail Lemon Pie (page 73), but you can also try it with pies like Cinnamon Sugar (page 84), Willard’s Chocolate (page 80), German Chocolate (page 79), Peanut Butter Custard (page 83), Peanut (page 92), or Layered Ice Cream (page 96). You can crush the crumbs using a food processor, rolling pin, or kitchen mallet. This crust should be baked before being filled.

Mildred’s light touch took years to master. Too much flour will make the dough tough. Use just enough to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin. Make the dough ahead of time and place it in the refrigerator wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. If you don’t have a pastry blender, you can use a fork here, as well as your fingers—if you start with cold hands and work fast. The more the shortening melts, the less flaky the crust will be.

This crust, which has a nice tangy flavor, can be used in any recipe that calls for Plain Pie Pastry (page 17) or Vinegar Pie Crust (page 19). It’s a good idea to chill the crust for at least 15 minutes before baking; this will help the crust stick together better.

The vinegar in this crust is a flavorless stabilizer, making the dough more forgiving and patchable. In addition to being easy to work with, it also tastes great—even butter-loving pastry fans enjoy the flavor.

A simple pie crust with countless creative possibilities, the Chocolate Cookie Crust has been paired with the Frozen Strawberry Margarita Pie (page 90) and Grasshopper Pie (page 94) in this book, but also consider using it with any of the lemon or peanut butter pies, or even the Spicy Pumpkin Pie (page 48). You can crush the crumbs using a food processor, rolling pin, or kitchen mallet. This crust should be baked before filling.

The texture of puff pastry comes from the way its essential ingredients—flour, butter, water, and salt—are combined. You begin by making two separate components. The first, the dough package, or détrempe in French, is mostly flour with just a bit of butter worked in (a combination of all-purpose and cake flour results in just enough protein to support the dough as it puffs). The second, the butter package, or bourrage (“filling”), is mostly butter, with a little flour worked in. The two packages are combined by repeatedly rolling and folding the dough, creating a total of 1,458 distinct layers. In the heat of the oven, the steam that is produced by the butter in the dough creates pockets of air and expands the many layers. Tarts made with a puff pastry base are among the simplest to assemble. The following recipe makes enough pastry for four large tarts (freeze unused pastry up to 3 months).

Pâte sucrée, or “sweet pastry,” is a sturdy dough, thanks to its proportion of sugar and the addition of egg yolks. It’s a good choice for tarts, which are most often unmolded before serving. It is also more tender than pâte brisée, breaking cleanly under a fork instead of shattering into flakes.