Pat-In-The-Pan Pie Crust

Submitted by DrGaellon

"From "Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen," episode 107, "Easy As Pie." The secret to preserve flakiness (based on rugelach dough) is cream cheese. The cream cheese makes the dough dense enough not to need a filler while blind baking, so no pie weights needed!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 50mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Yields: 1 pie crust

ingredients

• 1⁄4 cup cream cheese, softened (2 ounces by weight)
• 8 tablespoons butter, softened (1 stick)
• 1 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon table salt

directions

1. In a stand mixer (or a large bowl with an electric hand beater), cream together cream cheese and butter on medium-high for 2 minutes until fully combined. Scrape down sides of bowl.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Add to mixer bowl and stir on medium-low until until it resembles corn meal, then on medium-high until it all sticks together. Remove 3 tbsp of dough and reserve.
3. Flour workbench lightly. Turn dough out onto floured board. Knead lightly until well-combined. Pat out into a 6" circle, and transfer to a greased 9" pie plate. Using heel of hand, press dough out to sides of pan. Using fingertips, push dough smooth and even, working it up the sides of the pan.
4. Roll out reserved dough into a rope about 12" long (use a ruler!). Cut into three 4" lengths, then roll each piece out to 8" long. Lay the 3 ropes along the upper edge of the pie pan, pressing lightly into the dough already in the pan. Flute the edge as you would a rolled crust. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. (Dough can be held up to 2 days in the refrigerator, or 1 month in the freezer if double wrapped.).
5. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with a fork (try not to go all the way through to the pan, or the filling might leak). Bake in preheated 325°F oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown.

Reviews

[Patricia D.]

I had a stroke, so handling pastry --even just rolling it out--was so frustrating. This recipe gives back some hope. Those pre-made refrigerated or frozen things are terrible, but this has good flavor. Like another reviewer, I made it savory for a quiche by adding some thyme & sage (the quiche was sausage, apple & cheddar).

 

[rosslare]

Using cream cheese and butter made this crust very easy to handle and really nice, soft and flaky in texture. I omitted sugar and increased salt to 1/2 ts, as I was using it for a savoury pie. I will use this one, again. It's too good, not to.

 

[desertrat]

My update on this pastry crust follows: In all honesty, (and IMHO), I think this recipe is fine when one is in a crashing hurry. I found the crust crumbly and believe a great Pate Brisse is the ideal foil for a Quiche Lorraine. I'll save the pan pat recipe just for that; an emergency quickee for a quickee desert(?). Why did I think I'd be surprised by what I found?

 

[KerfuffleUponWincle]

Pretty easy, and tastes great! I used a pastry blender and made a fluted edge (no ropes) ~ Next time I will use my 10" quiche dish ~ I used this crust for recipe #316094, in a 9" pie plate, and really had too much filling for the 9" plate ~ the filling covered up my pretty fluted edge!

 

[sweetcakes]

This was a good tasting pie crust but I would definately skip step #4. I originally wasen't going to do that step but I thought "what the heck" just for fun. First of all, the dough is so workable that you can just pat it all the way up the sides and a little more to crimp the edges, so I found it sort of funny that they wanted you to go though all of the trouble of rolling out ect. ect. But I did as suggested and what ended up happening is during the baking the added section seperated from the crust which caused the crust to then fall into the plate. It wasen't a total disaster though since the crust was still good and cooked up nicely and I was still able to use it for my pie. I would highly reccomend the raspberry chiffon pie that this crust goes with, it was worth the work, and is sooo delicious. Thanks for posting!