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Savory pie dough, rolled and ready.

Easy Savory Pie Dough

If you have a food processor, this is the easiest way I know to to make a really good, all butter, savory pie dough. Coating each grain of flour with butter impedes gluten development, so the dough is easy to roll out and the crust is tender and flakey.
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Prep Time 15 mins
Total Time 15 mins

Equipment

  • Food processor.

Ingredients
  

  • 175 grams all-purpose flour about 1.25 cups
  • 175 grams whole wheat flour about 1.25 cups
  • 5 grams salt about 1 tsp
  • 2.5 sticks cold butter (straight from fridge) 12 ounces/280 grams, cut into 1/4" pats
  • 6 tbsp ice cold water 85 grams
  • herbs or aged cheese, optional see notes

Instructions
 

  • Roughly combine the all-purpose and whole wheat flours along with the salt in a mixing bowl.
  • Prepare the food processor with it's basic blade. Add 2/3 of the flour mixture to the food processor. Spread the butter pats evenly on top of the flour. Pulse just until there is no dry flour, and the dough begins to clump.
  • Spread the dough out evenly at the bottom of the food processor and add the remaining flour on top. Pulse a few times. The dough should break up into bits ranging from powder sized to pea sized..
  • Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl. Optionally add herbs or aged cheese at this point. Sprinkle with cold water and then fold and press the dough until it forms a ball. A silicon spatula can work, but I usually end up using my hands.
  • Split the dough ball into two equally sized pieces. Form each piece into a rough ball and then press into a disk shape that is 4-6" across. The closer the disk is to pie crust shape and size, the easier it will be to roll out.
  • Wrap the disks tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking. For make ahead, the disks may also be frozen for up to 3 months. Allow them to thaw in the refridgerator for a day before you try to roll them out.

Notes

This technique is from Kenji Lopez-Alt's Easy Pie Dough recipe which you can find at https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-pie-dough-recipe. I've made a few modifications:
  1. Instead of 100% all-purpose flour, I use a 50/50 split between all-purpose and whole wheat.
  2. The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of sugar. To make this recipe more appropriate for savory applications, such as galettes, I removed sugar from the recipe.
  3. I added the option for herbs or aged cheese. This can take the crust up a notch, as long as the seasoning matches flavor profile of the recipe in which the crust is used. Your choice of about 2 tsp of dried herbs or 2 Tbsp of fresh herbs or an ounce of finely grated aged cheese.
Keyword savory pie crust, savory pie dough
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