Cream Cheese Pie Dough

Four ingredients and five minutes of mixing give you one of the richest, flakiest pie crusts you’ll ever work with. Cream cheese and butter in equal parts create a dough that’s tender, slightly tangy, and rolls out like a dream after chilling.

There’s no cutting cold butter into flour, no ice water, no worrying about overworking the gluten. Just cream the butter and cream cheese together, add vanilla, mix in the flour until it just comes together, and you’re done. The cream cheese adds moisture and fat that keep the crust flaky without all the fuss of a traditional pie dough.

This recipe makes three 10-inch pie crusts, and they freeze beautifully. Wrap the dough balls in plastic or press them into pie tins and freeze for up to two months. Pull one out whenever you need it.

Pro Tips

• Mix until the flour is just incorporated, no more. Overworking develops gluten and turns the crust tough instead of tender.
• Chill for a full hour before rolling. The dough is very soft from all that butter and cream cheese, and it needs to firm up.
• This dough works for both sweet and savory pies. The vanilla is subtle enough that it won’t clash with a quiche or pot pie filling.
• Roll between two sheets of parchment if the dough feels sticky. It’s rich and soft, so parchment makes handling easier.

Variations

• Omit the vanilla for a purely savory crust for quiches and pot pies.
• Add a tablespoon of sugar to the dough for sweeter dessert pies.
• Mix in finely chopped fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary for a savory herb crust.