Flakiest Pie Crust – Bon Appetit’s Pie Crust

This is Bon Appetit’s pie crust, in fact, their “Flakiest Pie Crust”, one of the recipes we tested as part of our YouTube video series investigating 3 different ways of making pie crust.  It is super simple – only a handful of ingredients and a bowl, bench scraper, and a rolling pin.   You can make this easily at home.

Our comparison videos

Here is part one of the two-part series.  I go through each recipe up to the point of rolling out and baking:

In part two, I roll out each recipe and give commentary on how easy each recipe is to work with.  Finally, I bake and taste each crust and share my feedback.

Here’s the recipe in print.  In writing it down, it seems more complex than it actually is.  Check out the part 1 video above for the quick and easy method for bringing this crust together.

I present Bon Appetit’s pie crust recipe as conveyed by their YouTube channel.  One thing I noticed was that the recipe on their website also included apple cider vinegar.  The assumption is that the vinegar adds some complexity an maybe some extra browning during baking like with the sour cream added to the Milk Street recipe.

In the version I recorded I didn’t test the vinegar, but Bon Appetit tests their recipes well, so I’m sure it’s delicious.

Tasting and lessons learned

I really like the flavor of this crust.  Compared to America’s Test Kitchen and Milk Street, I found it to taste the most buttery.  Very nice flavor and flakiness.  I also love how not a lot of equipment is needed to bring the crust together.  No need to haul out and later clean a food processor.  But it does require just a bit of muscle and patience when working the dough out the first time.

Bon Appetit’s pie crust a good, simple recipe to have in your arsenal for making excellent pies.  We used it in James Beard’s pumpkin pie and couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out.