My favorite savory pie/tart crust

For a long time, C&Z's olive oil pie crust was my go-to recipe for any savory pie/tart. The dough is very easy to work with and it gives a good and tasty pie crust. If I want to nitpick, the texture can be quite hard if it's not rolled out thin enough and it's not flaky at all.

Then I discovered Nick Malgieri's olive oil dough. This is a game changer for me. The original recipe uses olive oil but also adds eggs and baking powder. And the latter two ingredients definitely give the subtle impression of flakiness in the final baked product. However, I did find the original two-egg recipe too rich to my taste so I reduce the eggs down to one and add some water instead. This is now my favorite savory pie/tart crust. It's a breeze to work with and the taste is excellent. We are never tired of it. I've tried both olive oil and melted butter versions. Both work equally well.

My favorite savory pie crust

- 1 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herb (optional)
- 1/4 vegetable oil or melted butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 egg
- You also need a rolling pin and piece of parchment paper (big enough to cover your chosen bakeware comfortably)

Mix all dried ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and dried herb if using) in a mixing bowl. In a measuring jug, combine oil (or butter), water and 1 egg. The total amount of liquid should be 3/4 cup. Gently mix the liquid part together with a fork. Pour the liquid into the flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to combine. The dough should be fairly easy to come together as a ball. If it seems a bit wet, add some flour to adjust the consistency, one tablespoon at a time. As soon as the dough is formed and not sticky, tip it out onto a parchment paper for rolling.

Flour the parchment paper, rolling pin and the dough lightly. Roll the dough out to fit your chosen bakeware. This recipe is enough for a 25-cm pie dish with some pastry scrape. I like to roll out to cover a 32cm x 25cm sheet pan (roughly 13in x 9in) for a large tart. I like to fit the whole parchment and the crust unto a sheet pan (or pie dish). This makes clean up so much easier and no crust even stuck on the pie dish!

The pie/tart crust can be filled immediately with toppings. If I use it for a quiche, I usually blind bake it first before I add the fillings.

To make the courgette tart as shown above, spread the unbaked tart shell with ricotta (mixed with thyme, lemon zest and a pinch of salt) or garlic&herb goat cheese. Arrange on top thin courgette slices which have been lightly salted and blotted dried previously overlapping by half. Bake the tart at 180C for 50 minutes.