4.22.18
BASIC RECIPE: Cream Cheese Pie & Cobbler Crust
This is one of the best tasting crusts you will find. It is also an easy dough to work with, not finicky at all, because I know how we all hate temperamental pie dough. I developed this recipe to go with my Blackberry Cobbler, but it is great with any fruit or berry pie or cobbler.
Mixing Steps – Food Processor & Mixer:
Mix half the recipe at a time in the Food Processor, until you have pea-size pieces of cold butter in the flour mixture. Put both batches in the Kitchen Aid (or other) mixer, add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Mix on low speed just until the dough comes together. Transfer to counter to finish dough.
- Cream Cheese.
- 1/2″ (12 m) cubes of Cream Cheese.
- Unsalted Butter.
- 1/2″ (12 m) cubes of Butter
- Food Processor: One batch at a time.
- Pea-size butter pieces.
FINISHED DOUGH:
- Rough dough right out of the mixer.
- Half the dough shaped into a smooth disk: 6″ (15 cm) diameter x 1″ (2.5 cm).
- Disks of dough wrapped for refrigerator.
- Rolling out dough 4 mm; just a little thicker than 1/8″, for a cobbler.
Egg Washing a Cobbler Before Baking:
![](https://shirlgard.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Blackberry_Cobbler-7633-1164.jpg)
Cream Cheese Pie & Cobbler Crust
This is a smooth, creamy, tender, and delicious pie crust. It is best served warm or at room temperature, because the fat in the butter and cream cheese makes it very firm right out of the refrigerator. I especially like it for fruit cobblers and pies.
YELD: NET WEIGHT OF DOUGH = 1290 grams 45 oz (2# 13 oz)
MAKES EOUGH FOR TWO 9" x 13" (23cm x 33 cm) COBBLERS SCALED @ 645g (1lb 6 oz) EACH
OR: THREE 9" (23cm) PIE SHELLS SCALED @ 400g (14 oz) EACH
YELD: NET WEIGHT OF DOUGH = 1290 grams 45 oz (2# 13 oz)
MAKES EOUGH FOR TWO 9" x 13" (23cm x 33 cm) COBBLERS SCALED @ 645g (1lb 6 oz) EACH
OR: THREE 9" (23cm) PIE SHELLS SCALED @ 400g (14 oz) EACH
Ingredients
- 370 grams cold unsalted butter 3 1/4 sticks
- 225 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese cold (one - 8 oz package)
- 370 grams bleached all-purpose flour Gold Medal (2 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons)
- 200 grams bleached cake flour 1 1/2 cups
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 120 grams heavy cream 1/2 cup
- 15 grams lemon juice 1 Tablespoon
- 1300 grams = Total 45 oz 2# 13 oz
Instructions
- FOOD PROCESSOR METHOD: CUT the butter in 1/2" (12 mm) cubes. Freeze.
- CUT the cream cheese in 1/2" (12 mm) cubes also. Chill. Do not freeze cream cheese because it ruins the texture.
- COMBINE flour, salt, and baking powder; whisk to blend.
- DIVIDE the butter, cream cheese, and flour mixture roughly into 2 portions.
- PROCESS in food processor in 2 batches: For each batch, place the flour mixture in bowl of processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and cream cheese and process by pulsing, until the mixture resembles coarse meal and some of the butter pieces are the size of small peas.
- TRANSFER each batch to a mixer bowl, such as Kitchen Aid, fitted with a paddle. When both batches have been processed, add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Mix on low speed just until dough comes together. Turn out onto counter and press dough together.
- DiIVIDE dough into two portions: 645g 22 oz (1# 6 oz) each. Form into a compact disk about 6" (15 cm) in diameter x 1" (2.5 cm) thick. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill until firm before using.
- FREEZE, for up to 2 months, until needed.
- ROLL & BAKE according to your pie or cobbler recipe.
Notes
Recipe Adapted from: "Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust" in The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (1998). Note: there is a later edition of this book. I was also inspired by an article in Fine Cooking June-July 2004 by Rose Levy Beranbaum called "Making Lattice-Top Fruit Pies".
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
![](https://shirlgard.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/logo-shirlgard-brown-print2.png)
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy!
Shirl
You had me at the name! CREAM CHEESE PIE & COBBLER CRUST it just sounds scrumptious! I don’t even need the pie, I’ll just eat the crust 🙂
I know. This is a tasty crust. Thanks for sharing on fb.
I am so thrilled to find this recipe. I found one similar by another pastry chef, but could not locate it when I decided I once again wanted to try making pies and cobblers that I used to watch my grandmother make. She didn’t have a recipe for anything back then but threw things together and they always looked and tasted amazing. This crust came together perfectly. and is chilling waiting for my fresh peaches. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
Thank you so much Victoria. I love this recipe myself and use it a lot. Cream cheese adds a degree of tenderness to a dough that nothing else does. Hope you are happy with the results. I apologize for the late response to your comment. These have been terrible times.
I am very interested in trying your recipe. I think I have some cream cheese in the fridge. I have been searching for a cobbler recipe for years. When I was a girl, we went to a place called the blue boar cafeteria (I have also heard it was called the piccadilly cafe). They had the best cobbler ever. The crust was tender and yet had a sturdy top. It definitely wasn’t a biscuit topping. I have been looking for it for years. Perhaps this will be it.
Thank you for the question Pauline. I think you will love this cobbler crust. I hope this is “it.” The addition of cream cheese makes it tender, but it is also easy to work with. Just curious: where was the Blue Boar Cafeteria? I grew up in Oklahoma where cobblers were very common in the summer. Thanks again. Let me know how it turns out.
I grew up around Louisville KY 🙂 I tried the crust with following changes: I wanted to make a smaller cobbler, just for the family, so I divided the recipe by 3. I didn’t have cake flour so I used all purpose entirely. I didn’t have heavy cream so I used 2% milk. I also added a tablespoon of sugar. I also did an egg wash on top. The cream cheese definitely made the crust easier to work with and gave it a different texture. I was very pleased. I think I need some additional guidance though… Do you ever cook your filling on the stove first to get the cornstarch to thicken up? How much cornstarch would you recommend for a “liquidy” cobbler like blackberry? I used 1 tablespoon/3 cups of fruit and I don’t think it was enough. Also, if you do cook it first, do you have to let the filling cool before putting the crust top on? My crust was good, but I think it soaked up some of the cobbler juice.
Hi Pauline,
I also have my Blackberry Cobbler recipe on my website:
https://shirlgard.com/blackberry-cobbler/
You can look at the proportions of thickener that I use. I prefer Instant ClearJel instead of cornstarch. They have similar thickening qualities.
For more information, I recommend this very informative pie filling guide from King Arthur:
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/guides/pie-thickener