Pate Brisee crumbly, not flaky

I've recently switched from Ruhlman's Pate Brisee to the one currently on the front page of ChefSteps. I find the ChefSteps recipe works well, but the result is more crumbly than flaky. I baked three this weekend:

1 - 100% AP

2 - 50% AP, 50% Whole wheat pastry flour

3 - 100% Whole wheat pastry flour

As I increased the whole wheat pastry flour, it got slightly drier. The "add water" to the "comes together" took longer and more dough paddling as a result. These crusts were even less crumbly than the 100% AP crust.

So, which of the following should I try first?

Another pastry flour and mix the same way?

Beat the butter into the flour less (bigger chunks of butter)?

Stop the mixer earlier after the water step (before the dough is a single ball in the mixer)?

Thanks!

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Chris_Young_80640

Flaky comes from big chunks of fat keeping flakes of dough separate during baking. So the trick is to work in cold, big chunks of fat (butter or shortening) into the dough and stop before it becomes too homogenous. Old-school method of flaky pie crust making involved hand mixing pea-sized chunks of cold fat into the flour with ice cold liquid until the dough becomes cohesive, but no further.

Aaron_7884

I used to do the Steingarten trick but using my hands took too long and I think it got too warm. I think the ChefSteps technique with the mixer will be better once I get it down.

I'll try the dry mixing for less time, leaving bigger chunks and see the results. I'm sure I'll be baking more pies this Thanksgiving week, and I'll adjust a different parameter on a few.

Thanks and I'll post in a bit with what I figure out!

schragerorder

I'm so happy to see a pie dough recipe that uses a mixer instead of a food processor! For me it works much better, not so fast, more control, so I end up using less liquid.
The recipe does not specify the type of butter - higher fat European style or cheaper American. I'll assume the higher fat butter. I've had much better luck with it.

com-chefsteps

I'd also suggest that flaky is overrated. As long as your crust isn't tough (my first was like eating a legal pad), you're doing fine.