Dough

This flaky and light pastry dough works for savory as well as sweet tarts.

I love the buttery taste and crumbly texture of this dough.

Four ingredients and a quarter of an hour are all that's required to turn out the ultimate pastry dough.

Be sure to make the dough in a stand mixer (not a processor), which will prevent you from overworking it.

An all-butter pastry dough is easy to handle. It's a little less flaky than a dough made with a blend of butter and shortening, but you'll love the end result—it tastes marvelous.

If you don't get enough fat from the chicken, supplement with purchased chicken fat (from the freezer section of the supermarket). Go here for pastry-making tips.

Adapted from a recipe by chef Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix, this dough bakes up crisp and chewy.

Buttery, flaky, quick—this dough has it all. See cooks' note, if you need to halve the recipe to make the plum-blackberry streusel pie .

A little rye flour and a bit of cornmeal give this pizza dough extra flavor°and texture.

Use one crust to make the pizza here. Chill the extra dough for up to four days or freeze for up to a month.

The dough gets its slightly tangy flavor from a "sponge" (a mixture of warm water, yeast, and flour that’s allowed to ferment). Timing note: The sponge needs to rest overnight; the dough needs to rise for about eight hours.

Protein-rich garbanzo flour can be found at health-food grocers (such as Whole Foods).

For a nutrition boost, replace one of the eggs with 1/2 cup of pureed beans or vegetables. (That's two 2-ounce jars of baby food.)

This supple homemade dough rolls beautifully into a solid base and laces into a pretty lattice top.