French Potato Pie

I first fell in love with tourte aux pommes de terre (or pâté aux pommes de terre) in a class taught by my friend—and pastry expert—Mitch Stamm. The pie, which is popular in central France, consists of lightly seasoned, thinly sliced potatoes and onion that are coated in heavy cream or crème fraîche and baked inside a double-crusted pastry shell.

There’s no denying that the rich combination of potatoes, crust, and cream makes for a dish that is très décadente. But if you love silky potatoes, buttery pastry, and rich cream, it’s a perfect dish for when you’re in the mood to indulge, and I couldn’t wait to add my own version to the Cook’s Illustrated canon.

I started with the crust. The vast majority of recipes specify puff pastry, and although I found that puff pastry was flaky and delicate on the top of the pie, it was prone to getting soggy underneath the moist filling. Stamm calls for (1961). Sure enough, the thicker, sturdier dough was better at staying crisp on the bottom, especially when I used my colleague Andrea Geary’s foolproof all-butter pie dough (January/February 2018).