The Easiest Way to Make Your Pies Feel Fancier

Looking for an easy way to add intrigue to pies and galettes? Try incorporating complementary flavorings into the crust. We found that a few simple strategies were necessary for success: To ensure that the new flavor notes weren't drowned out by those in the filling, we used generous amounts of concentrated ingredients such as extracts or citrus zest and dried herbs instead of fresh. For even dispersal, we ground dry ingredients with the recipe's sugar and salt using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. We also discovered that when we added a liquid extract to the dough, we needed to deduct the same amount of water from the dough to keep it from baking up tough.

Here are some ideas to start you off. (Amounts are for a single crust. For a double crust, use twice as much.)