Cut the butter into quarter-inch cubes and break the cream cheese into small chunks. Place both on a plate and freeze for 10 minutes. This keeps the fat as cold as possible before processing.

Add the flour, sugar, and sea salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse two or three times to combine.

Add the chilled butter and cream cheese to the flour mixture. Pulse five to seven times until the mixture resembles coarse sand with pea-sized pieces of fat still visible. Do not over-process. Those visible fat pieces are what create the flaky layers during baking.

With the food processor running, drizzle in three tablespoons of cold heavy cream. Stop and check the dough. It should clump together when pressed between your fingers but still look crumbly in the bowl. If it is too dry, add more cream one teaspoon at a time and pulse briefly between each addition.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead it once or twice just to bring it together. Do not overwork it.

Divide the dough into two equal portions and shape each into a flat disk.

Roll each disk between two sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of about one eighth of an inch. Quarter-inch square dowels placed on either side of the dough work well as thickness guides.

Slide the parchment-sandwiched disks onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. This allows the gluten to relax and the fat to firm back up, which prevents the crust from shrinking during baking.

If using the same day, remove the top sheet of parchment, flip the dough into your pie tin, and peel away the remaining parchment. Crimp the edges and fill or blind bake as your recipe directs.

If freezing for later, wrap each rolled disk tightly in plastic wrap, parchment and all, and place flat in the freezer for up to three months.

When ready to use a frozen disk, remove the plastic wrap and place the frozen dough directly onto the pie tin. Let it thaw at room temperature for about 20 minutes. It will soften and settle naturally into the shape of the tin without cracking.