King Arthur Flaky Puff Crust

King Arthur Flour 2026 Recipe of the Year

My toppings on King Arthur Flaky Puff Crust

I can't even remember where this landed in the myriad of food clickbait that makes it to my feed, but I am SO glad it did. The crust is essentially a modified croissant dough that you make into a pizza.

So, first, I have never attempted croissants because, even though I am getting over my yeast dough phobia, that whole laminate the dough thing freaks me out. Another deterrent has always been time invested vs time it takes people to inhale the food. Spending the better part of an entire day to create something to then have it devoured in 15 minutes can be frustrating -- especially when in many cases you can find a bakery or gourmet market version that's really delicious.

What struck me about this recipe was that although it was time consuming and best after an overnight in the fridge, it didn't seem overwhelming and recommended using shredded butter to laminate the dough rather than rolling out butter blocks into sheets -- which is how most croissant recipes are done. But I wasn't sold yet.....

As a pizza purist, a croissant-style crust flies in the face the vehicle for my pizza toppings. Conversely, pizza toppings should not include white creamy stuff, ricotta, pineapple, buffalo chicken etc. Give me some combination of sausage, pepperoni, tomatoes, mozzarella, peppers, onions, mushrooms, basil -- you get the picture -- on a nice thick traditional pizza dough crust and I'm happy. So I initially turned my nose up at the traditional pizza toppings that the recipe called for.

All that said, I was intrigued to try the crust and decided to ignore the toppings that the published recipe called for and come up with my own. I had some nice asparagus on hand and that inspired this trip down the rabbit hole. What I ended up with was a flaky buttery pastry crust topped with thinly sliced mozzarella, a lemon honey & garlic aioli, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, and Parmesan. Notice I refrain from calling it the P word.

THE RECIPE:

For the Crust:

The King Arthur website did such a great job on how to make the crust,including videos, there's no point in me doing anything other than to send you to King Arthur. Aside from the deliciousness, I am pretty certain that one of the criteria for 'recipe of the year' is how it performs:

• Are the instructions clear-cut and simple to follow?

• Does it come together like the instructions say?

• Does it rise, chill, freeze, bake, and / or brown as the recipe indicates?

This crust recipe checks every one of those boxes!

For the Lemon Garlic Aioli

Juice of 2 lemons

Zest of 2 lemons

2-3 cloves of garlic mashed, finely minced, or pressed

Salt

Pepper

1 T Honey

1 T Olive Oil

1 T Dijon Mustard

1/4 C Mayonnaise

NOTE: I made this a day in advance to give the raw garlic some time to mellow. Another option is to reduce the amount of garlic, or use a more mellow garlic powder or roasted garlic instead. I also did a taste test after 24 hours and adjusted salt and pepper.

• Set the lemon zest aside

• Place the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, honey, and lemon juice in a bowl and whisk together

• Add the Dijon and whisk until well blended

• Add the mayo and lemon zest and stir until well combined

NOTE: I made this a day in advance to give the raw garlic some time to mellow. Another option is to reduce the amount of garlic, or use a more mellow garlic powder or roasted garlic instead. I also did a taste test after 24 hours and adjusted salt and pepper.

For the Topping

Assuming you come back to the Rabbit Hole for that!

Lemon Garlic Aioli

Thinly sliced mozzarella to provide a single layer on a 13X18 baking sheet

2-3 C sweet onion thinly sliced

4 T butter divided

1/4 t salt divided

One bunch asparagus woody ends removed and then cut into 1"-2" pieces

2-3 C thinly sliced mushrooms

1/4 to 1/2 C Grated or shredded Parmesan

NOTE: One of the elements of the recipe on the King Arthur site is to make sure that the toppings are not too wet as that will impact the crispiness of the crust. I have done a few things with my version to reduce moisture and its proximity to the actual crust.

• Place the onion slices, 1/8 t of salt, and 2 T of butter in a large skillet, cover and caramelize the onions over low heat stirring occasionally.

• While the onions are cooking, squirt some lemon juice into a pot of well-salted water and bring it to a boil. (The lemon juice helps ensure a beautiful green color for your asparagus after blanching)

• When the water is boiling add the cut asparagus and set a time for 2 minutes.

• At 2 minutes, drain the asparagus and immerse them in cold water to stop them from cooking.

• When the onions are golden, carefully spoon them into a wire mesh strainer and set it over a bowl for the onions to drain a bit. You can gently press them with a spoon to remove as much liquid as possible.

• Return the skillet to the stove and add the remaining butter and salt along with any juice that you collected from the onions.

• When the butter is melted, add the mushrooms and saute until just tender. it's OK to leave the lid off to allow most of the liquid to reduce.

• Put the 'drained onions in a bowl and use the strainer to drain the blanched asparagus.

• With a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms from the skillet to a bowl.

Assembly

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees

Follow the King Arthur instructions for rolling the dough and putting it in the baking pan.

NOTE: I deviated from the recipe a bit bin that I prepared and laminated the dough according to the KA instructions on a Saturday , but then refrigerated it for use the next day. When I rolled out the dough, I placed a silicon mat the same size as the baking sheet under my pastry mat -- that was a tremendous help for rolling the dough to the correct size. The dough was such a pleasure to work with and easily folded (and unfolded) in quarters to make it a cinch to transfer to the baking sheet.

Gather your topping ingredients

NOTE: When I made this dish, it was for guests; one had some dietary restrictions and another was not a mushroom fan, so I built topping to accommodate with one section that didn't have mushrooms and another that was sans the asparagus.

After the dough was in the pan, I drizzled a bit of the aioli on the crust and used a pastry brush to spread it out.

Using the mozzarella slices I created a bit of a moisture barrier for the remaining toppings to sit upon.

I used the pastry brush to evenly distribute the onions before adding a layer of mushrooms.

After the asparagus was added, I sprinkled the top with grated Parmesan and pinto my preheated oven it went.

In my oven, the bake time was 16 minutes or so, but best to just keep an eye and remove it when the crust gets that beautiful golden color.

I immediately found myself a copilot (my husband John) and a couple of large spatulas to remove it from the pan to a wire rack on the counter. I figured it would be good to give it some air while setting to help retain its crispiness.

Had I not been serving the dish to guests with some restrictions, I would have drizzled some additional aioli on the cooling pastry before serving, It worked just fine to let folks add their own drizzle to their taste -- I did have it at room temperature though.

King Arthur Flaky Puff Crust with caramelized onions, asparagus, and mushrooms.