Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Transfer flour mixture to a food processor fitted with the dough blade, or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or simply leave it in the bowl if making pie dough by hand.

Add cubed cold butter to the flour mixture. Pulse the food processor several times until butter is about pea and bean size. Variations in size are okay.

Turn the food processor to “on” position and drizzle cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and get a spatula to mix up the flour at the bottom.

Turn the dough out on the counter or cutting board lined with a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a disk. Wrap well and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Add cubed cold butter to the flour mixture. Turn the stand mixer on low to beat the butter into the flour. You will see the butter pieces flatten and get smaller. Variations in size are okay.

Once the butter pieces are no longer in their original cube shape, drizzle cold water over the dough mixture while the mixer keeps going on low speed. Stop the mixer once you see larger clumps of dough start to pull together.

Turn the dough out on the counter or cutting board lined with a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a disk. Wrap well and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Add cubed cold butter to the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture or pinch it together with your fingers until none of the butter pieces are larger than pea or lima bean size.

Drizzle cold water over the dough mixture and mix with a spatula. Grab a chunk of dough and press it in your hand, if the dough holds it is done. You may need up to 6 tablespoons of cold water to get the dough to clump together in this method.

Form a ball in the bowl, place it on a piece of square plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Wrap well and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

At this point, you can use the dough as you please for a single crust pie, hand pies, tart, etc. Continue on with the following steps to prepare and par-bake the pie crust to use in recipes with a custard type filling.

Take the disk of pie dough out of the fridge and roll into a circle about 2” larger than your pie dish. Use extra cocoa powder/flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and roller. You could also roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper.

Carefully place the dough over the pie dish, lightly press the dough into the bottom and side of the pie dish, let the excess dough hang over the side.

Trim some of the excess dough if necessary to create an even edge, leaving just enough to fold under and create a fluted edge.

Cover the pie dish with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated or freeze for 15 - 30 minutes.

Once the pie dough has frozen solid, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Dock the bottom of the pie dough and on the sides using a fork.

Place a large piece of parchment paper over the frozen pie dough, place pie weights on top or pour dry beans on top to fill the whole pie crust. Make sure the parchment is large enough to cover the edges of the crust entirely.

Bake pie crust for 25 minutes with pie weights or beans.

At this point you can remove pie weights and parchment paper.

Fill the pie crust with whatever filling you’re using and continue baking according to that particular recipe instructions.

Or continue baking the crust to completion, an additional 5 - 10 minutes, to be used in pie recipes that don’t require further baking of the filling, such as cream pie.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.