Pie Crust Techniques

Do you love your pie? I’m going to give you the confidence and tools for making it. Then, you can fill yours with whatever flavor or fillings that will satisfy your heart’s desires! Whether it’s fruit, cream-filled, or a savory pie, I’ll walk you through the dough technique so you have complete knowledge on how best to prepare it before filling up those sweet tarts. You can also try my recipe for a single-layer crust I used to create an apple galette here. And you can also double this recipe for a double or lattice crust. 

Let’s cover the basics to make sure you use the proper techniques while making pie.

1. Make sure all your ingredients are cold. I know that in every cake recipe I tell you to keep your wet ingredients at room temperature, but pies are the complete opposite. Your butter needs to be cut up and refrigerated until you need it, and that water or any other wet ingredient the recipe calls for must be chilled.
2. You can either use a food processor or your hands to cut the butter into the flour. I prefer a food processor, so my hands don’t warm and melt the butter. Put the flour and butter in your machine and pulse 3 – 4 times until it resembles crumbs. If you use your hands, rub the butter between your palms into the flour to get the same result.
3. When you add the liquid into the flour and butter mixture, don’t add it all at once. Instead, start with 2/3 of the liquid first and mix until the dough just comes together. You may not need the rest if the dough already forms a ball (you don’t want your pastry to be very moist). 
4. You should still see pieces of butter in your dough because that’s what creates the flakiness in the pie. 
5. The dough needs to chill for at least an hour and up to 24 hours so that the butter remains cold and you have a nice pastry crust at the end. It can be made ahead and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
6. Shape the dough into a disc instead of a ball and wrap with cling film. The discs allow for faster chilling and ease of use once you are ready to roll it.
7. Before using, let the dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes so it’s not brittle or breaks. 
8. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with enough flour so that the dough does not stick to either one when rolling.
9. Roll and keep rotating the dough to ensure it doesn’t stick.
10. Make sure you roll it even on all sides. An excellent way to do that is by moving the rolling pin away from you instead of back and forth.
11. Ensure that the dough is 1 – 2 inches bigger than your pie dish so that it will fit in the bottom and the sides.
12. If you’re making a double-crust pie, fold the bottom crust over the top to create a seal and lock the two layers. Squeeze or crimp the corners for that classic pie look. 
13. When ready to bake, use an egg wash over the dough, a mixture of one egg with 1 – 2 tablespoons of water to make the top golden. 
14. Bake as per recipe instructions. Always preheat your oven to the desired temperature. 
15. You can bake the pie on top of a steel pan to ensure you don’t get a soggy bottom.

What is blind baking, and when should you do it? 

• Blind baking is baking the empty pie shell only halfway so that if you have a soft filling like custard pies, they don’t make the crust soggy. 
• The recipe you’re using should generally tell you whether to blind bake the crust or not.
• For blind baking, line the unbaked pie crust with parchment (baking) paper and weigh it down with something so that the bottom doesn’t puff and the sides don’t slouch. You can find special pie weights for this job, but you can also just use dry beans. 
• Once the crust is set, and you’ll know this because the edges will turn golden, remove the weights and let the crust cook a little longer on its own. 
• You want the bottom to look dry and flaky for a partially baked crust, and for a fully baked crust, the base should turn light golden. The whole process won’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes.