As holiday season approaches, it’s important to start planning ahead.
After all, you want to bring your A-Game to your Halloween party, Thanksgiving feast, and weeklong Christmas-New Year extravaganza, don’t you?
Of course you do!
It’s time to dust off the apron, get your creative energies flowing, and brush up on a few kitchen tips and tricks.
Today we’re discussing pie-making.
Although there are endless dos and don’ts pertaining to perfect pies, there are a few tips that have the greatest impact.
I’m sharing my 5 best pie-making tips. These are the areas where I feel you get the biggest bang for your buck in the pie department.
Follow these steps and you’ll impress your friends and family this season with tantalizing mile-high pies!
1 - Cold dough equals flaky crust
I could have started with “Make Your Own Pie Crust” and I do feel that’s important. When you make pie crust from scratch, you have the opportunity to personalize it with ingredients like crushed almonds, cornmeal, or bourbon!
However, I know how it gets around the holidays. Too often, we are so busy working on multiple tasks and recipes, and the idea of making pie crust, before filling our pies and tossing them in the oven, is just plain overwhelming.
Whether you decide to prep your homemade pie dough ahead of time or go with easy refrigerated roll-out pie crusts the day of the event, it’s imperative to mention that cold crust makes all the difference.
Chill your dough multiple times, if needed, in order to guarantee it’s cold as it goes in the oven.
Start with chilled ingredients. Chill the dough before rolling it out. Chill the dough after moving it to a pie pan. You should even chill the dough after you fill the pie, just to be sure.
This is important for two reasons:
- When cold dough is placed in a hot oven, it will create a quick external supportive outer layer that holds the crust in its place. We’ve all experienced a pie crust that sinks down as it bakes. Cold dough is your insurance policy against slumpage.
- Cold dough has a unique chemical reaction when placed in a hot oven. Warm dough allows butter (or fat) to quickly melt into the other ingredients. However, cold dough slows down the fat melting process, creating rich flaky crust layers.
2 - Overfill your pies on purpose ... most of the time
When it comes to pie-making, less is NOT more. Pies should be big and bold, giving the feeling of abundant comfort. No one likes a skimpy pie.
No-bake or pre-bake pies, like those with pre-cooked fruit or creamy fillings you chill to set, should be filled to the rim and beyond. If the filling is cold and firm, add enough so the pie is a towering dome.
With top-crusted fruit pies, fill the pie with a tall mound of fruit. Once the top crust is tightly crimped around the edges, and an air vent is cut in the top, the crust will hold in potential dripping juices.
The exceptions? Unbaked pies with no top should be filled just to the edge of the crimping. That way, they don’t run over in the oven. This pertains to any custard and fruit pie, without a top crust to hold in the goodness.
3 - Bake on the low rack
Whether you are baking an empty pie crust for a cream pie, or baking a heavy double-crusted fruit pie, bake your pies on the lowest oven rack.
There are two reasons for this tip as well:
- It gives the bottom crust, especially in pies with wet fillings, the best possible opportunity to bake through. There’s nothing worse than a seemingly perfect pie that ends up having a soggy doughy bottom.
- It prevents the pie crust edges from getting too dark in the oven. If the edges still darken before the pie is ready to come out of the oven, gently cover them with foil and continue baking.
4 - Hold down your pre-baked crusts
Weights are not just for the gym! A good pie crust should be as even as possible on the edges and bottom. However, when you bake an empty crust before adding a filling, the dough has a tendency to rise and bubble in weird places, creating uneven, and less sturdy pie crust.
You can buy ceramic pie weights to hold your pie crust is place. Or you can use dried beans of rice as pie weights.
Simply lay a piece of parchment paper over a cold pie crust that is ready to pop in the oven, and then pour in enough weights to fill the pie. Bake the crust, as directed in your recipe. Then gently lift out the weights by the edges of the parchment paper. Cool the baked crust completely before filling.
5 - Hold off on slicing your pie
Patience is a virtue, especially in pie-making.
You’ve patiently chilled your pie dough, more than once. You’ve prepped your filling. You’ve waited while the pie baked, sometimes over an hour. Now it’s time to wait again.
I know, I know. The pie is hot and the buttery sweet aroma is calling your name. But if you cut into a pie straight out of the oven, you will end up with a big sloppy mess. There’s no way to get around it.
If you want tidy slices of pie, you have to give a pie plenty of time to cool (or chill) before cutting. Sometimes the horrendous waiting period can take up to 6 hours, depending on the type of pie you make.
Cooling a pie completely is the only way to guarantee a firm filling and smooth sides. I know it’s painful, but it’s worth the wait!
Hopefully these 5 simple tips will produce the best pies you’ve ever made this season. Give them a try; they are as easy as pie!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
