Baking Tips: Pie

Pie, brought over with the earliest settlers from England, has become an American institution. Follow these tried and true pie tips from our archives to make perfect pies for the holidays, or anytime! 

• For a flaky, tender piecrust, make sure that all the ingredients and utensils are cold.
• For the best tasting crust, use butter, preferably unsalted.
• Try to use fresh fruit whenever possible, but especially when baking with apples. Apples can be mushy and bland after storage. Crisp, fresh apples hold up better, especially if you want to double-bake them.
• Add ½ teaspoon of lemon juice to your fruit filling to bring out the taste of the fruit and help it keep its color.
• Fill a sugar shaker with flour to shake out when you’re rolling pastry.
• Make the top piecrust slightly thinner than the bottom crust to help maintain the structure of the pie.
• To keep an empty pie shell from buckling, place a straight-sided cake pan, just a bit smaller than your pie dish, right down on top of the crust. Bake for about ten minutes, and remove the cake pan. Use a fork to prick any places that still puff up, and bake for 5 minutes longer, or until the crust is a light golden color.
• To avoid a soggy bottom crust in your fruit pie, get the filling into the piecrust and into the oven quickly. If there is extra juice in the bowl, don’t pour it into the piecrust.
• Get creative when carving ventilation holes. Try a heart, leaves, stars, or apple-shape.
• Bake on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil to catch any juices that may run over the edge.
• Bake a pie only in the middle (on the center rack) of the oven—never, under any circumstance, anywhere else in the oven.
• Pay attention to the pie while it’s baking. Efficiency in the kitchen is great. However, try not to do too many things at once when you are baking pies.
• When cutting a cream or custard pie, wet the knife with hot water to make a clean cut that won’t tear the filling.
• Tips for freezing (fruit and meat pies): Prepare completely and freeze completely. Do not attempt to thaw before baking, bake in the frozen state, adjusting baking time accordingly.

Pie Recipes

Here are some of our favorites.

Mince Pie
Rhubarb Pie
Blue Ribbon Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie

Browse hundreds of pie recipes in our archives.