How To Make A Homemade Pie Crust Shield
Taste of Home
The first step of creating your own pie crust shield is to tear off a square sheet of aluminum foil thats big enough to cover your pie. You dont need to use heavy-duty foil, but it certainly doesnt hurt. Pick up this bulk-sized roll and youll be set for years of serious pie baking.
Then fold the foil in half, then in half againthe same way you would if you were making paper snowflakes. Cut a curve around the edge making sure that the circle youre forming with this cut is large enough to fit around the outside edge of your pie dish. Cut another curve about three inches inside of your first slice.
You should end up with a large ring. This is your pie shield .
Taste of Home
How To Cover A Pot Pie Crust For Perfect Baking
Instructions for baking a pot pie usually recommend covering the edge of the crust with cooking foil. This sounds easy, but the normal method of tearing off a strip and trying to wrap it around a round pie does not work well.Even a small pot pie will require at least two strips, and the flat strips do not bend around the circumference of a circular shape. Here are the instructions for how to do it better. This technique will take only a little more time than the rough-and-ready method, and the results are perfect!Here is my pot pie, wrapped with foil and ready for baking:
How Long Do You Bake A Single Pie Crust
Have you ever wasted hours baking a pie and waiting for it to cool off only to cut into it and find that the crust was a soggy mess? When it comes to baking homemade pies, youd want to have a light, well-cooked pie crust. To achieve that light dry crust, you must know how to blind bake your pie crust. If you are curious about what blind baking a pie crust means, were going to discuss it. Were also going to share with you the steps on how long do you bake a single pie crust.
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How To Make Pie Crust
To begin, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade.
Add the cold butter and shortening in pieces.
Pulse until you have coarse crumbs with lots of pea and chickpea-sized clumps of butter and shortening within. Dont overprocess the dough: all of those clumps of fat steam in the oven, creating layers in the pastry that make a flaky crust.
Add ice cold water and pulse a few times until the mixture is just evenly moistened and very crumbly. It will not come together into a mass thats good!
Dump the crumbly dough out onto a work surface.
Gather it into a ball.
Then pat the dough into a 5-inch disc. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or up to 3 days to rest. Allowing the dough to rest helps the gluten relax and also ensures that dough stays chilled both important in making a tender, flaky crust.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and dust your work surface lightly with flour. Place the dough on top and sprinkle a little flour over the dough.
Use your hands to quickly knead the dough into a soft and malleable disc .
Roll the dough, turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary so it doesnt stick, into a 13-inch circle.
Fold the dough into quarters without creasing it and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan .
Gently fit the dough into the pan, easing it inwards rather than stretching it outwards. Dont worry if it tears, just patch it right back up.
Tips On Blind Baking Pie Crust
Heres a few tips for blind baking:
- Chill or freeze the dough before baking. Butter crusts in particular want to shrink, and the colder it is, the more it will solidify the butter in the dough and prevent or at least reduce shrinkage.
- Roll out and form the dough a little larger than what you want the final size to be. Even if you chill the dough, there will often still be some shrinkage, especially if you are using a homemade dough with a lot of butter .
- We prefer to line our pie doughs with foil. It can be molded into shape nicely and used as a bit of a crust guard to even out the cooking of the edges and bottom while they cook with the weights. However there are days when I am a little more fumbly and end up smushing the edges of the crust while lining it with the foil. For those days, a parchment circle or even a coffee filter are great alternatives.
- I lovepie weights. Its a one and done purchase. But if you dont have any on hand, dry beans, rice, whole wheat berries, salt, sugar etc.. all work just fine. Youll just need to toss them after , but they wont cook right for recipes. Make sure to fill enough weights to go about 2/3 up the side.
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What Youll Need To Make Pie Crust
Some pie crust recipes call for all butter some call for all shortening, lard or oil and some call for a combination of fats. I like to use a blend of butter and shortening. The butter lends delicious flavor and flakiness, while the shortening makes the dough easy to work with and also helps it hold its shape. Its important that the butter and shortening are both very cold.
As for the dry ingredients, in addition to all-purpose flour and salt, I like to add a bit of baking powder to my homemade pie crust. It helps the crust expand into the pan, rather than shrink and slip down the sides as it bakes .
How To Make This Homemade Pie Crust
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Docking A Crust Vs Pie Weights
Before baking the crust, be sure to dock it. To dock the crust simply means to poke holes in the crust with a fork. This will help the crust to cook more evenly and prevent any pockets or bubbles from forming in the crust. If you dock the crust, you do not need to weigh the crust down.
If you choose to use pie weights , loosely fit aluminum foil over the pie dish and weigh it down with pie weights, raw rice, or uncooked beans before baking according to the recipe. The only time I prefer using pie weights is when the filling is runny, as when baking a quiche.
How To Blind Bake A Pie Crust
Blind baking is a fairly simple process. This the technique we prefer.
Blind bake the pie crust: Line the crust with aluminum foil with enough foil to completely cover the sides, and then fill with a layer of pie weights. King Arthur Flour has also shared a clever alternative technique .
Place pie crust on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, carefully remove the foil and weights. Poke the base a few times with a fork. If par-baking, then Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the the crust is lightly browned. If fully baking , bake for another 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
This blind bake recipe was originally published in 2019. We love blind baking our crust when we make our Homemade Quiche Recipe Here.
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Best Pie Weights Substitutes
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure to learn more.
Want to make the best pie with a crispy crust so you could enjoy eating it with your loved ones? The recipe calls for blind baking the crust and using pie weights. But you dont have them?
Well, you have at least beans, rice, lentils, corn, sugar, or another smaller pie form in your kitchen. But if you have never heard of blind baking and pie weights, in this article you will learn everything you need to know about them.
Pie weights are used to prevent the pie crust from bubbling or shrinking. However, if you dont have pie weights, you can use beans, rice, lentils, sugar, glass marbles, or some of the next products. Lets learn more about these substitutes.
How To Roll Out Pie Crust
After the dough has chilled, start preparing your pie. Roll out the crust. Always use gentle force. You are not mad at the crust. When rolling dough out, always start from the center and work your way out in all directions, turning the dough with your hands as you go.
Turn, roll, turn, roll.
Roll the dough to fit a 9-inch pie dish. I typically roll the dough into a 12-inch circle so that there is enough crust to go up the edges of the dish and so I can trim and flute.
Do NOT be overwhelmed. I made sure to break everything down very easily, so a lot of the text in this recipe is me being as thorough as possible. Be sure to read through additional tips and troubleshooting below. Let me know about your pie adventures!
- Total Time:2 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield:2 pie crusts
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 3/4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
- 1/2 cup ice water
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What Is Blind Baking
Blind baking refers to partially baking or fully baking a crust before adding the filling. It is not about blind folding someone and playing some sort of culinary mashup game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. That would be dangerous and probably not too tasty. Blind baking a crust will help prevent soggy bottoms and lead you onto your way to deliciousness. Once the crust is baked naked , the filling is added and then finished baking or chilled, depending on the recipes need.
When blind baking a crust, youll line it and then weigh down the crust with pie weights, beans, dry rice, or something similar to help keep the bottom flat and the sides from sagging. As it bakes, the dough is going to want to puff and sag, and blind baking techniques are the culinary solution. After it bakes long enough to set, you can remove the stuff weighing it down, and then finish either par-baking it until it look dry-ish or finish baking a flakey golden brown, depending on your need.
How Long To Bake A Pie Crust For That Perfect Pie
Everyone loves a freshly-baked pie. Who doesnt? But, as exciting as pies can be, making this dainty pastry involves a lot of work. This is one of the reasons why some give up and resort to store-bought pies. So, knowing exactly how long to bake a pie crust is vital.
How long to bake pie crusts depends entirely on what kind of pie youre making. Some have only one crust, some have two, some are filled already when you bake them, and some require a pre-baked crust. The actual baking time could be as short as 10 minutes or as long as an hour or more. Read on this guide to know how long to bake pie crusts.
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Why Blind Bake Your Single Pie Crust
Why should you make an unfilled pie crust? Youll find the answer to that question below. But also consider how long do you bake a single pie crust, if baking a quiche, no-bake cookies, or an extra-crisp pie crust.
If your pie recipe needs a baked pie crust, then you want to bake it thoroughly. In this blog post, I will show you how. However, specific methods include partial blind baking and the guidelines involved in blind baking a pie crust is required.
Homemade Buttery Flaky Pie Crust
Today Im going to teach you everything you need to know about making the perfect buttery flaky pie crust. This is the one and only pie crust recipe I use. Its been passed down through generations. Stands the test of time. Old-fashioned, yet never out of style. Wins my heart every single time.
There is nothing more satisfying than making a pie completely from scratch. From the golden crust to the juicy filling and everything in between. Pies are so damn tasty for one reason: theyre time consuming. This shouldnt scare you! It should intrigue you. Because if you can bake an exceptional homemade pie, congratulations. Youre a talented baker.
Let me help you get there.
As the base holding all of the pies contents, pie crusts flavor is in every single bite. Start with a solid crust and youre that much closer to pie-fection. !! Today were going to explore my pie crust recipe, preparation tips, how-tos, and troubleshooting.
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Types Of Pies And How Long To Bake Them
There are tons of things that you should consider as to how long to bake pie crusts the size, specific filling in use, the temperature of the over, and more. But most importantly, it all depends on the type of pie you are baking. Different types of pie require different baking and cooking methods. Here are some common types of pie and how long to bake them.
Adjustable Silicone Pie Crust Shield
- FREE gift with purchase: pie crust mix
- In stock and ready to ship
- Low stock – less than 10 remain!
- Warm weather shipping
Top-seller! Protect your pastry with this clever baking tool.
No more burnt pie crusts! This silicone shield keeps your beautiful pie crust from over-browning or burning. Often pie fillings will need more time to cook when the crust reaches a perfect golden color–that’s where the shield comes in much neater and easier than trying to cover your crust with foil to protect it.
Fits pans from 8″ to 10″ in diameter .
What you get
- Fits pie plates from 8″-10″
- Made of food-safe silicone
- Heat-resistant up to 500°F
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