Have any of you made the effort to make a beautiful pie crust (this includes store bought pie dough as well), flute the edges beautifully and bake it to find the pie shell has shrunken down the sides of the pie dish? Your pie just went from beautiful to deformed… ugh! And for the life of you, you cannot figure out how to not make it do that! In my beginning pie making days, that would frustrate me so bad. I would try different pie dishes, covering the dough with foil, pie weights… everything but the one thing that works. I have even seen other bloggers make would be beautiful pies that had the sides shrunken down on a particular side. I would think…”Don’t they know the trick?!” They should know if they are going to “blog teach” others how to make a beautiful pie!
Well my friends, your frustrating pie shell shrinking days are over… hurrah! Let’s go through the very simple steps.
After you carefully placed your pie crust in your pie dish (For tips look at pie tutorial 1), make sure it is down in the dish very well and trim your crust one inch longer than the edge of the pie dish.
Take the excess crust that was hanging over and fold it under all around the edge of the pie dish.
Go around the whole edge of the pie crust and press the edges together to seal the dough being careful not to press it too thin. No one likes a thin pie crust now do they?
Now you can flute the edges of the pie crust. This is how I like to do it (I press my thumb into the dough with my other thumb and index finger lightly pressing the dough around my thumb). Others like to use their index finger instead of their thumb, starting from inside the pie (the opposite direction of what I am doing). Find what feels comfortable for you. Or you can use decorative cut outs to lay around the edge of the whole pie. You can also go the easy route and press the edges down with the times of a fork. Those are the simplest techniques. *If you are making a pie with a top crust, you don’t need to flute the edges of your pie.
There you go… a finished fluted pie shell.
The final step is the most crucial of all! You must chill your pie shell (in your pie dish) in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Of course, you can chill it for longer. I suggest you lightly wrap it with plastic wrap if you plan on chilling it longer than a few hours to prevent the dough from drying out. If you go the 30 minute route, there is no need to cover the shell. That’s it! I promise you that you will no longer suffer from pie shell shrinkage if you follow these steps. Now, no skimping on the pie chilling time! Next week I will go over blind baking techniques. Your pies are going to look amazing this year!
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