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What is blind baking? And why and when do you need to blind bake? Blind baking is pre-baking the pie shell when you are going to either fill the pie with a filling you are not going to cook or a filling that is not going to bake as long as the crust takes. I also blind bake for a shorter period if I want to partially bake my pie shell to prevent the crust from getting soggy from the filling. I do this in my Hawaiian Inspired Pumpkin Pie recipe. 

There are two ways I blind bake. The first is the simplest. With the tines of a fork, I poke holes on the bottom and sides of the pie shell. This prevents the pie crust from bubbling up when baking. This is a one step process. Then I bake the pie shell at 400 F for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden.

The second way is a two step process. First, you gently line the pie shell with some foil or parchment paper letting the foil or paper hang over the edges of the pie. 

Next, you fill the pie with either pie weights (like I have here. Mine are ceramic and keep forever), or you can fill the pie with beans or rice to weigh down the shell to prevent bubbling.

Here is the pie after it has baked. The next step is to remove the foil or parchment paper with the filling and bake the pie shell (first poke the bottom and sides of the pie shell with the tines of a fork) for an additional 5 minutes to finish off the baking. If you only bake with the foil and weights, the bottom of the crust will be a bit soggy. That’s it folks! Pretty simple but makes a huge difference in the outcome of your pie. Now fill this beauty with some pumpkin or cream pie goodness!

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!

Do you want to make your pies stand out? Decorate them with pie crust cut outs to make them even more beautiful. I will walk you through the steps on how to do these.

You know the extra dough you are left with after you make your pie shell? Don’t throw them out! It takes just a minute to make something awesome with it for your pie. 

Roll out your dough on a well floured surface. You don’t have to flour the top of the dough. And you can roll it out into whatever shape works best for you. 

For the Hawaiian Style Pumpkin Pie, I used a mini pumpkin cookie cutter to make little cut outs for the pie. I have a few different sets of these mini cookie cutters I have purchased from Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. They come in a variety  of shapes. Flowers, animals, fruits, leaves, etc… I don’t use them for mini cookies, I use them for my pies. 

Roll your dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out whatever shape you are using. Before I bought these mini cookie cutters, I used to cut out leaves with a knife free hand. That is also easy to do. Just another idea. 

Cut out as many as you can. You can roll out the dough again to cut out some more if you need to. 

I always have a parchment topped plate nearby that I can place the freshly cut out pieces on. After you have cut them all out, place your plate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to ensure the pieces of dough will not shrink in size when you bake them. 

After you have chilled them for at least 30 minutes, slide the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Place them in a 400 F preheated oven for 12 minutes or until they are a light golden brown.

I let the pieces cool and if I am not serving the pie right away, I keep them in a ziploc bag until I am ready to use them. I never place them on my pie until I am ready to serve the pie so they don’t get soggy. You can either decorate the top of the pie (which is usually what I like to do) so your pie has a beautiful presentation. 

Or you can place them on individual pieces of pie right before serving them so everyone gets a decorative cut out on their own piece of pie. Your guests will notice the extra mile you went and it will be our little secret that that extra mile was actually a “piece of cake” easy! I hope you give this a try on your pie or pies this Thanksgiving. Trust me…. your friends and family will think you are Martha Stewart talented!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I am going to do a series of very helpful tips that will help you as you work with pie dough. A new tip every Tuesday until the big turkey day! I know it can be a very hard and frustrating thing if you don’t know exactly what to do. Dough that cracks, breaks up when you transfer it to the pie dish, crust that shrinks when you bake it and the list goes on and on! But never fear… I am here to help you and give you the confidence to make your own pies!

First and foremost, I posted a new recipe from my last class (Thanksgiving Feast) and it is an “out of this world” pumpkin pie with a detailed recipe for the best pie dough. So be sure to try that recipe if you want a really good one!

This week I am going to teach you how to best handle and roll out the dough so it is circular and the perfect shape for your pie dish. I am also going to show you how to best transfer the dough to your pie dish without it falling apart on you. This is a long post, but I need to show you every step!

Here is what you need to start. A nice large working surface (I love to use my big silicone mat), a light rolling pin (Marble is too heavy), and a little mesh strainer that will work as a little sifter for the flour. With the flour filled strainer, cover a nice, big, circular area with flour.

Here is your mound of dough right after it is mixed and ready to be rolled out.

The first thing you need to do is gently (you never want to over work or over handle your dough or it will be tough.) form a disk and seal the edges as best as you can to prevent the edges from cracking when you roll out your dough.

Lay the disk down on the well floured surface and generously sift flour on top of your disk.

When you roll out your dough, it is important that you roll from the center out. Imagine a dot in the middle of the disk. That will always be your starting point.

I rolled out from the center and will go back to the center again and roll out to another side of the dough (going around the whole dough) making my disk a bigger circle.

Once I have rolled it out about half the size I want it to be, I will re-flour the top of the dough and flip it. Then I will flour the top side.

Now I will repeat the steps. Start from the center and roll out increasing the size of the circle. Going around the dough in all directions; always starting back at the center point.

Once I have reached the right size, I am done rolling. Your dough should not be too thin. Now to transfer the dough to the pie dish.

Make sure to have  your pie dish nearby. By the way, I highly recommend ceramic pie dishes. They bake more evenly and give the best flakey finish to the pie crust! 

Start by taking one end of the pie dough and wrapping it over the top of  your rolling pin. 

Without putting much weight on the dough, lightly roll the dough over the rolling pin towards you until it is all rolled up around the rolling pin.

Without pushing the rolling pin on the pie dish (Or the weight of the rolling pin will tear the dough), gently unroll the pie dough off the rolling pin onto the pie dish. 

A light touch is so important! See how easy that is? Now we are ready for the next step! Next week’s tips will help you through that. Stay tuned!