A Beginner’s Guide to Making Lovely Pies

Whether it’s sweet pies or savory pies, everyone loves a good pie! A pie is truly one of the best dishes to serve during any type of celebration whether Thanksgiving, the Christmas season, or maybe your aunt’s 60th birthday.

For some reason, everyone gets so excited when a freshly baked pie has been served and put on the table. In an instant, people grab their plates, knives, and forks, ready to dig in! Pies are not just the best to eat, but they are exciting to prepare as well. This is why party hosts love serving pies. People get to practice their culinary skills, and their creativity as well.

If you haven’t had any experience with baking pies, we understand the anxiety you feel. You might be planning to bring a pie to your boyfriend’s family dinner and you do not want to mess it up. We know that you definitely want to serve the perfect pie. That is why we are here to rescue you! We have gathered all the best tips and tricks we could find to give you an ultimate guide to making pies for beginners.

Basic Steps

Before going to the tips and tricks of baking pies, let us go down to discussing the basic steps of making a pie. Get your pen and your paper and take note of the important points you need to remember. We have made these steps really easy and simple for everyone of all ages to understand and enjoy.

1. Always Coincide Time, Temperature and Structure

Aside from the well-known ingredients such as flour, these three factors are something you need to consider as ingredients as well. You must weave them together to ensure that they all fit to make the pie that you are aiming for.

2. Prepare The Pie Crust

Prepare the crust by first softening it. Let refrigerated crusts stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

3. Choose The Right Pan

You have to think about using the right tools for pie-making. Make sure not to stretch the crust larger than in the pan because it may shrink while baking. You should also avoid using pans that have holes at the bottom.

4. Make The Pie Filling

When it comes to what pie filling you are using, it could be a lot of things may it be fruits, apples, berries or fluffy eggs. Each is done differently so make sure to search for that exact pie you are trying to make, and maybe add a few twists on your own.

5. Baking The Pie

For this, you will need a 9-inch glass pie plate, a sharp knife, aluminum foil, and a box of refrigerated pie crusts. First you must pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, you must mix your filling and then gradually spoon them into the crust-lined plate.

Here comes the creative and exciting part – decorating! Top the pie with the second. Then, wrap the excess top crust under the edge of the bottom crust then press the edges together to seal them. You can be creative now with how you want to design the edges of your pie. Once you are done, it is time to bake!

Tips and Tricks

1. Keep Ingredients Cold

The basic ingredients include butter, ice cubes, and water.

2. Refrigerate The Dough After Each Step

Every seasoned pie maker knows that it is a must to chill the dough immediately after mixing. This is what pie makers do so that the flour can absorb all the liquid. One must also chill the dough after rolling it and lining the pie pan because this relaxes the dough. This will also prevent it from shrinking in the oven, which is something that every pie maker does not want to happen.

3. Handle The Dough As Little As Possible

It is best to think about your dough in parts. This is an important tip because it is better than re-rolling the crust. When you re-roll the crust too much, this will make the pastry tough.

4. Better To Use Little Flour When Rolling Out The Dough

Since pastry has the ability to absorb the extra flour you put on it, you need to minimize the amount of excess flour that you use when rolling it out. If you put too much, this will make your pastry tougher than it is supposed to be. Therefore, after you roll out the dough, you must brush off the loose flour.

5. Baking The Pie

There is a pie maker’s term called, “blind baking.” What happens here is that we pre-bake the crust.

6. Protect With Aluminum Foil

To protect the crust, it is always good to use aluminum foil. You may fold two in-wide strips of foil, loosely, and then put them around the edges of the crust. This will prevent the pie from getting too dark because some pies require a long baking time.

7. Put Them On The Lowest Oven Rack

This a tip some people forget to do; however, it is one of the more crucial tips! This is an important one because this will prevent soggy bottom crusts.

8. Cool Down Your Piesk

We know how exciting it gets to hear the “ding” of the timer indicating that your pie has finished baking. However, before you serve them on the table with your hungry guests or visitors, make sure that you set it aside to cool down. Cooling the pies down is an essential part for the benefit of the pie’s filling so that it will not be runny.

Now that you have everything you need to know to bake your first-ever pie, we have just one last tip to share with all of you. Make sure that you have our pie cutters in your first baking experience and all the rest that will follow. These expert pie cutters will make sure to keep you pie fresh for the rest of the holidays!

Let’s get baking! Get your pie cutters now by checking out our website for our assortment of pie cutters!