Everything you need to help your pie crust look like it came straight from the bakery.
Your Most Common Pie Crust Questions, Answered
Published on Jun. 25, 2025
There’s a pie for any occasion. Whether you’re bringing a juicy berry pie to a summer picnic, topping pumpkin pie with plenty of whipped cream at Thanksgiving or dishing out a sky-high lemon meringue pie for the family, homemade pies offer a sense of pride.
While pie crust is made from simple ingredients, putting together a finished dessert can be tricky. Should you blind bake or parbake the crust? How do you achieve the flakiest texture? And how do you get a beautiful shape to your fluted crust and color on your lattice topper? We’ve answered all the most common pie baking questions so you can make the best-tasting and best-looking pie at home.
How do you blind bake a pie crust?
Blind baking a pie crust means fully baking and cooling a crust before adding a filling. This technique is used to provide the perfect base for cream pies and pudding pies. To blind bake a pie crust, roll out your favorite pie dough and transfer it to a pie pan. Crimp or finish the edges and chill the crust in the fridge for 30 minutes. Use the tines of a fork to dot the pie crust with tiny holes, then cover it with a sheet of parchment. Fill the pie crust with ceramic pie weights, dry beans or uncooked rice. Bake the pie crust at 400°F until the edges are lightly golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Grasping the parchment, remove the weights and return the crust to the oven for an additional five to 10 minutes until it has deep, even browning. Once the crust has cooled, fill it.
How long do you bake pie crust?
To fully bake a pie crust on its own, it should be in the oven for 15 to 30 minutes. You may choose to either parbake or fully blind bake the pie crust to give it a head start before adding a fruit or custard filling. Without blind baking or parbaking, a pie crust with filling may require between 45 to 60 minutes in the oven.
How do you crimp pie crust?
Crimping a pie crust gives the edge a finished look. Once the pie dough is rolled out and placed in the pie dish, trim the edges near the rim, leaving 1 inch of overhang. The easiest way to crimp a pie crust is to use the tines of a fork. Press the tines into the edges, making impressions all the way around.
How do you flute a pie crust?
Fluting creates a scalloped, decorative design with a pie crust. Once you’ve trimmed the pie crust, use your thumb and both index fingers to finish the crust design. Place your index finger outward, with your thumb and index finger on the outer edge. Pinch the pie dough around your single index finger, forming a V shape.
How do you make a lattice crust?
If you’re making a double pie crust, you may choose to do a solid topper. However, a lattice pie crust finishes off the top beautifully as well. Once strips of pie dough are cut, you’ll arrange one set in parallel lines on top of the filling. Then, fold and weave perpendicular pieces to create the crisscross lattice design. To finish the design and hold the lattice in place, crimp the crust.
How do you make a flaky pie crust?
Butter is the key to making a flaky pie crust. Start with cold butter before incorporating it into the flour. Once the pie dough has been prepped, chill it for at least one hour to let the butter in the dough cool again. After rolling out the dough and transferring it to your pie plate, chill it once more. Keeping the butter cold every step of the way will ensure a flakier finished crust.
Should I add vodka to my pie dough?
Vodka can certainly be added to pie dough to help enhance its flaky texture because it inhibits gluten development. However, it’s not necessary if you’re following the steps to make a homemade flaky crust and keeping the butter chilled throughout the process.
How do I transfer my pie dough to the pie dish?
The last thing you want is a rip or tear in your pie crust. Once the dough has been rolled out, make further use of your rolling pin by rolling and draping the crust over the rolling pin and transferring it to the pie dish. The pie crust will easily slide off the rolling pin, allowing you to get it in place and begin trimming and crimping the edges.
How do I keep my pie crust from shrinking?
Whether you’re using a homemade dough or store-bought pie crust, the key to avoiding shrinkage while a pie is baking is to either blind bake or parbake it ahead of time. That way, you can use pie weights to weigh down the dough and avoid puffing and shrinking. Keeping the dough chilled throughout the process will also prevent shrinking.
How do you keep pie crust from burning?
If your filling needs a bit more time in the oven, you can prevent the crust from over-browning or burning by covering it. Make a shield with aluminum foil or buy a pie shield to protect the edges.
How do I avoid a soggy pie bottom?
Parbaking a pie crust is the secret to preventing a soggy bottom. This gives the crust time to bake ahead of time, without the added moisture from the filling. To parbake a pie crust, roll out the dough, transfer it to a pie pan and finish the edges. Dock the pie crust (prick holes in it with a fork), place a piece of parchment on the bottom and fill it with pie weights. Bake the crust at 400° until the edges are light golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Which is better, butter or shortening?
Which fat makes the best pie crust? An all-butter pie crust is the ideal option for a pie. Butter is a bit trickier to work with and takes longer to master than shortening. However, since shortening is 100% fat (butter contains moisture, which evaporates in the oven), it doesn’t offer the same flaky texture and flavor that butter does, so it’s well worth it.
Can I use any pie dish?
In short, you can use any type of pie dish to bake a pie, whether it’s made of metal, glass or ceramic. However, each has its own list of pros and cons. Glass pie dishes tend to heat up more slowly and more evenly, which is helpful for pie baking. A metal pie pan, on the other hand, conducts heat very efficiently. That quick heating can cause a crispier crust or an overcooked filling.
Can you freeze pie crust?
Pie dough freezes very well, so you can always have it on hand. Prep a batch ahead of time and wrap it in storage wrap. Store the discs of dough in a freezer bag for up to three months. When it’s time to bake a pie, let the dough thaw in the refrigerator overnight before rolling it out.
Can I make and freeze my pie ahead of time?
Want to have dessert prepped and ready for a last-minute dinner or event? It depends on the type of pie. Fruit pies are the best option for freezing ahead of time. Cream or custard-based pies should be eaten right away; we don’t recommend freezing those.
Bake and cool your fruit pie, then place it in the freezer for three hours. Wrap the pie in storage wrap, then wrap it in a layer of aluminum foil or place it in a freezer bag. Store the pie in the freezer for up to two months and let it thaw before serving it.
Is puff pastry the same as pie crust?
No, pie crust and puff pastry are not the same. They certainly have similar ingredients, but the process for making pie dough, which includes cutting butter into flour, is simpler than the lamination required for puff pastry. Puff pastry has many more layers, making for a lighter, airier treat.
What should I do with leftover pie crust?
Leftover pie crust can be used to decorate the top of the pie with cut-out shapes, if desired. Use cookie cutters and place shapes on top of a double crust or around the edges of cream or berry pies. Leftover dough can also be baked and topped with cinnamon sugar, made into little hand pies or turned into pie crust cookies.
