Best Baked Pie Shell Recipes

PERFECT BAKED PIE CRUST

Steps:

• Heat oven to 475°F. Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
• Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. Wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.
• Roll pastry, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Prick bottom and side of pastry thoroughly with fork.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on wire rack.

BAKED PIE SHELL

Steps:

• Blend together flour, butter, shortening, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.
• Drizzle evenly with 2 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in food processor) until incorporated.
• Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. (If you overwork mixture, pastry will be tough.)
• Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion. Gather dough together with a pastry scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Roll out dough with a floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface and fit into pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under pastry and press against rim to reinforce edge. Decoratively crimp edge and lightly prick bottom and side with a fork. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Line chilled shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake in middle of oven until pastry is pale golden along rim and set underneath weights, about 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake shell until pale golden all over, about 10 minutes more. Cool completely in plate on a rack.

PREBAKED PIE SHELL

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour with the lard, butter, and salt. Mix lightly with your fingertips until the dough forms grape-sized pieces. You should still be able to see chunks of fat.
• Stir in the iced water. Lightly knead, handling the dough as little as possible, until the dough forms a ball. Add a little more iced water if necessary. Transfer to a plastic bag and shape into a log. Cut into 2 pieces and place each inside an airtight bag. Seal the bags, pressing out any air, and chill for 1 hour or as long as 3 days. The pie dough can be frozen for as long as a week. Roll out half of the dough to a 12 inch round about 1/8 inch thick and use it to line a buttered and floured 10 inch pie pan, pressing the dough well into the bottom and up the sides without stretching. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut out a circle of aluminum foil or parchment paper and fit it into the chilled pie shell. Fill with rice, beans, or ceramic pie weights and bake the pie shell for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are just golden and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• Remove the paper and the weights and return the shell to the oven to finish cooking for 5 to 10 minutes more. Cool on a rack.

BLIND-BAKED PIE CRUST

Steps:

• Whisk sugar, salt, and 2⅔ cups flour in a large bowl. Add butter and, using your fingers, smash each piece into a thin disk. Take your time doing this and don't feel compelled to break butter into even smaller pieces. Drizzle ⅔ cup ice water over, dispersing it as widely as possible, and mix with a rubber spatula to bring mixture together into a shaggy mass.
• Turn dough out onto a surface and work together with your hands, pushing and flattening until dough holds together when squeezed in your palm but some streaks of dry flour are still visible. Divide dough into 2 portions.
• Flatten 1 portion of dough into an 8"-diameter disk. Cut into quarters, stack pieces on top of one another, and flatten dough with a rolling pin to about half of its original height. At this point dough should hold together with no dry spots remaining, and have nice big flakes of butter showing. Use a bench scraper or a large knife to clean any clingy bits of dough from surface. Dust surface with flour, then dust top of dough with flour. Roll out to a ¼"-⅜"-thick round. Wrap dough around rolling pin and transfer to a standard 9"-diameter pie dish. Unfurl into dish, then lift edges and allow dough to slump down into dish. Trim overhang to an even 1" (there will be some excess). Fold overhang under and crimp as desired. Cover and chill until very cold, at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours (cover tightly if chilling longer than 1 hour). Repeat process with remaining dough and another pie dish. Or form into a 1½"-thick disk, wrap in plastic, and chill up to 3 days (or freeze up to 1 month).
• Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat oven to 400°F. Lay 2 sheets of parchment paper over dough and fill with pie weights or dried beans (they should fill the dish). Set on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (this will keep any butter drips from smoking up your oven). Bake until edges are golden brown and bottom is opaque (carefully lift parchment to check), 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 300°F. Lift out parchment and weights. Bake crust until evenly chestnut brown all over, 10-15 minutes. If baking both crusts, turn oven dial back up to 400°F and let oven preheat; repeat with remaining crust.

FOOLPROOF PIE SHELLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Whisk the egg, water and vinegar; gradually add to flour mixture, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Divide into four portions. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour., On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to fit a 9-in. pie plate. Transfer pastry to pie plates. Trim each pastry to 1/2 in. beyond edge of plate; flute edges. Fill or bake shells according to recipe directions.

ONE PIE SHELL

Steps:

• In large bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt.
• Cut in the shortening or lard using a pastry blender.
• Lightly beat the egg yolk, water and the apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl. Add this mixture to the flour, mixing with a fork only until moistened. DO NOT overstir.
• Shape the dough into a flat circle. Wrap in plastic or waxed paper. Chill for at least a half hour.
• On a floured cutting board, roll the dough to the diameter of 11 inches. Fit the dough into the pie plate and trim off to within about 1/2" to 1" larger than the size of the pie plate.
• Turn the dough that hangs over the sides under, and crimp edges as desired.
• Fill and bake the pie crust as directed by the recipe you are using.
• YIeld: One 9-inch single pie crust.