I’ve never found a pie with a top crust that beats my mom’s. She always made the Crisco crust but she knew how to handle it to keep it extremely flaky and she sprinkled it with sugar after being in the oven for 10 min, so the sugar would stick. No one else’s, homemade or commercial, comes close. And the edges never got too dark. Hence, the crust is the best part.
Hoo, boy. Now I need pie…
That, otherwise pie, pizza and bread crusts. (the last one would be better called heels - there’s more than just crust involved)
Canadian at-one-time-but-really-no-longer icon Don Cherry had a thing about eating the crust first. (well, pizza, actually)
I had no idea that was what you meant. To me, a pie crust is the whole thing.
I usually eat the rim also.
I do that sometimes. And sometimes I add chopped walnuts.
And now I want to make pie. And pie dough cookies. But it’s too late at night.
Pie crust edges don’t have to burn. There’s ways to stop it.
I make crust cookies from the leftover bits. I just cut the leftover crust that i trim from the edges into vaguely cookie -sized pieces, and dust with cinnamon (and sometimes sugar) and bake them. They are delicious.
I smush together any leftover bits; roll them back out into pie crust like thickness; apply cinnamon, nutmeg, a bit of brown sugar, and maybe chopped nuts; roll the whole thing up into a log shape; cut it crosswise into pieces; put the pieces on a buttered baking sheet, and bake.
Buttered cookie sheet seems redundant.
A parchment would work ok with the crust and not stick. The dough is full of fats, anyway.
Only if it’s tasty! This is definitely more of an issue with store-bought pies… Some are just cooked dough with no flavor, but others contain (or are sprinkled with) pie spices.
Eating the crust is a relatively new innovation. For a lot of the Middle Ages, pie crusts (“coffynes”) were made from dead dough and weren’t intended for eating along with the filling.
I’m interested in all the folks saying that pie crusts take lots of technique and time. Technique, maybe, but time? Not since food processors came along.
A food processor cuts the fat in almost instantly, and avoids contact with your nasty warm hands. Add the water, whirl the dough a little more, and you’re ready to smush it together, refrigerate it, and roll it out.
I only make one recipe, an all-butter crust that serves me well enough for the savory and sweet pies I like to bake. Crisco and lard can make it a little flakier, but I miss the buttery taste with those, and a butter crust has a cookie-like snap to it that I love.
It takes me longer to pull out the food processor, set it up, take it apart, and put it away than it does to cut in the butter with a pastry cutter. And the pastry cutter and bowl don’t completely fill the top shelf of the dishwasher.
(I barely ever use the food processor. I’ve used it for scones, which are similar to pie crusts. But mostly we only use it for latkes.)
The rolling and chilling take time, too.
And would be thrown out each time. I do use some throwaways, but I try to keep it down.
So, IMO, is the tastiness of the fillings; which to me often taste only of too much sugar and perhaps whatever they thickened a lot of gel with, in order to avoid having to actually use much fruit; let alone fruit that got a chance to ripen properly, of varieties chosen for flavor.
If the pie crust is crap, probably the whole thing is.
And I have to listen to the thing.
Or, rather, I don’t; because it’ll sit on the shelf so I don’t have to wash it.
Yes, we eat the crust. We only eat pie I make, and I do make a good pie crust. It’s full of Kerrygold butter and it’s light and flaky. I tend to make tart-style pies, that is, galettes, nowadays. They have more crust in proportion to filling, and the bottom crust is easier to get nicely browned. I never get a soggy bottom crust if I stick to galettes. In addition, there isn’t that thick heavy border that can get a bit tough and/or overbrowned.
Yeah. I love pie, especially fruit pie. Pie that i make. I only rarely eat fruit pies from commercial sources because too often they are just full of overly sweet goo, and don’t have much fruit.
I can often reuse a sheet of parchment. But i neither use parchment nor butter the sheet for most cookies. I find a nice metal spatula, applied after they’ve cooled just a little, but not firmly set, works to remove essentially all flour-based cookies. I don’t even need a spatula for my crust cookies, i lift up the pan and pour them onto a plate.
(I also make meringue cookies, and i use parchment paper for those. I lift up the parchment any then peel it off the cookie.)
^This^ I will often eat the side crust as well. The bottom is iffy, depending on how soggy it is.
This is my method. I cut the flour and salt into the lard, then add water and pulse just till it comes together, about 3-4 times. It takes about 3 minutes. My food processor lives on my countertop (I am lucky to have lots of room) and I use it a lot. It’s easy to wash with a spritz or two of Dawn.
To keep pie edges from overbrowning, you can use foil or pre-made crust covers, such as these: Pie Crust Shield. Mine are from Pampered Chef and I’ve had them for about 15 years.
Is there a reason fruit pies like cherry, and apple have a top crust?
Pecan, Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, Chocolate, Lemon etc are usually topless.
My grandmother topped some pies with meringue. I prefer mine without.
Because fruit can hold the top crust up during baking. Pumpkin and sweet potato are nearly liquid(custard like) before baking. Pecan pie doesn’t need a top crust. Pecans are on top. Altho’ I have a pie recipe called Millionaire pie that is loaded with pecans and has a top crust. But it has a heavier bodied filling.
Lemon pie has meringue as does Coconut and Chocolate pie.
Thank you @Beckdawrek
I like nearly all pies except key lime.
Nothing is ever better than a Southern Chess pie. Corn meal in a pie sounds odd, but it tastes good.