Things bakers know: Protect your pie in reverse
The best way to keep pie crust from burning.
As the designated Thanksgiving pie baker in my family, I’ve experienced many highs (rave reviews and empty pie plates) and lows (forgetting to add sugar to the filling and finicky ovens that never fully baked the pumpkin pie filling). But there’s one persistent problem that rears its head nearly every time I bake a pie: how to cook the pie long enough that the filling is set and cooked through, without burning the crust ...
Because pie fillings — especially fruit pies — often take a long time to fully bake, the edges of the crust can become overly browned before the pie is cooked through. Of course, there’s a simple tool that can prevent this, the aptly named pie crust shield.
Typically made of silicone, this ring is designed to fit over your pie crust, protecting it from the direct heat of the oven. You customarily place the shield on your pie toward the end of baking, once you see the crust is taking on the proper golden brown color, and it will protect the crust from browning further while you wait for the filling to fully set. (Strips of aluminum foil can also be used as a makeshift shield, but we don’t recommend it; it’s annoyingly difficult to cover the edges of a pie plate with strips of aluminum, and they have a tendency to fall off during baking.)
A pie shield is great. But you know what isn’t great? Trying to place a pie shield onto the hot, partially cooked pastry of a pie that is in the oven. Recently, I had a super simple lightbulb moment: What if I reversed the process and put the pie shield on first, when the pastry and pie plate were still cool, then take it off toward the end of baking?
By doing so, you can ensure the pie shield is securely fastened before the pie pan goes into the oven and can handle it easily (because securing a shield to the partially baked crust while avoiding piping hot metal is neither easy nor fun). Once there’s about 15 minutes of bake time remaining, you can remove the pie shield (it's much easier to take a pie shield off a hot pie that put it on, trust) and allow the crust to bake uncovered to achieve the perfect golden hue and flaky texture. Plus, it gives you a bit of extra insurance — you can always add the pie shield back on if it still takes on color too quickly (as it’s basically impossible to overbake fruit fillings), but there’s no turning back if you add it on too late.
Shop everything you need to become a pie baking master.
Cover photo by Mark Weinberg.
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