Troubleshooting Your Pies

The following is adapted and condensed from my really big upcoming new pie book entitled The Pie Academy: 300 Pies & 25 Doughs, Plus Dozens of Foolproof Techniques For Making the Perfect Pie to Fit Every Taste and Occasion.

I made the subtitle as long as I could because I was being paid by the word. (Just kidding.)

Since I'm spilling the beans anyway, and giving you a sneak peak into this chapter of the book, I figured I might as well tease you with some of the photos you'll find when this behemoth is released next fall. 

This is not meant to be a prescription for everything that ails your pies; I had to leave something for the big reveal. But it should help you get through the holiday season with your sanity - and pie reputation - intact.

As a little bonus, I've dropped in a few videos here and there, from my YouTube channel, to help illustrate some of the following tips and perhaps entertain you, too, provided you're easily entertained. 

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As I said many times before, I would like to have a word with the person who coined the expression “as easy as pie.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned as dean of The Pie Academy, it’s that for many cooks, pie making is anything but easy. Stuff can happen when you make a pie, stuff that’s not supposed to, and you’re left wondering where things went awry and how to prevent it from happening again. Let’s take a look at some of these problem areas, based on the most common complaints I hear.

My dough still seems dry and crumbly even after I add the liquid.

You’re probably not adding enough water. When you’re just starting out as a pie maker, it’s difficult to know whether you’ve added enough water or not. It’s one of those things you need to develop a feel for. There’ll be a little trial and error at first. Don’t be afraid to add a touch more water — a teaspoon or two at a time. The standard test for knowing whether you’ve added enough water is to compress a few tablespoons of the dough mixture in your palm. If it holds together without crumbling apart easily, you’re good.

It’s worth considering, too, that the dough may be dry because you’re cramming too much flour into the measuring cup to begin with. Don’t push the dry measuring cup down into the flour; you’ll overfill the cup. Do this instead: store the flour in a rectangular bin that you can get your hands into. Hold the measuring cup over the bin. Fluff the flour with your other hand, then lift and deposit flour into the cup. Level off the top with a knife blade or your finger. If you use a scale, all-purpose flour measured this way should come in right at about 4.5 ounces.

One other reason the dough may feel dry is that you’re not cutting in the fat thoroughly enough. Especially if you’re cutting in the fat by hand, you want to make sure all the dry mixture looks like it has been touched by the fat. You should not see lots of dry, floury areas in the mixture. If all the dry mixture is lubricated, there’s less chance the dough will seem dry and crumbly.

My dough always seems too wet after I add the liquid.

Unlike the last pie maker, you’re probably using a little more liquid than you should. If that’s the case, (a) the dough may seem sticky when you go to roll it, and (b) the crust is likely to be more chewy than flaky, because extra water tends to activate gluten, the stretchy protein strands in dough. So ease up a little on the liquid, cutting back by 2 to 4 teaspoons. Keep in mind that when dough rests in the fridge, dry areas in the dough will take on moisture from the surrounding areas, like a sponge does, and help hydrate the dough evenly.

My dough cracks when I try to roll it.

This is a common complaint, so take heart; you’re not alone. First of all, make sure you’re not trying to roll the dough while it is still cold-hard, or the dough will be brittle. You’ll end up fighting with it. Next, take care not to dust the dough with extra flour while you’re shaping it into a ball, then a disk. Excess flour can get wedged in the dough and cause a fault line where the dough will split when you roll it. Of course, you may simply not have added enough liquid to the pastry and now it’s just plain crumbly. 

My pie dough always sticks to my counter when I roll it.

Let’s start with the obvious: the dough may be too wet, so use a little less liquid next time. Obvious thing #2: you need to dust your counter with a little more flour. Not a blizzard of it, just a nice even and thorough dusting. The moment the dough starts to stick, slide it off to the side and dust again. If the problem persists, try rolling the dough on waxed paper or plastic wrap. You also might be pressing too hard with the rolling pin. Remember that your goal is to flatten out the dough gradually as you roll, and not with the first swipe of the pin. That’s asking for trouble.

I can’t keep my dough round when I roll. It looks like an amoeba instead of a circle.

One time I was giving a pie-making demonstration and a lady in the audience kept firing comments at me. She was visibly irritated because she never had success keeping her dough round, like the one I was rolling at my demo. I gave her every tip I could think of, and when I ran out of good ideas and started grasping at straws, I told her that she should try to picture something round when she rolled — like the earth, I said. To which she shot back: My dough looks like part of the earth, all right. Florida!

If you’ve got chronic Florida dough, relax. Start with a nice round disk of dough and make sure it’s not too cold-hard. Let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes if it is. Give the dough a number of short warm-up rolls, rolling away from you, rotating the dough a quarter turn after each one. Keep up these short, gentle rolls and quarter turns. Only roll away from you in the 10:00, 12:00, and 2:00 positions, not off to the sides, and don’t roll toward yourself. That’s awkward, and awkward makes for funny-looking doughs. 

My dough falls apart when I transfer it to my pie pan.

This is likely happening for the same reason that dough cracks too much: not enough moisture in the dough. If another few teaspoons of water doesn’t do the trick, take stock of how you’re attempting to get the dough into the pan. It might need more support on the way there. If you roll directly onto a countertop, try sliding a thin, flour-dusted rimless baking sheet all the way under the dough. Then slide the dough off the sheet and into the pan. Or try rolling directly onto waxed paper. With most doughs, the paper will grip it. Then you can invert the rolled dough over the pan, center it, and peel off the paper.

Also be aware that all-butter doughs hold together better than doughs with a high proportion of Crisco or vegetable shortening, which tends to relax the dough. So if the problem persists, prepare a butter dough and see if that makes a difference.

The edge of my crust always gets too dark and overbaked.

 This is a very common problem. Edges overbrown because that’s the most exposed portion of the pie, right out there in the oven with virtually nothing to protect it. This is unfortunate when it happens, but it’s not the end of the world, because we’re only talking about a small percentage of the pie’s overall real estate. Still, nobody wants their pie to look chargrilled, so start by eliminating any sugar you may be adding to the dough. Even a small amount of sugar can cause significant browning, and since the filling is usually sweet enough, you can skip the sugar in the crust. If the problem persists, make a foil ring to protect the edge. You can buy silicone or metal versions, but because they’re heavier and sit directly on the crust edge, they often don’t work as well as they should and cause browning as well.

My fruit pies spill over onto the oven floor.

Simple: you need to put a sheet of parchment paper on the baking sheet and bake the pie that way. If you don’t have parchment, use aluminum foil. That is, unless you like to spend your weekends scrubbing the oven. You’re probably also filling your fruit pies a tad too generously. Instead of doing that, consider using the extra filling to make mini pies.

My pumpkin pies always develop cracks when they cool.

Yep, pumpkin pie can be cranky that way. It’s a little like cheesecake, which has the same tendency. You can minimize this issue by remembering that almost any pie made with eggs is best baked low and slow — meaning 325 to 350°F (170 to 180°C) — for as long as it takes. Check the temperature with an oven thermometer to be sure. Pumpkin pie, again like cheesecake, will sometime crack if it is subject to a quick temperature change. You might want to turn off the oven, open the door about halfway, and cool the pie like that for 15 minutes before removing it from the oven. If all that fails, layer on the whipped cream nice and thick to hide the crack.

Another reason pumpkin pies can crack, if you’re using your own baked pumpkin flesh, is the presence of pumpkin chunks in the filling. Use a food processor to make sure the pumpkin is good and smooth before you mix the filling (page 000).