Hi Bold Bakers, you are in for a treat.
I have put together my top 7 tips and tools for baking the best pies.
Whether you’re making apple, pecan, pumpkin, you are going to kill it this holiday season.
This video is made possible thanks to my partnership with GoodCook.
In this video I’m going to be sharing some of my favorite GoodCook tools to make amazing
pies.
All of the information and recipes that I use can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com.
So our first tip is an important one, keep your butter cold at all stages of the pastry
making process.
You know those lovely flaky pastries you see?
That all comes down to cold butter.
So all along the way, butter cold, pastry cold up until the very end.
So one way to zip through pastry making with little to no fuss or handling is by using
a Sweet Creations pastry blender.
These tools are fantastic, they’re really inexpensive and they just make light work
of pastry making.
So like I said, keeping your pastry cold is key.
So after you mix it pop it into the fridge, after you roll it pop it into the fridge and
also, even before you bake it keep it in the fridge it just makes all the difference to
your pie crust.
Tip #2, use as little flour as possible when rolling out your pastry.
This is really important because pastry absorbs flour and all that extra flour will make your
pastry actually heavy and tough to eat.
When rolling out a pastry I like to use the Sweet Creations pastry mat.
It makes it really easy to roll out your pastry because it has a non-stick back and what I
love is that it has a size guide so you can check the size of your pastry.
Also it releases your dough easily eliminating the need for that extra flour that we were
talking about.
So tip #3 which pie pan is best?
Some popular options are metal pie pans or stoneware dishes.
Now stoneware dishes are beautiful, well insulated and they go from oven to table and make for
great presentation.
Also they tend to be a little bit deeper, so if you’ve got a pie with a lot of filling
this is the perfect choice.
So for this I recommend the GoodCook oven to table stoneware 9” pie dish.
So lets talk metal pie pans.
Metal conducts heat really well making this pie pan a champ in the browning department.
They also freeze really well so it can go from oven to freezer without shattering.
For metal I recommend the GoodCook 9” pie pan.
No matter what pan you use, both of those are great options.
So Tip #4 allow a little overhang to stop your pastry from shrinking.
What I mean by this is when you’re rolling out your pastry, roll it out bigger than your
pie dish.
Having all this little bit of extra pastry means that if your pie actually shrinks, you
still will have a lot of pastry to work with.
Then once it’s baked, you can take that pastry off when it comes out of the oven.
So for rolling out my pastry I like to use the Sweet Creations rolling pin with measuring
guide.
This is a fantastic tool and I’ll tell you why.
It allows you to get the exact thickness you want on your pastry and the same thickness
all over.
So tip #5 do you need to blind bake your pie crust?
Some recipes call for a par bake or even a fully baked pie crust before you put in your
filling to avoid a soggy bottom.
This method is called Blind Baking.
Place your pastry in your pie dish, line it with a large piece of parchment paper, then
fill that with dry beans or dried rice.
This will stop your pastry from puffing up during the baking.
Bake at 350°F or 180° C until the dough looks matte instead of wet, it’ll take around
20 minutes.
If you need your pie crust fully baked, then after the 20 minutes remove your beans, put
it back into the oven for around 15-20 minutes, let it get nice and golden brown, then take
it out.
Tip #6 baking your pie.
You want to bake your pie on the lowest rack of your oven on a preheated tray and I’ll
tell you why, because this’ll make your base nice and crispy.
You’re gonna have your pie down in the bottom of the oven close to the heat source and then
also putting it on a preheated tray will make sure you have a nice crisp crust.
And our last tip, you put so much work into your pies, make sure it arrives in one piece.
If you need to transport your pie this holiday season, use the Sweet Creations Pie Carrier
by good cook.
Just pop it in, snap on the lid and you’re good to go.
Thanks to GoodCook for sponsoring this video, and for all the tips and tools that I used
head over to my website.
I’ll see you back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.