The 5 Most Common Piecrust Problems — and How to Solve Them

Relax, you’ve got this.

Making a pie (and especially a homemade piecrust) can be intimidating. But we’ve got all the tips and tricks for a tender, flaky, beautiful piecrust that doesn’t shrink — as well as fixes on the off chance that, somehow, it still happens.

These solutions to common pie-making problems will work for any of your favorite piecrust recipes. I’m partial to the one in my Pumpkin- Cream Cheese Pie: I use half butter and half lard in the pie dough — the former for rich flavor and the latter to ensure ultimate flakiness and tenderness. (And you can substitute vegetable shortening for the lard, if you like.)

And, as long as you’re taking the trouble to make pie dough from scratch, do yourself a favor and make enough dough for three single-crust pies: enough for Turkey Day, a leftover turkey pot pie, and another use down the road. You can make pie dough well in advance. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and stash it in the fridge for two to three days or in the freezer for up to two months.

In the meantime, here are five common pie-making problems and how to avoid them.

Related: 32 Showstopping Thanksgiving Pies and Tarts

1. My crust is tough, not flaky

Cool your ingredients

To ensure a flaky piecrust, make sure you work with very cold ingredients to keep the fat from melting before your crust goes in the oven (when it melts in the oven, it will create air pockets that fill with steam and expand to produce flaky layers).

Stash your cooking fat (such as butter, shortening, or lard) in the fridge overnight to keep it very cold. When a pie dough recipe calls for ice water, scoop from a bowl of cold water with lots of ice in it.

Use a light touch

Using a food processor will make you less likely to overwork the dough than if you were mixing by hand. If you’re making the dough by hand, be careful not to overwork the dough; incorporate the mixture just until you have pea-sized pieces of butter, lard, or shortening.

Related: The 5 Best Food Processors, According to Our Tests

Rest it before rolling out

Make sure to wrap and chill the dough for a couple of hours before rolling it out; this allows the flour to fully hydrate.

2. My dough is sticking or breaking apart

Be gentle

Take your time when rolling out the dough. Place it on a lightly floured work surface, and make light swipes with your rolling pin in different directions from the center of the dough outward (pressing too hard as you roll could make the crust tough); pick up the dough every so often and rotate it. Dust the surface with a little flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Nail the landing

Roll the dough, then gently lower the dough onto the pie dish without stretching it; stretching leads to shrinkage. Don’t force anything, but let it drape itself instead. Don’t trim it yet; let the dough chill a few minutes in the pie plate to relax.

Trim the edges a bit longer than the edge of the pie plate rim, fold the edge under, and finish the edge as you prefer. You can use a classic flute; press on the dough with the tines of a fork to create a pattern; or roll out dough scraps, cut them with a small cookie cutter, and paste the cutouts onto the edge with a beaten egg. After shaping the edge of the dough, chill again for a few minutes to allow the dough to relax and set before baking.

Related: Classic Pie Crust

3. The bottom of my crust is soggy

For wet, custard-type fillings like classic pumpkin pie (or less classic pumpkin-cream cheese pie), pecan pie, and chess pie, blind baking is key to preventing a soggy crust. It simply means baking the crust until it’s golden and slightly crisp before the filling goes in. You can also use this step for fruit pies for extra insurance that the bottom of your crust will be fully baked and golden brown.

To help the bottom of the crust brown well, make your pie in a glass pie plate: glass pie plates tend to brown the bottom of the crust a little better.

Related: We Tested Popular Pie Dishes to Find the Best Ones for Bakers

How to blind bake your piecrust

Line the dough with parchment paper (crumple it first to make it more pliable), and fill with pie weights — either actual ceramic pie weights, dried beans, or uncooked rice. Fill all the way to the top so the dough is pressed up against the sides of the dish.

Blind bake with pie weights at a relatively high temperature (400°F or whatever temperature your recipe calls for) in the lower-middle position of the oven for 15 minutes (or the amount of time your recipe specifies). Then carefully remove the parchment and pie weights, and bake a few more minutes to dry out the bottom of the crust.

4. My crust is burnt

Make sure you don’t overbake a custard pie. When you gently shake it, the edges should be set but the center should remain a bit wobbly. With fruit pies, overbaking is less of a risk (and underbaking is actually more common), but you can still take the following steps to prevent overbrowning.

Related: Brown Bag Apple Pie

Start hot

For custard pies, jump-start the cooking of the filling by baking at the same temperature you used for blind baking, and then lower the temp to about 350°F to more gently finish cooking the custard. For fruit pies, start the oven at a high heat (about 425°F) for about 30 minutes before reducing the heat to about  350°F — this will help your crust to set.

Shield the edges

Fold a sheet of aluminum foil in half and cut a semicircle from the middle; open the foil, and arrange the foil over the pie, centering the open circle over the middle of the filling. Loosely crimp the edges of the foil down over the pie dish to secure.

Related: I've Been Baking Pies for 7 Years, and This Is My $7 Secret to Never Burning the Crust

5. My crust has shrunk

If, in spite of everything, the crust shrunk down the edge of the pie dish, all is not lost. You can add a “necklace” of whipped cream, crumbled cookies, or chopped nuts around the edge of the pie to cover the mistake. Or slice the pie and set pieces on individual plates on the dessert buffet; the imperfect crust won’t be noticeable that way.