The question of baking a pie crust before filling it with fruit or an apple creme mixture appears to be a simple question, but professional and home bakers debate the answer. Baking the bottom crust of the pie before adding apple filling depends on the pie maker and a number of baking factors. College home extension services, including the office at Utah State University, provide suggestions for making apple pies and address both options -- baking prior to filling, and cooking the crust and filling simultaneously.
Pie Crust Options
The type of bottom pie crust determines the baking requirements for the pie. Graham cracker must be baked thoroughly to melt the moist ingredients, including the butter, before adding the pie filling. Traditional pastry shells offer the option of pre-cooking before filling the pie shell or simultaneous baking. Fans of toasty bottom crusts require pre-baking. The Utah State University Cooperative Extension notes that upper crusts allow a crispier crust than bottom pie crusts, even with pre-baking of the bottom crust.
Baking Dish Selection
Glass and dull metal pans frequently create an uneven bottom crust browning. The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service recommends an enamelware or heat-resistant glass pan for baking a browned bottom pie crust. Other options include aluminum pans treated with a satin finish and darkened tin pans. Bottom crusts fail to brown evenly in shiny metal or highly polished glass pans. Using the appropriate pan and pre-baking provides a crispy brown bottom pastry shell for your pie. If you enjoy a light pastry color and softer texture, stick with a slick-glass pan.
Preliminary Baking
Baking the bottom pie crust at an oven temperature of 425 degrees Fahrenheit before filling creates a flaky, drier fruit-pie crust. The Cooperative Extension Office at Utah State University recommends brushing the bottom crust with a small amount of butter before placing the pie in a hot oven, calibrated at 450 degrees Fahrenheit, for 15 minutes prior to adding the apple filling. This procedure creates a dry, not wet or soaked, pastry pie crust. Home economists at the University of Missouri Extension Service suggest adding dry beans to the bottom of the pie crust to ensure the pastry remains flat against the pan during pre-baking.
Oven Considerations
The length of baking time provides a key factor in preparing a crisp bottom crust for your apple pie. The thickness of the dough also determines softer bottom crusts. Thin bottom crusts brown faster than thick dough crusts. Fruit pies baked without pre-baking the bottom crust also require an oven with even heat. Temperatures for hot ovens, recommended for bottom dough pre-baking, begin at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Joint Baking
Baking the pie bottom, filling and any top crust together requires preparing the filling for joint baking. Overly juicy or watery filling makes for a soggy bottom crust, even when fully baked according to recipe directions and baked with a preliminary pre-baking for the bottom crust. Combining the actions of reducing the fluid content of the apple filling and precooking the pie bottom shell for 15 minutes in a hot oven avoids the soggy crust of joint filling and pie shell baking.
References
- Utah State University Extension: The Art of Pie Making; Marie Anderson & Jana Darrington; Nov. 2009
- University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service: Pies & Cobblers; Sandra Bastin
- EXension: Two Crust Blueberry Pie; Thomas Avant; March 25, 2011
- Washington State University: Farm Finder: Washington-Oregon; Lingonberry Recipes; Carol Miles & Gayle Alleman
- University of Missouri Extension: MissouriFamilies.org; Quick Answers; Barbara Willenberg
- Utah State University Cooperative Extension: Solving the Pie Puzzle
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