work and correct dough consistency at the right temperature assures problem-free rolling without

any help.

Cookbooks tell you to shape the finished dough into a ball before chilling. However, shape

yours into a flat disk. First, a disk is thinner, cools faster in the refrigerator. Second, it warm up

faster when you are ready to roll it out. And third, a disk is easier to roll into a circle than a ball—

with a disk you are already half-way there. Cover the disk with plastic wrap or place it in a plastic

bag and put it in the refrigerator for at least one hour to chill and relax.

After the dough had a nice long rest, bring it to about 50°F (10°C) for easy rolling. The

secret of a good rolling technique is to work the dough from the center out with deliberate but not

vigorous movements. Coax the dough to roll out thin—don't force it. The dough may refuse to obey

you if there is not enough flour on the board and it sticks instead of thins out. If that happens, gently

lift the dough and sprinkle a fine dusting of flour under it as well as on the rolling pin. This should

give you the upper hand. Never gather the dough again and roll it out twice—it toughens the crust.

Once you start, you are committed. For the same reason, don't work too much of the trimmings

from the first pie crust into a second crust or a top crust. Make "orts" out of them, instead, by

sprinkling each leftover piece with cinnamon and sugar, or cocoa and sugar, and spread them on a

baking sheet. Put them in the oven with the pie, but remove in 10 minutes or less, depending on

their thickness. Orts are great sweet tidbits to nibble on.

To transfer the finished dough circle from the work surface to the pie plate, roll it up on the

rolling pin, hold it over the plate and unroll it over the pie plate. Avoid stretching it any more

because it causes more shrinkage on baking. If you need to move it to center the dough on the plate,

lift and move, don’t stretch. The gluten remembers its original shape. If you stretch it, it will spring

back in the oven like a rubber band. Another method of transferring the rolled-out dough is to fold it

in half and then again into quarter. Lift it onto the pie plate and unfold.

Prebaked crusts

Some recipes call for raw pie dough, other prebaked crust. Occasionally you may come

across recipes that start with a parbaked (partially baked) crust. You bake raw pie dough with the

filling, while you fill prebaked crusts with filling but no more baking. (Some prebaked, filled crusts

may also go back in the oven for more baking.) Parbaked dough is in-between. It is filled then

baked. If you have a very juicy filling, you can avoid soggy bottoms by parbaking the crust then

finish baking with the filling. Partially baked dough has more resistance against absorbing moisture

than raw dough.

When prebaking, also called bake it blind, bakers’ common problem is with shrinkage of the

dough. If you made the dough properly, chilled it well, rolled it with care and use heavy pie weights,

shrinkage should be negligible. Here are a few more points to help.

Use heavy pie weights, either ceramic or metal. Beans and rice suggested by many

cookbooks are handy and inexpensive but too light (some cooks even use pennies and metal dog

collars). Use an aluminum foil to cover the dough then spread the pie weight on the foil. Don't

brown the crust too much in baking—too dark crusts (though delicious) become to hard to cut with

the fork and they are unkind to your guests.

An interesting variation of baking crust blind is to bake it upside down. You need two

identical pie plates. Roll out the pie dough to size, trim it and place it in the pie plate. Cover it with a

wax paper, then place the second identical pie plate over the wax paper and bake the assembly

upside down. Halfway through baking remove the top pie plate and return the bottom plate with the

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