Stop blaming the oven for soggy pie crusts, it's your technique

I've been baking pies for years and often ended up with a wet, soggy bottom crust. Many cooks say to pre-bake the shell or use a metal pan, but that never worked for me. After lots of bad pies, I looked hard at the filling. The key problem is the juice from the fruit as it bakes. Now, I mix my fruit with sugar and let it sit to pull out the liquid. I pour off all that extra juice before it goes in the crust. This step takes more time, but my crusts are now crisp and dry. If you skip this, you're just putting a band-aid on a bigger issue.

4 comments

4 Comments

thomas.river1mo ago

That cornstarch tip from abby_brown plus your fruit trick is the perfect combo.

jakeadams1mo ago

omg yes, that's the real fix right there. I went through the same thing for so long, blaming my oven and everything lol. I started doing exactly what you said, letting the fruit and sugar sit in a colander over a bowl for like an hour. You wouldn't believe how much liquid comes out, it's crazy. My last apple pie finally had a bottom crust you could actually hear a crunch when you cut it. Never going back to just hoping for the best.

abby_brown1mo ago

That cornstarch slurry trick never worked for me either until I got the ratio right. Heard a food scientist explain it on a podcast once, totally changed my game.

andrew_baker912d ago

Seriously, why do they make it sound so easy when it's basically kitchen chemistry?