Pre-baking 2 crust pie crusts

[Beusho]

Just starting to get into baking and I've been reading different apple pie recipes for this summer's upcoming BBQs. Some of the 2 crust apple pie recipes I've seen say to pre bake both the top and bottom crust and put the top on at the end. Does this work? I would imagine the top crust would just fall off the slices. There's been no mention of anything to adhere the top crust to the bottom crust. Anybody have experience doing this?

[weinoo]

I can't imagine pre-baking the top crust.

[tim]

TThis is really strange. We would love to know the source of the recipes.

 

If you are a beginner you should utilize the very easiest, and best pie crust recipe ever.  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/07/easy-pie-dough-recipe.html?ref=search

 

Good luck

[Lisa Shock]

I've never heard of pre-baking a top crust, except for cobblers of the type that have biscuits (not batter) on top. Once in a while I see a recipe that calls for the biscuits to be precooked a bit.

[MelissaH]

I first heard about prebaking the crust for a 2-crust pie in an article about Bill Yosses, (soon-to-be-former) White House pastry chef. He'd blind bake the bottom crust, load the pie with apples or whatever, and then add the top crust and bake the whole pie. Supposedly, the advantage is that the bottom crust is guaranteed to get cooked properly and stay crisp.

 

I've been known to bake "cookies" of pie crust, and place one on top of each serving of open-faced pie. For people who love crust, this is a way to give them more of the good stuff.

[Lisa Shock]

I first heard about prebaking the crust for a 2-crust pie in an article about Bill Yosses, (soon-to-be-former) White House pastry chef. He'd blind bake the bottom crust, load the pie with apples or whatever, and then add the top crust and bake the whole pie. Supposedly, the advantage is that the bottom crust is guaranteed to get cooked properly and stay crisp.

 

I've been known to bake "cookies" of pie crust, and place one on top of each serving of open-faced pie. For people who love crust, this is a way to give them more of the good stuff.

 

Blind baking the bottom crust is very, very common.

What I have not seen is a prebaked top crust for a whole pie. -One that is then attached to a blind baked bottom crust filled with apple filling as mentioned by the OP.

[Beusho]

The source is from Susan Corriher's Cookwise, it's the big chunk apple pie from that book which people who I know who've had it said it was great. She blind bakes the bottom crust and then uses the remaining dough rolled out and put on a metal bowl which she then bakes. The pie is made by cooking the bottom crust, top crust and pie filling separately and then just assembling all three, there's no mention of baking after the top crust is put on.

[Anna N]

Just a minor correction. The author is Shirley O. Corriher and here's the recipe I think is meant:

http://www.jewishfood-list.com/recipes/pie/applepiebigchunk01.html

[Jim D.]

That recipe is quite something.  I love the poster's note at the end:  "This recipe takes some time."  To put it mildly.  It does sound intriguing, but I don't quite understand how the top crust works.  If you drape it over a bowl and bake it "until deep golden brown," won't it be too convex in shape to fit over the apples without breaking?

[Smithy]

That recipe is quite something. I love the poster's note at the end: "This recipe takes some time." To put it mildly. It does sound intriguing, but I don't quite understand how the top crust works. If you drape it over a bowl and bake it "until deep golden brown," won't it be too convex in shape to fit over the apples without breaking?

I think the idea is that it's stiff enough after baking to fit over all like a crisp cap. I've never thought of cooking an apple filling separately from the crust, much less cooking both crusts separately from each other. Bless Shirley Corriher for her innovations, but it seems a lot of complication compared to my family's standard apple pie with crumb crust. I'll happily try it if someone else makes it! ;-)

[Shalmanese]

In the Corriher recipe, you're not pre-baking the top crust, you're just plain baking it. There's no secondary bake.

[Smithy]

In the Corriher recipe, you're not pre-baking the top crust, you're just plain baking it. There's no secondary bake.

 

Right you are.  

 

Bake the bottom crust, bake the top crust, cook the filling; assemble and serve.

[Shelby]

I must confess that I always cook my apple filling a bit before putting it in the pie.  I like the apples to be soft and have always had the crust get done before the apples were the way I liked them.

[Beusho]

So I was planning on doing this

1. Bake the bottom crust the night before

2. Cook the apple filling

3. Assemble bottom crust and filling

4. Add a top crust from the left over dough

5. bake briefly to bake the top crust

A few questions

 

What would be a good temp/time to shoot for in #5, the filling and bottom crust are already finished, the only thing I would need the last heating step for is to bake the top crust. I'm thinking it would be a lattice crust. Would this overbake the bottom crust or fillings? 

Thanks for any help

[Lisa Shock]

You do run that risk, I would just par-bake the bottom, with egg wash to seal it. However, that would need to be done right before assembly. A par-cooked crust won't hold well.