Pie crust help!

[Anonymous]

I have a quick recipe I make a couple times a month in the winter. It requires refrigerated pie crust on the bottom, and balled philo dough on top. The thing is, you precook the innards on the stove and essentially just warm them back up as you’re baking the pie crust. But no matter how I tweak the recipe, I can’t seem to get the pie crust bottom to bake properly, and it’s always soggy.

Should I pre bake the pie crust as though it’s a sweet pudding-type pie I’m filling? I’ve never pre-baked a pie crust so I don’t want to ruin this. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Anonymous]

I’m no expert baker (looking at Pillsbury ready-crust) but I have learned that you must use pie weights when you prebake. In a pinch Thanksgiving mornings when the kids were little and we had marbles in the house, I used to put them over tin foil over the crust before the pre-bake. Now I have a nice set of ceramic weights courtesy of Amazon, no foil required

[Anonymous]

Yes OP I can not see how this would work otherwise. I would cook it for 5 to ten min before adding other ingredients. Then finish off cooking if needed in oven.

[Anonymous]

I prebake crusts for quiche or anything moist. Just line it with foil and add dried beans. Don’t need fancy pie weights. Can bake for 15-20 mins and fill when it’s warm.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would absolutely prebake the crust. To do that, put your crust in and crimp as you normally would. Then take a piece of parchment paper, crumple it up in a ball, then uncrumple and smooth it out and put in on top of the crust so it covers completely. Fill it with pie weights, dry beans, or dry rice. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, preferably on a lower shelf in the oven. Take it out of the oven, remove the paper and weights, and put it back in for another 8-10 minutes until it gets just a hint of color on the edges. Remove from oven, and let it cool a bit. Proceed with your recipe.

[Anonymous]

I once made a sweet fruit pie that told me to do something that was so brilliant because it kept the bottom crust from getting soggy. After you parbake the crust, you put a thin layer of crème fraiche (our sour cream, or thick yogurt) and a bit of the streusel topping that that pie called for at the bottom before putting in the rest of the filling. So it’s just a little bit of sugar, flour, and butter - maybe make up a tiny amount of that. It caramelizes during baking and sets up a barrier between the crust and the wetter fillings.

[Anonymous]

I make a chocolate pudding pie and I pre-bake my crust (per directions above, although I use a higher temp). I also pierce my crust with a fork before baking (do not do this if you are not pre-baking the crust). I have never had a soggy crust after pouring in the hot pudding.