Why Chill Pie Dough? (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you don't Chill your pie crust? ›

Non-chilled crust is fairly crumbly and less smooth, which makes it harder to roll out and means it may not look as polished. It will brown more quickly and the final product will likely be tougher, heavier, and more doughy – none of those in a bad way. It will likely have a more intense, butter flavor.

Most pie dough/pastry benefits from a rest in the refrigerator as it allows the glutens in the flour to relax - this should help to give a more tender pie crust with less shrinkage. It can also give time for the liquids in the dough to be absorbed, giving slightly less dry spots in the pastry.

Pie dough can keep for two to three days in the fridge, or up to three months in the freezer. If you're making the crust and the filling ahead, keep them separated until it's time to bake your pie.

Cover the pie dough with plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes before rolling it out. This lets the liquid absorb into the dough, firms the fat and allows the gluten to relax.

Chill your dough multiple times, if needed, in order to guarantee it's cold as it goes in the oven. Start with chilled ingredients. Chill the dough before rolling it out.

Cool and relaxed pastry is far more likely to hold its shape when cooking. Relaxed gluten won't shrink nearly as badly, so that's why you rest pastry cases before blind baking. If, when you get the pastry out of the fridge after resting and it seems too stiff to roll, don't let it warm up.

6. Roll out the dough. When you're ready to make pie, remove the crusts from the refrigerator or freezer, leaving them wrapped. Allow to thaw (if frozen) or warm a bit at room temperature (if chilled longer than 30 minutes), until softened enough to roll but still cold to the touch.

If the dough has already been rolled out and put in the pan, you can put it in the freezer for an hour instead — even 45 minutes is fine.

The fridge is your friend.

When making pie crust, it's always good to chill the dough more than you think is necessary. I chill my dough for at least two hours after making it, and I always chill pie crusts in the pan before baking them. This helps the gluten relax and prevents any shrinkage in the oven.

Why is my pie crust hard after refrigeration? ›

If your pie crust is tough instead of tender and flaky, you probably either overworked the dough or added too much water to it. There's not much to do in this situation but plate up a slice and throw on a scoop of ice cream. Don't sweat it: You'll do better next time.

Add a Layer

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven. This will prevent the filling from turning the crust soggy.

"When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature. Therefore the heat from the oven reacts with the butter quickly, making it spread thinner," says Epperson. And while some people prefer a crunchy, thin cookie, there are arguably many more people who like soft, thick cookies.

Turns out, chilling dough before rolling does two things: The most important is that it gives the gluten strands in the dough time to relax, which makes the pastry easier to roll out and limits shrinkage during baking. The other reason is that giving dough a good rest encourages the moisture to disperse more evenly.

Remove the first disc of dough from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature for 10 minutes. Liberally flour your work surface and rolling pin. Begin to roll the dough, being sure to rotate it every so often to avoid sticking, to a 13-inch round.

You can keep your pie dough in the fridge for up to 3 days. Be sure to allow the pastry to come to room temperature before rolling out for pie.

If made ahead without baking, the pastry crust can become too wet and end up soggy after baking. The best way to make your apple pie in advance? Bake the pie completely, then chill it overnight, allowing the pie to sit at room temperature for at least an hour before serving.

Tip: At this point, it helps to return the pie to the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes; this chills the fat, which ultimately increases the crust's flakiness and helps the crimp hold its shape.

Pastry should be at room temperature for rolling (to make it more pliable), but chilled before baking (so the buttery layers remain separate). A hot oven allows the layers to rise, but needs to be monitored to prevent burning.

For shorter periods, it's best not to refrigerate your pastries as the moist air inside a fridge can affect the crispness of a pastry's crust. After a day or two, though, this becomes a moot point--they'll be a little less crisp anyway, and the fridge helps them keep their freshness going for a little longer.

Can you roll out pie dough in advance? ›

Freeze the Dough: The thing that not everyone knows about pie dough is that, while it gets a bad reputation for being difficult and fussy, you can actually make your dough up to 3 days ahead, wrap well and refrigerate.

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be. After 72 hours the dough will begin to dry out and you risk it going bad, especially if chilling pre portioned balls of dough instead of the entire mass of dough.

Keep It Cold

If your butter melts during the mixing or rolling process—before the pie crust hits the oven—you won't achieve those flaky layers we're looking for in this buttery pastry. With this goal in mind, the cardinal rule of pie crusts is to keep things as cold as possible.

Vinegar helps prevent the formation of gluten which makes for a tough crust.

It's best to chill your dough in the refrigerator for the entire recommended time.

Most recipes recommend chilling cookie dough for several hours in the refrigerator, but the good news is that you can use your freezer in a pinch. Better Homes and Gardens says that you can freeze cookie dough for one-fourth of the recommended refrigeration time with good results.

It is much better to freeze pumpkin and fruit pies before baking rather than after. The texture of pies suffers substantially if frozen after baking. If you freeze pies after baking them, thaw them at room temperature for about three hours and then crisp them in a 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 20 minutes.

What's the solution? Once you bring the dough out of the cooler, keep it covered to prevent drying and let it temper at room temperature for upwards of 2½ hours or until the dough ball temperature reaches 50°F.

Do you refrigerate dough before or after it rises? ›

You can chill your dough during either the first or second rise. Your yeast won't give you much love if it's asked to do both rises in the fridge, so it's best to do one or the other at room temperature.

Chilling the dough will slow down the yeast activity, but it doesn't stop it completely. After kneading, put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

"If it's not refrigerated, it will begin to wilt, sweat, and spoil," explained Stephens and Wickenden. For the best results, you should wait and top fruit and pecan pies right before serving. This will allow you to store them at room temperature so they'll taste their very best.

Pie doughs fail when they come out tough, not tender and flaky. Usually due to overworking, this can happen either during the initial mixing or during rolling and shaping.

Brush Your Pie in Egg Wash. Once you've pre-baked your pie, brush the bottom and sides of the crust with egg wash, then reheat at 400° for 4 minutes to set the glaze. This creates a seal between the crust and the filling so that your crust stays crispy and golden once the filling is added.

Poking holes allows steam to escape

Air bubbles can also lead to cracks, and cracks inevitably lead to leaks. Therefore, for a level, leak-proof crust, a perforated crust is key. If, however, the recipe you're working with has a particularly liquidy filling, poking the bottom isn't a necessary step.

The Pie Crust Takeaways

Butter made a tastier, flakier, sturdier crust by far. This isn't to say that shortening and lard aren't useful ingredients. Shortening is a great way to get incredibly tender desserts.

The simple answer is, typically, no. My homemade recipe noted above has more than enough fat in it to keep it from sticking. If you are using a storebought pie crust, I would recommend giving your pan a light spritz of cooking spray or brush with a little softened butter- don't do it on either.

stick the dough in a Ziplock bag, removing all of the air, then place in an ice water bath and stick the whole thing in the fridge.

If a pie contains eggs or dairy products, it should be stored in the refrigerator and not left out at room temperature for more than two hours. Pies that do not contain dairy products, such as fruit pies can be stored, loosely covered at room temperature for up to two days.

Can you get food poisoning from undercooked pie crust? ›

You can get sick if you eat unbaked dough or batter made with flour containing germs. Germs are killed only when flour is baked or cooked. CDC investigated outbreaks of E. coli infections linked to raw flour or cake mix in 2016, 2019, and 2021.

Chill the cookie dough.

Chilling cookie dough helps prevent spreading. The colder the dough, the less the cookies will over-spread into greasy puddles. You'll have thicker, sturdier, and more solid cookies.

What pies don't have to be refrigerated? Fruit pies like homemade apple pie, cherry pie, and strawberry pie can be left out at room temperature for up to two days. If you want them to last longer, stick them in the fridge where they'll stay fresh for about a week.

Make Sure Pies are Safe After Cooking

Cool them at room temperature for only 30 minutes after you take them out of the oven. Put them in the refrigerator to complete cooling and to keep them cold. Keep pies in the refrigerator at 41°F or colder, except during the time they are being served.

Custard and cream pies, and any pies containing eggs and dairy. Cover with plastic wrap as soon as they're cool and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Fruit-filled pies. Storable at room temp for up to 2 days, then refrigerate for up to 2 days.

No, Any hot food should be brought to room temperature before refrigerating. The extremely hot pie will increase the temperature inside the refrigerator and put the other food inside in risk of spoiling. A hot glass or ceramic pie plate can easily shatter in the cold temperatures.

This process takes time. Because pie filling is so saturated with sugar, it's able to reach temperatures well above the boiling point of water, and even with a fan directed at your pie, cool air takes a long time to draw down the temperature of a dense, piping hot, well-insulated mass of pie.

Over-processing at this point won't ruin your dough but it will take you toward a crumbly, sandier dough. Leaving irregular pieces of butter in the mix will help create flaky layers during baking. Almost every pie dough recipe calls for too little liquid to bring it together.

Your crust is too tough.

If your pie crust is tough instead of tender and flaky, you probably either overworked the dough or added too much water to it. There's not much to do in this situation but plate up a slice and throw on a scoop of ice cream. Don't sweat it: You'll do better next time.

Bake: Bake until the edges of the crust are starting to brown and appear set, about 15–16 minutes. Remove pie from the oven and carefully lift the parchment paper (with the weights) out of the pie. With a fork, prick holes all over the bottom crust. Return the pie crust to the oven.