Soggy bottoms – they are the bane of every pie baker. Because who wants to spend hours toiling over a pie, only to discover, after slicing it, that it has a pale, flaky bottom crust instead of a crispy, golden brown crust?
To make sure this never happens to you, we asked our favorite expert pie bakers for their tips on how to prevent a soggy bottom.
But first: Why do pies end up soggy?
A soggy bottom crust happens when the moist filling of your pie sinks into the raw pie dough below before it has a chance to harden, causing it to become soggy and mushy. This is especially problematic for both fruit pie and custard fillings because they have a high moisture content.
To prevent that, you need to either create a barrier between the moist filling and the raw pie dough, or make sure the pie dough browns and sets before the filling has a chance to absorb it. Or both!
Here are the options bakers swear by:
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Bake in a metal pie pan
“I want one metal pie pan”, says Stacey Mei Yan Fong, author of 50 pies, 50 states. Because of their slim size and excellent heat conduction, “metal pie pans almost always guarantee an evenly baked pie.” (Learn more: From metal to glass to ceramic, how does your pie pan affect your crust?)
Cook your crust in advance
“Whenever possible, I pre-bake the crust“, says the cookbook author and famous baker Dorie Greenspan. “It's a really good way to keep the bottom fresh and tasty.” This works best with single-crust pies, such as Pecan pie, Pumpkin pieAND Chess pie.
Baker Keia Mastrianni i Milk glass pie in western North Carolina agrees: “I always advocate pre-baking a single pie crust, especially for custard-based pies. Pre-baking ensures against soggy bottoms during a low, slow bake, which is what custard pies require.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
Bake on a pizza stone
Pastry chef Susan Reid extols the virtues of baking your pies like pizza – in other words, baking them in a preheated baking stone. The blast of concentrated heat that the stone gives the pie ensures that the bottom crust sets before the liquid from the filling soaks up and makes it soft. Try this technique for pre-baked pie crusts and filled pies.
If you don't have a baking stone, follow Dorie's advice: “I put my pie plate on a Cooking sheet — catches the drips, but also helps concentrate the heat of the oven on the base of the pan.”
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Add frangipane to the bottom of your pie
Lining the bottom of your pie crust before adding the filling is a good tip for many bakers. Keia likes to use a thin layer frangipanewhich “adds a dynamic textural element to pies, but also acts as a practical barrier to excess fruit juices.”
King Arthur baker PJ Hamel also recommends almond paste for the lower part of apple piesit is rolled into a disk and placed in the crust before adding the apples.
Brush the bottom with egg white (or chocolate!)
This tip comes from Dorie, who says: “Brushing the pre-baked bottom crust with beaten egg white before filling the pie is helpful, as is brushing it with melted chocolate – both make drizzles good, one tastier than the other”. PJ especially recommends using melted chocolate when making pecan pie for a candy-inspired flavor pairing; brush melted chocolate on the bottom of the crust (whether pre-baked or not), let it cool and harden, then add the filling and bake.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
The tip everyone agrees on: Sprinkle the crust powder
Every baker I spoke to – Stacey, Dorie, Keia and PJ – recommended this simple tip: using crust powder. “Before adding the pie filling, mix together about a teaspoon of all-purpose flour and a teaspoon of granulated white sugar, then dust the mixture into the bottom of the pie crust,” recommends Stacey. “This mixture, affectionately called 'crust dust,' creates a nice moisture barrier between your filling and the crust itself.” Keia uses this most often with apple pies, but it will work with almost any fruit filling.
Variations of crust dust are also numerous. In her book, 20th Century Cafe Baking, Pastry chef Michelle Polzine suggests using fine cookie or cake crumb dust as a moisture barrier; she notes that you can use anything you have that can be harmonious in taste – ginger, vanilla wafers, short breadplain breadcrumbs (without spices), graham crackeretc.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
A bonus option for pumpkin pies: praline frosting
PJ likes to add a simple homemade praline spread to the bottom of it – crushed pecans, butter, brown sugar. pumpkin pie. Simply press it into the bottom of the crust before adding the cream filling. The result isn't just a pie without a moist bottom: The praline adds a nutty crunch, with hidden sugar at the bottom of each slice.
To make it, simply roll together 1/3 cup (37 g) toasted pecans, 1/3 cup (71 g) brown sugar, 2 tablespoons (28 g) softened or melted butter, and 1/ 8 teaspoons of salt in a blender or food processor. Spread the resulting paste on the bottom of your crust, then pour the filling and bake.
If you're gearing up for pie season, find a collection of helpful recipes on our site New Classics: The Thanksgiving Pie Collection.
And for more tips on finding the perfect pie, see our Kye Ameden walkthrough 4 Tips for Waterproof Pie Dough:
Cover picture (Fresh blueberry pie) by Rick Holbrook.
