The 5 Best Tips For Making Delicious Pies
It’s finally officially Fall, y’all! And you know it, it’s my favourite season of all. Not only because of the beautiful colours, the chillier weather and the super cute cosy jumpers. But also because it’s Pie Season. I know I know, it is ALWAYS pie season for me, but can you blame me? Pies are way too delicious. So, since I am the queen of pies among us, I wanted to share my best tips for making delicious pie.
Or, at least, share with you what I do and how I do it. Okay, let’s start.
Best Tips for Making Delicious Pie
NUMERO 1: INGREDIENTS QUALITY.
First and foremost, ingredients are a big part of making your pies taste delicious. Like with food or coffee, the higher the quality of your ingredients the better. This also means they may be more expensive. But that’s part of the reason why I wrote these best tips for making delicious pie.
What you don’t want to do is compromise on flavours. And why would you? We buy most of our ingredients from our local farmers’ market, which yes, it’s cheaper than buying at the supermarket, but the quality is way better. Butter from an actual farm will always taste a trillion times better than the one at the shops. And don’t get me started on fruits or veg!
Anyway, before I rant any longer on this, I would suggest finding a local farmers market where you can buy quality ingredients for your pies. If you are outside a big city you may also be able to buy unrefined flour from an actual miller. Cannot beat that, guys!
NUMERO 2: KEEP ‘EM CHILLED!
If not frozen! Yes, you heard me right! This is an essential tip for making perfectly delicious pies. If not THE best tips for making delicious pies.
When you are making pie, it is essential that you keep your crust as cold as possible. I would freeze it (unless you are going to be storing it), but before you work it, chill it for at least 2-4 hours. And after you have moulded your pie or your decorations, pop them in the fridge or even the freezer before baking. It helps to keep your pie nice and cold and you won’t have a soggy bottom. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.
And same goes for your sweet filling. I actually found out that I prefer to freeze my pie filling mix before baking it. The cornflour has time to soak into the fruits and lemon juice, and when baking it creates that jammy bubbling layer we all love.
For the savoury filling, well, make sure it’s 80% cooked ahead of baking. This is to ensure your chicken is a good grade of the cooked pink inside before you pop it in the oven. We don’t want to catch unwanted guests if you know what I mean.
Guys, I just made myself hungry. Let’s move on with these best tips for making delicious pie.
Numero 3: flavour combos.
Flavour is key for making perfectly delicious pies. What I mean is go wild but not too wild. The best tip for this is to check what spices & herbs can go with what fruits. For example, spices like allspice, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg complement most stone fruits. Peaches & plums go well with herbs like thyme & rosemary.
I like to use the Flavours Thesaurus, by Niki Segnit to double-check that I am not going out of track. Or simply going for flavour combinations that aren’t too weird.
Remember the Strawberry & Basil Pie I made last year? I wasn’t sure of it at first, but god was it tasty!
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RULE NUMERO 4 ON best tips for making delicious pie: DECOR & TOP CRUSTS
Okay okay, first of all, you can choose any type of crust you want for your pies. With some flavour combinations, I like to do an Oaty Crumble Topping, as we did in our Plum Pie. It adds texture and it can become a perfect breakfast pie – even though all pies are great at breakfast.
And in regards to double-crust pies, well: keep it simple. If it’s the first time you are decorating a pie, go for some simple leaves or a simple braid will do. As mentioned before, make sure you keep your dough and pre-cut decorations chilled at all times. And make sure you put them back in the fridge before you bake them.
Read those cooking books guys, because there are plenty of tips over there for crimping and decorations ideas. One account I love to get inspiration from is Jo Harrington or JoJoRomancer on Instagram. Her pies are perfection and even though she hasn’t posted in ages, I still scroll through her feed to check for ideas.
If you really want to go fancy, get yourself some small-sized cookie cutters. They do the perfect job and you can make beautifully decorated pies!
Don’t want any topping or top crust? No problem. Go crazy with your crust ideas. There are plenty of biscuits and cookies in the world to go crazy with. Remember when Simona baked the infamous Crack/Milkbar Pie™? The crust was made of salty oat cookies that juxtaposed the sweetness of the filling.
But most importantly, give yourself TIME…
The best tip for making perfectly delicious pie is to give yourself time.
It normally takes me around 1-2 full days to make a pie, unless it’s a savoury one and you can do it all on the same day. But schedule it ahead and plan your day around it. The crust needs to rest so you can do it the day before. The most time-consuming part of the pie is the crimping, so allow yourself time to make mistakes and re-rest the crust if you do.
The calmer you are the better your decorations!
So, I hope you find these useful and you are going to enjoy making all these delicious pies! Some more of our pie recipes are:
- Plum Streusel Pie
- Passion Fruit Meringue Pie
- Mince Pies
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Peach Hand Pies
- Buttermilk Pie
- Bourbon Mixed Berries Pie
Keep your eyes peeled for more pie recipes coming soon!
Pin the best tips for making delicious pie for later!
I’ve never made a pie before and now I am interested to see if I can haha. These are some great tips, gonna pin this since I never know, I might need it one day. Great post! xx
Oh my, I have not made pie from scratch but it looks so good! I take the easy way out and use pie crusts LOL! I love all these tips and will pin it for later xx
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
I’ve never made pie in my life but now you’ve got me wanting to make a fruity pie!
Corinne x
These are really good tips! I love a good pie but I’m ashamed to say I’ve never made them myself, I’ve always bough them from the shop! After reading this post, I have no reason not to try making my own with your fab tips!
Em x
earthlyem.co.uk
I do everything the express way so a pie is not in my cook book. Lol.
I have seen the one getting warm with hands and then refrigerating it to lower temperature. I didn’t know about peaches and plum with herbs I thought they would be well with cinnamon etc but great info there! Xx
Isa A. Blogger
https://www.lifestyleprism.com/
These are all such great tips, and I love the idea of using small cookie cutters for the top crust! Those really do make the best designs!!
Great tips! I have always LOVED pies but it’s not something that I have ever tackled myself from scratch. Not that I haven’t wanted to, but it almost seems intimidating lol! That being said, I am going to have a little more time after our upcoming move as I won’t have any of my usual evening activities or anything when we’re in the new town. It might be the perfect time to set aside a bit of time and give it a go… I’ll definitely take the tips that you shared here to heart.
I have never thought of freezing freshly made pastry before, the next time I make a pie I’ll definitely try this out. Pie season is the best, although I’m more of a savoury pie lover over sweet pies!x
Hello! I love this post and to be honest … I have never tried a pie before. I really need to try but it’s not a big thing in my family so I never bothered. Showing my mum these pie ideas for autumn. Thanks for sharing! Alicia
I have never made a pie by myself. I will definitely try making one following your tips.
I never knew that it was so essential to keep a pie crust as cool as possible, you learn something new every day! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Before I was a vegetarian, I loved a turkey or chicken homemade pie. Now I love to have feta and mushrooms, maybe with a bit of chard! Farmers market ingredients are definitely the best <3
I’ve only ever made savoury pies and they are ones that I start and finish in about two hours, but I’d love to do something like this at Christmas with a sweet filling. Make the crust ahead and freezing it, sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the tips 🙂
I’ve never actually made a pie before but ever since I saw Mr Groff make an apple pie on Sex Education I’ve been wanting to make one, haha! I’ll definitely refer back to this post if/when I do because these are really fab tips for beginners like me!
Absolutely yummy ☺️ Such a great post for this time of year. My family loves apple pie. I would have to make sure there are some dietary restrictions in making these. But I really love your tips.
Pastor Natalie
Letstakeamoment.com
These look so yummy! I think I’ve only made apple pie by scratch once, but I’d love to try other kinds. Pecan is definitely my favorite, but pumpkin and apple are great too. Getting quality ingredients is definitely a good idea, thank you for sharing!
Alexis
I’ve never made a dessert kind of pie but I really want to after reading this, so many delicious images!
My utmost favorite pie is the Pecan pie. I never give up an opportunity to try pecan pie when I come across them in a restaurant or bakery. But my favorite pecan pie is from Lords Bakery. Thanks for sharing these great pie tips. hopefully, I will finally make my own pecan pie.
I’ve been in the mood to bake some pies lately so thanks so much for these tips!
I haven’t baked a pie in the longest time so I think I needed this refresher as with Thanksgiving approaching I was planning on doing something pie-like! Thanks for these great tips!
Thank you, very informative post for the holidays! I saved on Pinterest. This is great for teaching me to make outstanding pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas!
What a useful and informative post, I love reading all of these tips!!
You definitely cannot beat a homemade pie! Yummy!
1-2 full days to make a pie? Wow, that’s some commitment and planning! But you’re absolutely right about the best quality ingredients – and I’m going to check out your Plum Streusel recipe shortly as I have about 3kg of plums waiting to be dealt with and I don’t need that much jam! x
Great tips! I have fallen victim to not giving myself enough time and you can really tell the difference in the end product. Happy Pie’ing!
Love this pie, and the tip, they are pretty helpful. Taking time for ourselves is important. Thank you for sharing!
Ooh I’ve never made a proper pie so this is a great post, thank you!
Yesss I knew you’d be coming through with a delicious pecan pie recipe this month and I am soooo excited about it!
Officially baking this at the weekend!
Rosie
Ooh I love a pie! My mum used to habe a bakery and make lots of pies. I think the only thing I remembered from back then was about keeping the crust cool. Great tips! I think I want to bake a pie now!
Loving these tips! I’m defiantly going to be making a couple of pies this autumn/winter so I’ll be taking these into consideration when I do. I love nothing more then having a warm pie on a cold night, it’s proper heart warming food isn’t it? Thank you so much for sharing lovelies! Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
I have personally always wanted to make my own pie. I haven’t yet and I really need to. These are awesome tips. I will definitely keep this post as reminder when I do make pies.