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Baking trials: From metal to glass to ceramic, how does your pie pan affect your crust?

Baking trials: From metal to glass to ceramic, how does your pie pan affect your crust?

By: RedmanShop | February 7, 2025

Choosing the best pan for the best pie.

Baking is often about choices, and sometimes those choices can help you dial in your ideal bake. From selecting a certain cocoa for your chocolate cake to finding the cupcake decoration that feels both beautiful and achievable, bakers have a lot of agency beyond the strict confines of a recipe.

Can baking in a specific type of pan help you achieve a perfectly browned bottom, crispy and golden and not the least bit soggy? Let’s find out.

A general overview of baking pan materials

The biggest distinction between pans is heat transfer. Metal conducts heat the most efficiently — in other words, it gets hot the quickest and transfers heat evenly across the pan’s surface — which is why many professionals choose aluminum pans. (Another benefit: Metal pans withstand rapid temperature changes, meaning you can take your pie plate from the fridge to the oven without worrying about shattering.)

Glass, on the other hand, is an insulator. Because glass slows the flow of heat between the oven’s air and your dough, it takes more time to heat up than metal — meaning your dough takes longer to heat too. But once it’s hot, it retains that heat well, and it stays hot for longer than metal. For pie, there’s one more bonus: The clear material means you can visibly check how brown your crust is getting.

Ceramic pie pans are usually either stoneware or porcelain, and they can vary based on the material and how it’s made. They can also vary in thickness and thus heat transfer, so ultimate performance depends on which brand or maker you’re baking with. Overall, though, they tend to be slower to transfer heat than more efficient metal pans, though they retain heat well.

Putting the pie pans to the test

How these properties affect your baking often depends on the recipe you’re making. In pie, this primarily applies to the bottom crust. The ideal is a crust that cooks quickly and completely, even in a pie with juicy or liquid fillings. Let’s see how Easy Fall Mini Pies made with All-Butter Pie Crust and baked in metal, glass, and ceramic pie plates compare.

Note: Some crusts — notably those with added sugar — will naturally brown better, regardless of pan type. Again, there are always many factors to balance when baking!

The biggest takeaway

Though there were some slight variations among the pans (more below!), all of these pies ultimately turned out well. Their crusts mostly browned, and none were distressingly underbaked. This means that, no matter what kind of pan you currently have in your cupboard, you can still make good pie worthy of serving to friends and family.

Pie made in a metal pan

Of the three pies, the metal pan had the most even browning across the entire bottom crust. From the outer edge to the very center, the crust was golden brown and thoroughly baked. If I had my choice of pans, I’d go with an aluminum one like this.

Pie made in a ceramic pan

While the ceramic-baked* crust was far from soggy, it had the least even browning of the three pies. The center of the pie was pale and slightly underbaked, which wasn’t ideal, while the outer edge had a nice deep brown color.

Pie made in a glass pan

The glass pan resulted in a bottom crust that was somewhat evenly browned, though there was more variance than the metal pan: The center was paler than the outer edge of the crust. That said, the glass-baked crust was darker than the metal-baked crust, which makes sense — glass retains heat longer than metal, so the crust was able to bake further. This is where being able to check your crust color using the clear material comes in handy, especially for fruit pies like apple that can bake for a long time without the filling being adversely affected.

A final trick for perfectly browned crust

More specifically, bake them on a preheated pizza stone or baking steel, which blasts the bottom with a big burst of heat to help the crust set before wet fillings can soak in and make them gummy. Using a metal pan is crucial, though, since it can withstand rapid temperature changes that glass or ceramic pans can’t.

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Butter vs shortening in pie crust

Butter vs shortening in pie crust

By: RedmanShop | February 7, 2025

Pie crust — gotta love it, right?

Flaky and tender when you nail it, tough as rawhide when you don’t, pie crust divides all of us bakers into definitive categories: those who succeed; those who fail, but keep trying; and those who buy Mrs. Smith’s.

Why is pie crust so tough — often literally? Well, it’s all about the fat, the water, and the flour. Three simple ingredients that, together, can create a masterpiece — or mayhem.

Butter vs. shortening in pie crust: the flour

Flour does make a difference, but not as much as you might think. A lower-protein pastry flour will inherently make a more tender crust (and will also be a bit more fragile when you’re rolling it out).

Truthfully, I use our all-purpose flour in my pie crust; I have to be careful not to work it too hard once the water is added (for fear of developing its gluten), but for me, it offers an ideal blend of good results and ease of handling.

The liquid

Make it ice water. Simple enough, right? Sure, you can use milk, add an egg, and try other types of liquid, but water produces reliably good results — so why not? Ah, now comes the ingredient that arguably makes or breaks a pie crust, and also creates the most debate:

The Fat

Your grandma used lard. Your mom used shortening. You use butter. Are all fats created equal?

I decided to find out.

First thing I did was rule out lard. NOT BECAUSE IT’S NOT A PERFECTLY GOOD FAT AND CAPABLE OF MAKING WONDROUSLY TASTY PIE CRUST. After all, our ancestors made lard-crust pies for centuries and, like lard-fried doughnuts, they were delicious.

I’m ruling out lard simply because good, fresh lard isn’t as universally available as shortening and butter. So if you love lard, and have a good supplier – stick with it.

But if butter and vegetable shortening are your choices, read on.

For years, I’ve alternated between two favorite recipes: Gluten-Free Crustless Pumpkin Pie, a crust made with both shortening and butter; and All-Butter Pie Crust.

One Thanksgiving I’d go with an all-butter crust for my Cranberry Hand Pies​; the next, I’d make my Easy Fall Mini Pies with the shortening/butter clone.

But never had I made both crusts in tandem, and done a side-by-side comparison. Which was flakier? Which tasted better?

Butter makes a lighter crust

I made an amazing discovery (amazing to me; we pie geeks are easily amazed): something I’d always believed to be true was absolutely, categorically, without a doubt not true at all.

I’d always told people that a shortening/butter pie crust would have better texture than an all-butter crust, due to shortening’s higher melting point. Why?

Fat keeps the layers of flour/water “matrix” separated as the pie bakes; the longer fat is present in its solid form (score one for shortening, with its high melting point), the more flakes will form, the more tender/flakier the crust will be.

Now, that may be true. I didn’t actually count the number of flaky layers in each crust.

But one thing was abundantly clear: the all-butter crust (above left) made a lighter crust, with more defined flakes than the butter/shortening combination (above right).

I was totally puzzled until it dawned on me: butter contains more water than shortening.

As the crust bakes, that water is converted to steam, puffing up the crust (and its flakes) like someone blowing up a balloon.

Each fat adds its own distinct flavor

And flavor? The all-butter crust tasted — well, buttery, of course. The butter/shortening crust (which was, by the way, just as tender and flaky as the butter crust, but without its light texture) tasted a bit like butter, and a bit like pie crust — that indefinable something that tells your taste buds, yes, I’m eating a piece of pie.

Both were good — just different. And one of the chief differences was looks: the butter crust produced a very ill-defined edge. My careful fluting basically went up in smoke (er, steam).

So if you’re after looks, stick with the butter/shortening combination (or all shortening). If looks don’t matter to you, I’d go with the all-butter crust.

What about substituting vodka for water?

While I was at it, I decided to test the famous Cook’s Illustrated secret to tender, flaky pie crust: using vodka in place of half the water in the crust.

The theory is that vodka, being alcohol rather than water, will develop flour’s gluten less than plain water, thus creating a more tender crust.

The verdict? I couldn’t discern any difference in the flakiness/tenderness of the vodka vs. non-vodka crusts.

But the vodka crust rolled out more easily; with its silken, smooth texture, it was a pleasure to work with.

So would I add vodka to pie crust? Sure. I think I’ll even keep a little bottle in the fridge, so it’s handy for pie crust or a gimlet — whichever comes first!

OK, I’ve given you a map. And here you stand at the crossroads, ready to make a decision on the butter vs. shortening in pie crust debate.

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How to make the best pie crust

How to make the best pie crust

By: RedmanShop | February 7, 2025

Four critical ingredients and a few key techniques.

Do you suffer from pie crust phobia? If so, you’re not alone; plenty of otherwise confident bakers find themselves furtively hustling a ready-made crust out of the supermarket freezer case into their shopping cart. But life doesn’t have to be that way; you can make the best pie crust ever by following these simple steps:

  1. Choose a good recipe
  2. Start with the right ingredients
  3. Learn a few basic techniques

What I want to emphasize here is the importance of your ingredients: specifically flour, salt, fat, and liquid. Choosing those four ingredients wisely will lead to consistently great pie crust.

1. Flour: It’s all about protein

What kind of flour makes the best pie crust? Well, not high-protein bread flour! Use that for your chewy bagels. What you want for pie is flour that yields a tender, flaky crust, which means medium-protein all-purpose flour or low-protein pastry flour.

What does protein have to do with it?

When you add water to flour some of its protein turns into gluten, an elastic substance that gives baked goods the structure they need to hold together (and to rise when appropriate). The higher the protein level, the stronger the structure.

Strong structure in yeast bread translates to high-rising; but in pie crust, strong structure can be perceived as tough — the last attribute you want applied to your apple pie. So stick to flour with a medium-to-low percentage of protein, which means all-purpose flour (11.7% protein), pastry flour blend (10.3%), or pastry flour (8.0%).

Does the flour with the lowest protein make the best pie crust?

Not necessarily. Yes, you can make tender, flaky pie crust with pastry flour. But it can be a bit of a challenge, particularly for those uncertain of their pie crust skills. Pastry flour pie crust is harder to roll without cracking, and it can split apart at the seams while the pie is baking.

That’s why I choose all-purpose flour for my pie crust. The dough is easier to roll out and move around and, despite its slightly higher protein, the crust is wonderfully flaky. In my book, the ease of an all-purpose flour crust trumps the marginal added tenderness of a pastry flour crust.

2. Salt: Critical for flavour

Salt adds flavor to pie crust. Leave out the salt and, unless you’re used to following a salt-free diet, the crust will taste like cardboard.

I find that when using unsalted butter and/or shortening in your crust, about 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of flour is just perfect. If you’re using salted butter, reduce the amount of added salt in your crust by 1/4 teaspoon for each 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) of butter in the recipe.

Since pie crust dough has very little liquid, choose table salt or fine salt. Their finer crystals will disperse more evenly throughout the dough despite the lack of water to dissolve them.

3. Fat: Choose your favourite

Some people love lard in pie crust. Others use liquid vegetable oil. There are those who swear by their grandma’s Crisco crust — and other bakers who eschew solid vegetable shortening for health reasons. Many people love an all-butter crust. And then there’s coconut oil … So many choices!

Butter is a major flavor enhancer, but its low melting point can be an issue. Shortening, with its higher melting point, adds stability to a baking pie crust.

If you have trouble with your crust slipping down the sides of the pan, or if your carefully fashioned crimp around the edge melts and puddles, blame butter. A combination of butter and shortening yields the best qualities of each: flavor and baking stability.

4. Liquid: The ultimate key to texture

As mentioned before, liquid + the protein in flour = gluten. And once that gluten forms, working it — by mixing the pie crust dough, then rolling it out — increases gluten’s strength and decreases the resulting crust’s tenderness.

The best pie crust is a perfect balance between fat, flour, and liquid. Too much fat and the crust may taste greasy and crumble as it bakes. Too much liquid can create extra gluten, leading to tough, chewy crust.

But strike just the right balance — sufficient fat for tenderness without greasiness, and just enough liquid to hold everything together — and you’ve struck pie crust gold.

Water, milk … vodka?

Some bakers use milk or buttermilk in their pie crust. Thanks to their milk solids, both will help crust brown and add a bit of tenderness. But the classic liquid in pie crust is water — ice water, to be precise.

Why ice water? Ice water keeps the bits of fat in the dough cold and intact (rather than melted and dispersed). This creates little pockets of fat that, as the pie bakes, gradually melt and form tiny caverns in the crust — which we describe as flakiness.

Vodka in pie crust has been a popular substitute for ice water in recent years. Why? It’s said that its lower percentage of water (alcohol is part water, part ethanol) means less gluten development, yielding a more tender crust.

In my experience this is partially true; using vodka in pie crust makes a soft, silky dough that’s lovely to roll out. But the resulting crust isn’t any more tender or flaky than an ice-water crust.

And crust whose liquid is 100% vodka can border on being too tender, since less of its gluten has been activated. An all-vodka crust (especially one made with higher-proof vodka) can occasionally fall apart as you move it from countertop to pie pan.

“Add just enough liquid.” What’s just enough?

Less is more: The less liquid you add to pie crust dough (within reason), the more tender it will be.

When the vodka is thoroughly dispersed, I dribble in ice water just until the dough starts to come together. And I mean just enough water. Watch carefully as you stir; when the dough starts to clump, and you grab a handful and squeeze it and it doesn’t crumble into pieces, stop adding water.

Gather the dough into a ball. Divide it in half, and flatten each half into a hockey puck-like disk. That’s it. You’re done. You’ve just made the best pie crust for Cranberry Hand Pies, Gluten-Free Crustless Pumpkin Pie, Easy Fall Mini Pies.

How to make the best pie crust: your takeaways

  1. Use a reliable recipe.
  2. Choose all-purpose flour or pastry flour.
  3. Don’t skip or reduce the salt; it’s critical for flavor.
  4. Various types of fat work well; choose your favorite.
  5. Add just enough liquid to hold the dough together.

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