Sure, we just had a thread about this a short time ago. The best way to ensure your crust doesn't "fall down" is to use pie weights, available at a lot of kitchen supply places.

If you don't want to spend that much money, just buy some dried beans, and be sure to label them as pie weights, because you won't be able to cook with them but you can reuse them countless times as pie weights.

Just put your crust into the pan. I cover mine with a piece of parchment paper but I know some others don't. Fill the pie plate with your beans and bake away. When the crust is cool, pour out the beans and you're ready for your next pie.

Good luck!

Annie

Instead of parchment, I use aluminum foil, and I butter the side that will go next to the crust. I use pea gravel for pie weights, and I washed it thoroughly before I started using it, but you can also use pennies. I cover the top edge with the foil, bake the crust for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and foil, prick the bottom of the crust, and bake it 18-20 minutes more at 350 to get it brown. Polished river rocks work well for pie weights also.

Lars

I use a fusion of Lars and Annie's methods. I use foil, not buttered (no self-respecting pastry will stick), and some wheat berries. I went to a shop that sells grains by the pound and chose the least expensive which on that day was wheat berries. The berries go into the foil-lined crust. Afterwards, they are poured back into a jar to be used again.

For your pie weights you want something that will keep the crust in place, but not so heavy it will tear the foil or paper.

Cheryl

Cheryl, I have some foil that is non-stick on one side - I should probably be using that, but I forget that I have it. I got the idea to butter the foil from Ina Garten, and I have not tried it without yet.

Lars

I have some foil that is non-stick on one side.

Wow. Where does one find that?

Reynolds Release, in the grocery store. It's great.

Lars,

Why not give it a shot? I never butter the foil when I blind bake a crust, and I never butter the pie pan. I've never had a pastry crust stick, there's just too much fat in the dough. Sometimes I get a few crumbs of pastry on the foil when I lift it out, but nothing to make me worry.

Cheryl

These are all good suggestions, but as I mentioned in the last falling pie crust thread, the more important thing is that you never STRETCH the crust as you put it in the pan. You have to ease it in, sort of 'pushing' it down the side, so that it's not stretched. If it's stretched at all, it will contract on itself during baking and pull the sides down, no matter how many beans, peas, river rocks or wheat berries you fill it with. The weights are more to avoid having the crust puff up during baking.

If you combine that tip with the weights, you should be fine.

I have this problem a lot too. My last crust came out okay, but I chilled the unrolled crust overnight. I don't know if that was the trick. Mine often shrink down the sides despite the pile of beans in the bottom.

IMO, the parchment paper helps keep the crust in place, instead of sliding down the side of the pan. I also avoid rolling the crust too thinly, as I find that a thicker crust doesn't "slide" as much.

I've never paid any attention to whether I'm stretching the pastry, I just lift it up and plop it in. Hmmmm. Now I'm going to have to make notes...

Annie

I just saw this tutorial on making pie crusts. She specifically said to :Freeze the crust it for at least a half hour, until chilled. This is an important step in pre-baking. Otherwise the crust will slip down the sides."

Here is a link that might be useful: Perfect Pie Crust

I use soy beans and black eyed peas for pie weights (like jadeite, they were cheapest on the days I went to buy them :-) ). The black eyed peas must be about 25 years old and the soy beans about 20. They have been used so many times they are as dry and hard as rocks :-) I also never butter the pan or foil, but my pastry has a fair amount of butter in it.

The last time I made pie crust, and I think it was my falling crust post, that one slide down too. I was careful not to stretch it. I pricked it good too, but still, it didn't come out like it should. I ended up throwing it out and using the stuff in the box.

Annie, do I completely fill the crust with beans?

Tami

Tami, I do fill mine pretty full, nearly to the rim. It's a glass Pyrex pan, but not a deep dish.

I learn something new all the time, I've never refrigerated or frozen my crust before blind baking them, but that's sure worth a try!

Annie

Annie, the last pie crust I made was never chilled, and it was room temp when I put it into the oven, and it did not shrink or slide down the sides at all! It might depend on the recipe, however, but not all recipes require that the dough be chilled before baking. From my experience, chilling does not help, but it doesn't hurt, except that it makes the baking time longer. I like to chill the dough before I roll it out because that makes it easier for me not to roll it too thin, but it does not affect how it acts in the oven. The last pie crust I made was pate sucree for my tart.

Lars

She specifically said to :Freeze the crust it for at least a half hour, until chilled. This is an important step in pre-baking. Otherwise the crust will slip down the sides.
But that is not correct.

Azzalea and the others have it right.

Why does crust fall down? Several reasons. First, the butter that was stiff from being chilled or frozen, becomes soft and starts to melt. Take a stick of wrapped butter out of the freezer and hold it up. Set it on a hot windowsill for about 30 minutes and see what happens. It will slide out of the wrapper and down your hand. That's what happens in the oven. Whether you chill first or not, once you start cooking the butter will get hot.

Then there's the water evaporation. As water evaporates, the dry ingredients shrink together. That's the principle behind drywall mud that they use for taping your drywall.

And then there's the issue of the proteins in the flour that you've stretched out.

If there's any stretch or tension left in the dough, it will pull itself together. So you need to roll the dough out a lot bigger than your pan and then kind of work your way around and let it get as tight as it wants to before putting it in the pan. Once it's in, make sure you haven't stretched it, but help it relax again. Then, when the butter starts melting and the water evaporating, the proteins won't tighten up and pull the dough back.

Also, you might want to figure a way to "hook" it over the lip of the pan. If you have a beautiful rim, that may be difficult, but you can kind of mush it down ever so slightly so it won't pull back.

And then the weights and things will keep it from puffing up too much.

Where this is a big issue isn't so much with pie crusts, as those are fairly easy to keep from shrinking, but in those French tart pans with straight sides. It's next to impossible to keep dough from sliding straight down.

I never have this issue if the crust is larger than the pan/dish. I always let it hang over the edge. You can always break it off later.

Well, maybe my secret to never having a pie crust fall is that I make the ugliest pies on earth. I'm such a klutz when it comes to shaping the rim of a pit crust, that I just do the best I can, and hope people like the taste whether they like the appearance or not.

Having said that, I realize I don't remember ever making a single crust pie, just double crust. That might have something to do with it, too.

DH, who does make single crust pies, uses rock salt as his pie weights. I don't know what he uses between the crust and the salt.

Sally

I have followed your advice exactly and I still have a problem The crust ( Edge ) is about 1cm lower after it is cooked

Sounds like you might be stretching your dough when you put it into the pan. Try this:

Roll the dough. Be sure it is rolled out lager than the diameter of the pan plus twice the height of the pan. Do not stretch the dough as you roll.

Place in the pan. Some people roll it around the rolling pin to transfer it to the pan, but I fold it lightly into quarters without actually creasing it. Place the point in the centre of the pan and unfold it. Smooth it into the pan, pressing it into the part where the base meets the sides, and smooth up the sides without stretching the dough. Finish the top edge as you wish. Chill in the refrigerator at least half an hour.

Remove from the refrigerator and line with a large sheet of foil, smoothing the foil across the bottom and up the sides. Fill with dried beans, rice or similar (much cheaper than pie weights :-). Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes then lift out the foil and beans, gathering together the four corners of the foil to hold the beans in place as you remove them. Bake a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is golden.