You have to expect some degree of flattening out, since a major part of piecrust is shortening, and shortening melts when it's baked. If you're having a big problem, I'd guess one of two things--or both. Your dough needs to be really cold, so that the shape has a chance to set somewhat before the shortening starts to melt in the oven. Also, when you make the crimps, exaggerate them a bit--make them deeper than you want them to be once the pie is baked, to compensate for the settling effect.

Rolling pie dough: I always have success, and have followed the Joy of Cooking's basic pie dough recipe for decades -- I've successfully baked pies for 40+ years. The recipe calls for only the basics: cold butter, room temperature shortening (I use Crisco), all purpose flour, salt and 4-6 Tablespoons of cold water. That's it. Very simple and very traditional. The dough is NEVER chilled. Think about it: You want the butter and shortening to be soft and absorb/mix-in with the dry ingredients. Chilled fat will take a LOT of handling to get to that consistency, and increased handling results in tough pie crusts. That's why most of the recipes I've seen do not call for chilling the dough. I mix the flour, salt and butter together using a hand-held pastry blender -- See photo. It's a simple, basic pastry making tool that costs between $5 - $10. Very traditional, very tried & true. Sometimes I mix the butter in first, sometimes I mix the shortening. Whichever you choose to use, use the blender to mix the dry ingredients and butter/shortening until the crumbs look like peas. Then add either the butter or shortening and continue mixing with pastry blender until the ingredients look like cornmeal. You really will notice the difference. At that point, add the cold water 1 Tbs at a time, using a fork to lift and mix the ingredients together. While the recipe calls for 4-6 Tbs., I find that 4 Tbs works for me ....sometimes as much as 5. This has been true regardless of whether I've made pies in the dry, mountainous West, or the humid east coast. You'll add only enough water until you can get most of the dry ingredients to hold together in a ball. Assuming it's a 2-crust pie, I halve the pie dough and immediately begin working the first crust. I leave the rest of the pie dough in the bowl, uncovered, open to the air, at room temperature. I ALWAYS roll the dough on a pastry cloth, using a cheese cloth cover for the rolling pin. I use a 40 year old wooden rolling pin. Standard size and weight. Absolutely nothing fancy or unusual about it. The key to using a pastry cloth and cheese cloth cover for the rolling pin is that you will be able to roll out your pie dough and use MUCH less flour. All you need to do is lightly sprinkle a small amount of flour on the pastry cloth, roll the rolling pin over the top of the pastry cloth to get some of the flour on the pin, then begin to work the dough. I have granite counter tops in this house. Other houses have had Corian, wood and the old fashioned vinyl. The type of counter makes absolutely no difference in the quality of the crust. I promise! I anchor the pastry cloth with my body in the front and cannisters in the back, so that everything stays fairly quiet...but even it if moves a bit, that's not a problem. When rolling out your pie dough, work gently but quickly. Do NOT lean on the rolling pin. Merely lightly push the pin from the middle of the dough out in circles. You'll work around the dough. You'll have thick spots of dough and thin, and work the thick spots out...by gently rolling the pin over the dough. Don't lean on it or force it by brute force. More often than not my pie crusts are not perfect when they are rolled out. I like a thinner crust, so that means that I'll have some repair to do as I lay the crust in the pie pan, or lay the top crust on top of the filling. There is lots of room for forgiveness. If it's the bottom crust you're repairing, no one will ever know because it will be hidden by the filling. If it's the top crust, your cut-outs to allow the steam to escape the baking pie will camouflage that. The key is to ensure you have a solid bottom crust so that juice will not escape the pie crust, AND to ensure you have a large enough bottom crust that you can flute the edges of the pie. OR, a large enough top crust for fluting....I've done it both ways, and it just depends on what the crust gods decide that day. I hope these suggestions help. I assure you that once you understand what you're supposed to do, you'll be able to turn out consistently good pie crusts, with confidence and speed. Here is a link that might be useful:

I meant that low and slow doesn't work for me, reaction to the Serious Eats article. The crust doesn't come out "right", and it does at 425° F, so I just stick to that and haven't worked out why's and wherefores, but that's a wheat, butter, water, salt pastry. Jasdip, if you were talking about an egg dough crust, that could be entirely different--I don't know Nathan, but I just had a memory of you talking about liking an egg dough crust some time back. That would make me think even more that the shrinkage is a moisture issue. I've only made that GF one, and only once. It was for a quiche, and I remember what it looked like after I blind baked it, but I don't remember if I did it as usual or if I had some other tip in mind at the time. Thinking further... Since it works fine with filling, I still think the issue is that it's getting too dry. That would be a vote for a lower temperature... You didn't say the temperature you were using within the range. If it's been 420° F, maybe try 375° F...

All your pies look very good Lars, even the one you called ” the ugliest pie I ever made” I thought the trellis pastry worked out very well. I’ve tried to do this and it is definitely harder to do than it looks. All that folding back and threading through. I also have used many pie pastry recipes over the years. Now for pastry for say a small quiche, I just wing it. Plain flour in the bowl, some cold salted butter that looks enough and small amount of icey water. I rub in by hand which I find relaxing and can judge leaving some larger bits of butter. I add as little water as possible and knead as little as possible, just until it comes together. Then comes a break with tradition as I roll out now and put it into the pie dish and place the whole lot into the fridge to rest and firm up. I do this as I have mild arthritus in my shoulders and I find pushing a rollingpin through cold pastry a little hard. Usually seems to work out flakey and tender. One other thing I do is always cut out an outer circle of foil and place around the edge when either pre baking a shell or whole baking . Too many hard edge crusts in the past not to take this extra step.