Pie Crust Basics

Check out these tips to help get you started:

• Bake refrigerated pie crusts in glass or dull-metal pie pans. Shiny pans prevent browning, and dark pans cause too much browning.
  
  
• Use the size pan called for in a recipe. Refrigerated pie crusts are designed for 8-inch or 9-inch pie pans and 10-inch tart pans.
  
  
• To keep the crust from overbrowning, cover the edges with strips of foil part way through the bake time.
  
  
• To keep a baked shell perfectly shaped, ease the dough into the pan without stretching it.
  
  
• If you stretch dough, it always wants to go back to its original shape, so it "slumps" down the side of the pan. Press the crust against the bottom and sides of the pan to anchor it to the pan.
  
  
• Store Pillsbury^® refrigerated pie crusts in the main part of the refrigerator (not on the door or in the vegetable crisper).
  
  
• Use the refrigerated pie crust before the "use by" date on the box. For longer storage (up to 2 months), freeze it before the "use by" date.
  
  
• Soften refrigerated pie crusts as directed on box before you use them.
  
  
• If you thaw a frozen pie crust, don't refreeze it. Bake the crust, freeze it and use it later for a filled one-crust baked shell recipe.