Tips about pie and pie crusts

 

1. How to parbake a pie crust (eg for use with pumpkin pie, other cream pies): there is this excellent webpage and video (scroll down) 

2. To prevent pie crust from shrinking, use extra scraps of dough that are cut or shaped into arcs that are 1" thick and double them up on the unbaked pie crust's rim,  using water to help them adhere to the existing crust. See above video for more info.

3. Adding a bit of lard to the pie crust dough, instead of using all butter, will add flavor and flakiness.

4. To parbake a pie crust, and if you don't have pie weights, ATK suggests putting a piece of aluminum foil into the bottom of the crust, occasionally pressing down on it while the crust cooks, to reduce any puffing up of the crust's bottom.