How To Remove Pie From Pan

Food52 is made up of an amazing community of people who are passionate about every aspect of food, including how to go information technology onto a plate and into their mouths. Recently, a customs member who shall remain anonymous queried the following:

"You have lots of articles about making pies and pie dough and fancy pie chaff things, but as far as I can tell accept never written an article on how to get pieces of your pie out of the %^#$-ing pie dish without massacring them."

Great question! Resident pie expert Erin McDowell has the respond.

So you've mastered your favorite pie chaff. You lot tin lattice like a boss. You've even braved the globe of deep dish pies. Merely yous still can't slice the damn matter to salve your life. Y'all, my pie-loving friend, are non alone. This is a common pie woe ailing all of u.s.a. who work for hours carefully mixing, chilling, rolling out, spooky, crimping, chilling (did we mention how much chilling goes on?!) and finally baking our perfect pies. Getting the perfect slice from a pie certainly doesn't come as easily as nailing the perfect slice of cake—only in that location are some handy tips and tricks that will get y'all slicing cleaner, prettier pieces of pie in no time.

Apply a modest, sharp, serrated knife.

Good pie dough is crisp and flaky, and such a crust isn't going to get cutting with a dull pocketknife. I opt for serrated knives, only non the big, hulking kind I use to cut bread. Instead, I like something slightly larger than a dent knife. The serrated edge allows me to saw through the summit crust (if applicable), without making besides much of a crumby mess and makes sure the bottom crust is fully sliced before I try to remove the slice.

The sample slice creates breathing room inside the pie plate. — The sample slice creates breathing room within the pie plate.

Take out a sample slice.

This is a play a joke on from the food stylist side of things. When I'm shooting pies, I never try to slice the whole pie correct from the go-go. Instead, I take a very small, skinny "sample slice" and remove it from the pan. When it comes to this piece, I don't care if I mess it upwardly—I only demand to purchase myself a piffling breathing room inside the pie plate. One time that piece is removed, I can see into the pie amend—is the filling firm or runny? Does the bottom crust look baked? Once I go an thought of what I'm dealing with, it becomes fifty-fifty easier to take a new, clean, dare I say "perfect" slice from the remainder of the pie. I showtime at ane of the already cut edges (you can make clean information technology upwards if needed), and then cutting as usual. This leads to a much higher success rate of pretty slices—plus I get to eat the sample slice.

Run your knife through a few times.

Are you sure you sliced all the way through? Did you make sure to cutting the lesser crust at the very tip of the piece? Running your knife through the piece lines a few times helps to make sure everything is really cutting (especially the base!), which tin can really help when it comes time to lift that slice out.

Make sure your bottom crust is thoroughly baked.

A lot of times, an underbaked lesser crust of a pie tin't support the weight of the filling, causing complanate slice disasters. To solve this, you lot can opt to par-broil your pie, or follow any of our tried and truthful tips for battling the dreaded soggy bottom. Try using a drinking glass pie plate—it's clear and you can actually check the bottom of your pie to see if it's aureate and brownish before y'all remove information technology from the oven. Or effort blistering your pie on a pizza stone or baking steel, which provides more direct heat to the base of the pie plate, encouraging better browning at the base.

Take annotation of your pan before you broil.

Short pans tin exist hard to become impressive slices out of—merely deep pans can be difficult to go along a looser filling intact once information technology's sliced. Also, pans with straighter sides tin can exist easier to remove from pie plates equally a solid slice than pies baked in a pan with steep sloping sides.

Absurd the pie completely.

This is the hardest 1—only all pies slice cleaner when fully cooled (or thoroughly chilled, for cream and refrigerator pies). Baked pies should exist cooled completely at room temperature, then sliced for the all-time expect. You can re-warm the piece itself past placing it on a parchment lined baking sheet, tenting the slice with foil, and reheating in a 300° F oven for 8-ten minutes. Common cold-set up pies, such as foam pies, water ice foam pies, or fridge pies, should exist thoroughly chilled before you attempt to slice them for best results.

Practice you have whatsoever secret pie-slicing tips? Share them with usa in the comments!