Written by Maureen Murphy & Sarah Palmer When it comes to baking a pie, mastering the crust is key! While you can purchase pre-made pie crusts in the dairy & frozen section of our stores, making a pie crust from scratch will make your pie the star of the dessert table!  Below are some tried & true tips to help get you started!  

• Your butter & water must be cold; even frozen butter works as long as you cut it into cubes before freezing
• Measure ingredients carefully to prevent a tough, greasy or soggy crust
• Cut the fat into the flour just until the size of peas (use a fork or pastry blender)
• Handle pie dough as little as possible to ensure a flaky and tender crust
• Chill pie dough for several hours to tenderize the dough, and prevent shrinkage during baking
• Allow the dough to come to room temperature before rolling
• Roll dough from the center out to a 1/8̋ thickness or less
• To place the pie crust in the pie pan, carefully loosen it from the cutting board; fold it over the rolling pin. Unroll it into the pan and press down lightly
• Trim any excess dough, leaving approximately ½ ̋ for fluting the edge
• Flute the edge by pinching dough between the thumb and forefinger or seal the edge by pressing the dough with a fork against the rim of the pie pan
• When baking a crust without the filling, prick the dough with a fork and place dry beans or rice in the bottom to prevent shrinkage while baking. Bake in a preheated 450°F oven for 10 -12 minutes or until lightly browned.
• For the crust to be baked with a filling, do not prick the crust. For pies with juicy fillings, brush the bottom of the crust with egg white or melted butter to prevent a soggy crust.
• For pies that bake more than 30 minutes, place a rim of foil around the edge of the crust during the first half of baking to prevent over-browning

  Now that your pie crust skills are feeling confident, fill your crust with this delicious Chocolate-Pecan filling for a sweet pie your holiday guests will love! Chocolate Pecan Pie

• 2 PICS eggs
• 1 cup PICS sugar
• ½ cup Price Chopper flour
• ½ cup PICS butter, melted
• 1 T. PICS vanilla
• 1 cup PICS pecans, chopped
• 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 pastry shell, unbaked

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat eggs slightly in mixing bowl.  Blend in sugar, flour, butter and vanilla.  Stir in pecans and chocolate.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool and serve.  Serves 6-8. We’ve got your dessert table covered! On Thanksgiving Day, some people look forward to the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing the most.  But for the family members that are just counting down until the dessert table is set, we have all the sweetest sweets! Filling your dessert table with a delightful selection is easy as pie.  Along with cakes, cupcakes, and an array of other treats, our bakery has delicious gourmet pie and cream pie offerings..Let our pies be the star of your dessert table this year! Gourmet Pies

• Apple
• Apple Caramel Walnut
• Raspberry
• Very Berry

Cream Pies

• Chocolate
• Banana
• Coconut

And don’t forget the lemon lovers in the crowd!  Our decadent lemon supreme pie starts with a classic, flaky crust.  Then it’s filled with a layer of cheesecake and a layer of lemon filling and topped with real whipped cream.  Stop into Market Bistro or your local Price Chopper Bakery Department today and discover the very best pies for your dessert table! If you are looking for gourmet quality with a bake at home feel, stop by the in store bakery department where you can pick up any of our gourmet pies to bake at home. Your guests will be WOW’d when you pull these from your oven. Don’t worry, it can be our little secret 😉