To make your best summer fruit pies, start here
These pie tools and ingredients will have you baking like a pro.
The best way to bake with summer fruit is to turn it into a pie. We have plenty of tips to nail your pie crust so it’s tender and flaky, but if you really want a failproof pie, our range of pie tools is here to ensure success and make the process easier. Think of these as your secret ingredients.
If you struggle with keeping your dough perfectly round, try this genius Pie Crust Bag. Put your dough inside, zip it up, and roll the dough out to the desired diameter. It takes out the guesswork and makes dough rolling so much easier.
This silicone mat will stay in place while you roll out your pie dough and is marked with handy diameter measurements, so it’s easy to roll out the right-sized shape.
This gorgeous stencil puts a picture-perfect pie within reach. Roll out your top crust, press the cutter firmly into the dough, like a cookie cutter, then transfer the crust to your pie. The stencil folds in half for easy storage.
There’s nothing worse than rolling out a beautiful pie dough only to have it stick to your work surface. This Giant Spatula can help with that. The thin edge slips easily under the edge of your crust, and it's large enough to seamlessly transfer a rolled out crust to the pie pan. For more helpful tips on how to transfer dough to pan, see our guide to transferring pie dough to the pan.
Runny fillings are the bane of fruit pie makers, so it’s imperative to use a thickener. We tested Instant Clearjel amongst other common pie thickeners, and it was the clear winner.
Fruit pie fillings often need a long bake time to thicken properly. But sometimes, that filling needs so much time that the crust can go from golden to burnt, so use this smart crust shield to keep it from over-browning during an extended stay in the oven. As someone who has used strips of aluminum foil to protect my pie crusts, this reusable silicone shield makes it much easier, and it fits multiple pan sizes.
Our Perfect Pie Pouch is optimized for prebaking crusts in every way: There’s four pounds worth of glazed pie weights (so they reach all the way to the top of your crust!), and they’re held in a drawstring silicone pouch with a perforated bottom to allow steam to escape. Once your crust is baked, just pull on the drawstring to lift the weights easily from the pan; plus, it’s easy to wash and endlessly reusable. With this tool, you won’t have any shrinking or slumping, just a perfectly golden crust — ready to make a stunning Fresh Blueberry Pie.
Milled to a finer texture than all-purpose flour, this silky-smooth flour is made with soft wheat for a lower protein content. What does that mean for your pie crust? Even more tenderness and flakier layers.
Every pie needs a finishing touch, and it should be a shower of Sparkling Sugar. It won’t melt or disappear into the dough; rather, it’ll add a pleasantly sweet crunch and welcome shimmer to your crusts.
Cover photo by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Sheila Jarnes