13.3 Common Defects in Pastry and Pies and their Probable Causes

Tough Pastry

• High protein flour
• Substitution of an equal amount of butter or margarine for fat
• Insufficient fat
• Fat is not distributed well enough
• Too much water
• Uneven distribution of water, requiring more manipulation
• Over stirring after water is added
• Dough not rolled immediately
• Re-rolling
• Excess flour on the rolling board

Crumbly, Mealy (not flaky) Crust and//or Too Tender to Remove from Rolling Board

• Low protein flour
• Too much fat
• Fat too soft (warm) or melted
• Fat cut in too finely
• Too little water
• Under-mixing after water is added

Reduced flakiness, or flakes not separated

• Low protein flour
• Not enough water to provide steam
• Under-mixing
• Over-mixing

Excess shrinking or misshapen crust

• Dough stretched when shaping in pan
• Dough rolled to uneven thickness
• Excess re-rolling or patching dough

Puffing of a pie shell baked without filling

• Insufficient crust perforations

Crust too brown or browned very rapidly

• Rolled too thin
• Very dry

Uneven browning

• Dough rolled to uneven thickness
• Edges too high
• Pie placed too high or too low in the oven
• Pie placed too close to oven walls or to another pan
• Not enough filling

The crust doesn’t brown

• Too little fat
• Over-mixing
• Too much flour is used when rolling dough
• The crust is rolled too thick
• Wet dough 

Soaked lower crust*

• Shiny pie tin
• Filling allowed to stand in crust before baking
• Placing pie pan on foil or baking sheet
• Too low oven temperature
• Too short baking time
• Cold filling
• Custard pies:
  • Overcooked filling (syneresis)
• Two-crust fruit pies:
  • Fruit filling not thickened before baking
  • Insufficient vents
  • Break or tear in the bottom crust

* Suggestions to prevent soaked lower crust

• Use a high initial baking temperature
• Custard pies:
  • Brush crust with slightly beaten egg white and bake at high temperature for a few minutes to coagulate egg white
  • Use a filling with a high egg-to-milk ratio
  • Preheat milk for filling
  • Chill pie crust for 1 hour before filling
  • Partially pre-bake the crust before adding the filling
• Fruit pies:
  • Coat with melted butter

Top crust “tents”

• Inadequate vents in the top crust
• Fresh fruit was not packed firmly

Pie filling boils over

• Too much filling
• The top and bottom crusts are not sealed together well
• Insufficient thickening of filling
• Inadequate vents in the top crust
• Vents too close to the edge of the pie
• Oven shelf is not level
• Uneven thickness of the top crust
• Over-baking