Pie is a baked dish with a pastry crust and a sweet or savory filling. Pies are often baked in shallow pans with slanted sides. Common fillings include apples, berries, or other fruits; flavored custards; and meat stews.
Baking a pie.
A pie’s crust consists of wheat flour, water, and a large amount of fat. The fat is typically butter, vegetable shortening, lard, or a combination of these things. Some crust recipes include egg or vinegar, which tenderize the dough. Bakers often keep pea-sized lumps of fat in the pie dough, rather than mixing it in completely. The lumps of fat melt and spread out in the hot oven, creating a flaky, layered crust.
Some pies have only a bottom crust, which often must be blind baked (weighted down and prebaked) before the filling is added. Other pies have top crusts as well. Some pies have lattice tops made with overlapping strips of dough. Gaps or slits in the top crust let steam from the hot filling escape.
History.
The ancient Egyptians and Greeks may have developed the earliest forms of pie. Early pies had tough, hard crusts. These crusts functioned as serving containers, enabling the eater to handle the pie. Colonists brought pie recipes with them to America. The dish became deeply rooted in American culture.
See also Baking .
