I’ve developed and published dozens of pie recipes on my website, in addition to helpful tutorials on how to make successful pie crusts. Starting with how to make the BEST homemade buttery flaky pie crust, a perfect graham cracker crust, and how to par-bake pie crust; then moving on to more advanced skills like how to crimp and flute pie crust, how to lattice pie crust, how to braid pie crust, and other pie crust designs. All this recipe testing, photographing, and filming video tutorials means that I have made a LOT of pies! From fruit pies like apple pie, cherry pie, peach pie, and blueberry pie; to rich and smooth cream pies like French silk pie, pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, and cheesecake pie… With all of this pie-making practice (including recipe fails!), I’ve learned which kitchen tools are most helpful for making homemade pies. And I’m so happy to share it all with you.
Stock Your Kitchen With These 10 Pie Baking Tools
All of the pie baking tools in this list are items I own. I list 10 here, but some include more than 1 item. Use your best judgment on which items you would use based on my descriptions. None of this post is sponsored, and I’m not working with these brands; they’re truly just items I love and am happy to recommend to fellow home bakers. A lot of these links are affiliate links. One of the most essential pie baking tools is a quality pie dish. Though I also own ceramic and metal pie dishes, my preferred choice is glassware. Glass heats slowly, and this gradual heat is perfect to evenly cook pie, including the bottom of the crust, the filling, and the edges. You can also SEE the bottom of the crust browning, which is helpful for dishes with long bake times. This Pyrex pie dish has fluted rims, allowing you to crimp the edges of your crust with ease. It has thick glass and has never warped—even through my hundreds of pies! I also love my Emile Henry French Ceramic Ruffled Pie Dish because the pies are consistently gorgeous and so is the pie dish! However, ceramic pie dishes heat slowly and your pies may take longer to bake. Pie dough, biscuits, scones, streusel, and other delicious miracles are made with a pastry blender. It’s handy for breaking up cold fat into tiny little pieces among your other ingredients, without completely incorporating it. Cold butter bits = flaky dough. A metal pastry cutter keeps your butter cold where other tools (or your hands) might warm it, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish. You need a lot of arm muscle and twists of the wrist, and while you CAN use 2 forks for this, sometimes using forks to cut in hard cold butter just doesn’t… well, cut it. This pastry cutter has a soft non-slip grip and sturdy stainless steel blades that make the process a whole lot easier and quicker. Bonus: it’s dishwasher safe! I prefer doing this by hand, but if you’d rather use a food processor, I love this food processor. A rolling pin is an essential pie baking tool in any baker’s kitchen and it’s not only for pies. You use it to roll out dough for cut-out cookies, croissants, berry turnovers, cinnamon rolls, and even pizza dough. This particular wood rolling pin is long and sturdy, and has held up well through years of frequent use. A marble rolling pin is excellent, too. It’s cool to the touch, which makes it perfect for rolling out pie crust (which you want to keep cold). This one is beautiful enough to display—and it even comes with a stand to make that possible!
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If you don’t want to overstuff your kitchen gadget drawer, a simple pizza cutter also works well for cutting pie dough strips. You’ll also use a pastry brush to brush melted butter on dinner rolls, and buttermilk on biscuits; and when you make homemade caramel candies, homemade puff pastry, pastry braids, biscotti, scones, croissant bread, berry cobbler… the list goes on! I have both types of pastry brushes, but I really like this silicone brush because it can go in the dishwasher. You can also make a pie crust shield out of aluminum foil, and here’s how: Take a piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half. Cut out a half circle. When you open it back up, you’ll have a square of foil with a circle cut out of the center. Here’s why pie weights are needed when baking pie crust without a filling: As the pie dough bakes, the fat melts. And as the fat melts, it creates steam, which lifts up the dough. Steam is both good and bad. It creates all those delicious flaky layers, but it also causes the dough to puff up. If nothing is weighing it down, the bottom of the pie crust will puff up, then shrink down the sides of the pie dish. In my pie videos, you’ll typically see me rolling out pie dough right on my counter, but I’ll admit, things can get pretty messy in my kitchen on pie-baking days! A silicone mat can help cut down on kitchen cleanup. You can also use it to weigh the halves of your pie dough after you cut it in half, to make sure the 2 crusts are equal in size. But if you want something round, this 10-inch portable pie carrier looks like a great option, and comes with inserts for safely transporting eggs, cupcakes, and more.
Rolling Impression Pie Crust Cutter Fall Impression Pie Crust Cutters: For all your Thanksgiving pies! Hand Pie Molds: For apple hand pies and homemade brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts. Bench Scraper: Handy for scraping and lifting the dough off your work surface. Olivewood Pie Server Wood & Marble Cake Stand: Not just for pretty cakes!
If you’re looking for more baking-related gift ideas, check out 100+ Gifts for Bakers.
