Pie Baking Tips

I just had a friend ask me for some crust tips so I thought I'd throw out a few random-but-helpful ones for home bakers:

-Try to manipulate your crust as little as possible. Seriously, the more you touch it, the tougher it gets. Doesn't matter with crumb crusts, however.

-If your crust is getting too dark while your filling is still cooking, cover the edges with foil.

-When making a custard pie, one easy way to tell if it's finished is to give it a delicate shake. The edges should be still, the very center should just jiggle.

-If you're serving whipping cream with a very sweet pie (like peanut butter), make it at home and leave out almost all of the sugar (just add a little vanilla) to balance out the sweetness.

-Use salted butter in crumb crusts- the salty/sweet combo is the best.

-If your crusts are turning out mushy, you might want to invest in a vented aluminum pie plate- it had little holes in the bottom- which makes an extra-crispy bottom crust.