Pies and Tarts Part 3 - Crust Shaping

To continue on with the series on Pies and Tarts, the next step after rolling out the dough will be to transfer the dough to the pie plate or tart pan.

There are several different ways to transfer dough to a pan. For sturdy doughs use any of the following methods:

Flip the dough over the rolling pin. Pick the whole dough piece off of the plastic and lay it into the pan.


OR
Flour the dough, fold it in quarters, and then transfer it to the pan and unfold it (can be used with pie or tart pans).

For tender doughs (usually doughs that have a lot of sugar in them):
Flip and flour both sides of the dough to make sure that it's not sticking to the plastic. Slide your hand under the bottom plastic (between the plastic and counter – not under the dough itself) and in one quick motion, upturn the dough onto the plate, and then loosen the dough and remove the plastic. Tender dough may break when you do this but should be very easy to squeeze back together.

Pie Crust Edges:
Before making the crust edge, the dough has to be trimmed. Scissors work great for this without tearing the dough. For most crust edges, I trim the dough to about 1/2-3/4-inch past the pan edge.

After this, most bakers turn the edge under, but I like to roll the dough up onto the rim. It makes for a nice sturdy edge which releases from the pan easily for serving.

The easiest edge is made by simply pressing down on the raised rim with the tines of a fork.

The most common edge is one you make with your thumb and index finger of one hand and the thumb of the other hand.

Your thumb should be in the space,
making the indentation, while the thumb
and forefinger are holding the dough
so that it can be shaped as you see it.

Another easy border is made by pressing a chopstick/handle, or other object into the dough rim at an angle, creating a rope-like border.

The checkerboard border is made by first making cuts in the dough rim every 1/2-inch.
Then push every other cut forward.

The last edge is the leaf edge. You'll need about 32 leaves to go around the whole 9-inch rim (depending on the size of the leaf and how you overlap them).

If your cutter doesn't have veins, you can use a sharp knife to put veins in.

Brush a portion of rim with egg white whisked with 1/2 teaspoon of water, and then place the leaf on the rim. Overlap the leaves slightly, and skew them, alternating left and right.

Tarts
Transfer the dough using one of the above techniques. Make sure that the dough is tightly pressed against the tart rim. Run a rolling pin over the top of the tart to cut off the excess dough. Press up on the dough on the sides of the tart so that the dough is just slightly higher than the rim.