How Can I Prevent My Pie From Having A Soggy Bottom?

Our answer

Nigella's Basic Shortcrust (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) is a classic shortcust pie dough recipe. The recipe uses a combination of lard for flakiness and butter for flavour. It is not unusual for margarine to be used instead of butter, though we would suggest a hard block type of margarine rather than a soft, spreadable type. You should use the minimum amount of water possible to bind the dough together. However, a damp dough usually means a tougher pastry that shrinks, rather than a soggy pie crust.

We suspect the soggy bottom is being caused by juices from the apples in the pie, rather than the shortcrust recipe itself. Even with semolina in the bottom of the pie, to soak up the juices, there is still a risk that the juices will seep into the base. We would suggest precooking the filling, as Nigella does in her Gluten-Free Apple And Blackberry Pie. You can thicken the juices with some cornflour and even strain most of the juice off and serve it separately alongside the pie if there is a lot of juice. The type of pie dish used can also affect the bottom crust and a metal pie dish heats up more quickly and will cook the base more thoroughly than a ceramic one or use a heatproof glass dish, which lets you see how well the bottom crust has cooked (look for a golden brown colour). Finally, put a metal baking sheet into the oven when you turn it on and let it heat up, then put the pie dish directly onto the hot sheet. This will give a little extra initial boost of heat to the base.