Excellent ready-made pie crusts (regular, chocolate and graham cracker) are available in most grocery stores. The mixes are also very good.

Roll pie crust in wax paper. Turn upside down over pie plate; roll off wax paper.

Put another pie plate on top of crust when baking pie shell so that it does not bubble up.

To prevent a deep-dish pie from bubbling over, turn a custard cup upside down in the center of the dish. Pour the fruit in; top with the crust. Cup also lifts the pastry so it won’t get soggy.

Two-crust pies should be frozen with no vents. They can be cut as soon as the pie thaws as it is baking.

Try adding a little cheese to the crust of an apple pie.

A nice pie shell can be made by mixing 1 1/ 2 cups gingersnap crumbs with 6 tbs butter and a bit of 10x sugar. Chill 1 hour before serving. Also try Oreo cookies (18 cookies plus 4 tbs butter) or vanilla wafers for and interesting variation.

Pies will be brown and glossy if brushed with milk before baking.

Never use all butter in pastries – it will be tough.

To measure shortening, fill cup with warm water less the amount desired. Add shortening. Pour out water.

Too much moisture in pastry dough will make it tough and the pie will steam instead of bake.

Custard-based pies (pumpkin, too) may be made ahead and frozen unbaked. A frozen 8″ pie will bake in 1 hour at 400 degrees.

Always remove refrigerator pies from the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving to remove the chill from the crust.

To prevent fresh pared apples from discoloring, submerge them about 1 minute in cold water with a little lemon juice added to it.

For perfect non-weeping meringue on your pie, use 3 egg whites, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, 3 tbs sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Beat eggs at room temperature with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar until stiff and glossy. Put meringue on pie and seal all edges. Cool away from drafts after cooking about 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees. If you want an extra high meringue, add 1/2 tsp baking powder along with the cream of tartar.