Gordon Ramsay's Top Tip For Avoiding Burnt Pie Crust

Especially around the holidays, many Americans enjoy a good pie. Whether it's berry pie for July 4th, pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, or apple pie for Christmas, you want it to be perfect with a delicious filling and a flaky crust. Pie brings family and friends together, according to Food & Wine, and they're right.

However, if you've ever tried baking a pie, you know how easy it is to mess up. If you knead your crust too extensively, it stiffens. If your butter is too warm, it can make the crust chewy. If you aren't careful, you'll open your oven to a pie with burnt crust and undercooked filling. And no one wants that.

Fortunately, there are ways around these common mistakes. To save you some time and experimentation, a number of celeb chefs have shared their hacks for the perfect pie crust. So pay attention, because you don't want Gordon Ramsay to burst through your front door calling you an idiot sandwich. 

In a YouTube livestream, Gordon Ramsay shared with fans some of his favorite tricks for serving up a perfect holiday meal. And of course it isn't a holiday without some kind of pie. To achieve the perfect pie crust, Ramsay recommends cooking it separately on a baking sheet. Once your pie and its filling are cooked, you can garnish it with the crust, he says. This way your crust (which cooks much faster than the filling) will not burn. Of course, this hack only works for the top of your pie, but the top is the most problematic anyway.

According to a pie recipe on Ramsay's website, you should also be sure to score the crust before cooking. This will allow it to cook evenly. If you are short on time and don't want to bake the crust separately, try a pie shield. If you cover the crust and/or top of your pie with tin foil, it is much less likely to burn.