Pie Debates - The Experts Weigh In - NYTimes.com The Right Pie Pan There are many types of pie pans out there - glass, metal, ceramic - and even more ideas about which is best. There are theories. There are facts. But perhaps most important, there are personal preferences. And for Nick Malgieri, a cookbook author and the director of baking programs at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, the answer is oven-safe glass. "People have a misconception that because glass is a poor conductor of heat it doesn't make a good pie pan," he said. But in my many decades of baking, I've found that not to be the case. Although metal pans conduct heat better, glass more than makes up for that because it is clear, so radiant energy can pass through the pan and help the crust bake. Metal and ceramic pans impede this. That means that although glass takes slightly longer to reach the same temperature as the oven, it cooks crusts faster and darker. This is why many cookbooks suggest lowering the oven temperature by 25 degrees when using glass, so the filling can catch up. The downside with glass, Mr. Malgieri conceded, is that it's more slippery than metal, making it easier for crusts to shrink and slouch, even when secured with pie weights. His solution: Add a touch of baking powder to the dough. It helps the crust expand into the pie plate, he said, which is good no matter what your pie pan is made of. Mr. Malgieri's priority is control. "I like glass because I hate guesswork," he said. I like to see I'm getting the color I want. But, he quickly added, you can make a great crust in any pan "as long as you start with a good dough." So how to choose a pan? If you want more control and don't mind a little shrinking (or if you are comfortable experimenting with baking powder), go with glass. If you would rather give up control of the color for a neater shape without altering your dough recipe, choose metal. Ceramic pans make the prettiest presentation, though they are the slowest to bake. Maybe the better question is: what is your pie priority? - MELISSA CLARK The Pre-Baking Dilemma Should you, or should you not, bake a pie crust before you slip the filling into it? The question stirs up such a quandary that Dorie Greenspan, a prominent cookbook author and one of the owners of a newly hatched New York cookie company called Beurre and Sel, can't quite figure out how to answer it. "This is a big issue," she said. It's huge. This is really a problem issue. Purely from the standpoint of flavor and color and texture, the simple answer is yes: pre-baking a crust crisps it up and helps prevent it from going soggy when it comes in contact with the filling, Ms. Greenspan said You make the dough, line a pie pan with it, freeze the crust for a while, cover the frozen crust with parchment or some other barrier, then pile a temporary filling (like rice and beans) on top of that protective sheath to keep the crust from puffing up. You bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes with that paperweight-like filling, then another 5 minutes or so without it, which tans it nicely. When that round is done, you give the surface a brisk brushing of egg white. You let the crust cool. Then you're ready to pour in the filling (which, in the summer of Ms. Greenspan's dreams, would be blueberries). You add a top crust before a follow-up stretch in the oven. "It works," she said. But here's the catch: In spite of all that, Ms. Greenspan usually does not bake her crust in advance. To affix that top crust, you have to use a sleight-of-hand, moistening the rim of the pre-baked bottom crust and getting the raw dough of the top crust to stick to it. "Somehow it feels like a trick and un-American," she said. It's not the way American pies are supposed to be made. I prefer it pre-baked, but I don't do it. Maybe, she suggested, a touch of sogginess is not the end of the world. What she'll sometimes do, before filling the bottom crust, is to sprinkle an absorbent layer of challah pieces or cake crumbs along its top, to sop up (theoretically) some of the liquid. Does that help? "It makes me feel better about it," she said. - JEFF GORDINIER The Right Thickener