We feel your pain. The trouble is most pie recipes specify what diameter pie dish to use, but they dont specify how deep. This isnt such a problem with fruit pies that have a top crust to hold in a generous filling (or disguise one thats not), but its definitely a problem with single-crust pies like pumpkin and pecan. A skimpy filling looks sad and throws off the crust-to-filling ratio. Too much filling is simply a waste.
Q: Sometimes my pumpkin pies recipes end up with way too much filling, and sometimes not nearly enough. The recipes always specify 9-inch dishes, but things dont always end up fitting. How do I avoid this?
Before choosing a pie dish or pie shell, add up the volume of ingredients in the filling as best you can. Keep in mind that one large egg equals about 3 tablespoons. Sugar is a bit harder to calculate because it dissolves when mixed with the wet ingredients. Assume 1/4 cup of volume for each cup of sugar used. And dont forget the crust will take up some room, too.
Pie dishes, and frozen pie shells, all come in different depths, from 1 1/4 inches to 2 inches deep, and just 1/4 inch difference in depth results in a volume difference of 1 cup. Also, some recipes are developed for 2-inch-deep pie dishes but fail to tell the depth in the directions. These are considered “deep dish” in the frozen pie shell world. So if you were to buy a crust rather than make it from scratch, and you choose a standard frozen pie shell, youd be in trouble.
To make it worse, some frozen pie shells labeled as “9-inch deep dish” are actually closer to 8 inches when measured from the inside rim, and are also not quite 2 inches deep.
This article expands upon her idea, refining the math a little and providing a chart so you can determine how much pie dough to make for any size pie pan from 3 inches to 15 inches in diameter. (You may need to use baker’s math to adjust the recipe, but that’s a subject for another article.) It also covers what to do for deep dish pie pans and different types of upper pie crusts (lattice or high-domed.)
Now, maybe you’re one of those people who can roll a perfect circle of pie dough with uniform thickness. I’m not. My pie dough ‘circles’ used to look like something Picasso or Dali would have discarded, though I’ve gotten a little better at it over the years. So I often add in another 1⁄2 inch (1/4 times 2) to give me a margin of error that I’ll trim off. (And if you like big thick pie crust edges, you might add in another 1⁄4 inch on both sides, for another 1⁄2 inch. I find that a lot of that edge crust winds up left on the plate, so I’ve been cutting back on both the amount and complexity of edges I do.)
So to recap, your 9 inch pie pan needs anywhere from an 11 inch (no margin of error or extra dough for the edge) to a 12 inch (a margin of error and lots of extra dough for the edge) circle of pie dough for the bottom crust. Following the same rules for margin of error and dough for the edge, the top crust should be 9 1⁄2 to 10 1⁄2 inches in diameter. Why so much less? Because you don’t have to go down and back up the sides of the pan.
To recap, for an 8 inch pie, you should make enough dough for a 10 1⁄2 inch circle for the bottom crust, and an 8 1⁄2 inch circle for the top crust. For a 9 inch pie, it would be 11 1⁄2 and 9 1⁄2. Quick quiz: What would it be for a 7 inch pie pan? (Answer: 9 1⁄2 and 7 1⁄2.)
While writing this article, I discovered that one of my favorite glass pie pans is actually a 9 1⁄2 inch pie pan, not the 9 inch pan I had assumed. That explains why it always seemed like I ran out of pie dough before I got it fully rolled out, since from the pie dough chart we can see that I need 9.8 ounces (278 grams) for the bottom crust rather than 9.0 (255 grams) and 6.8 ounces (193 grams) for the top crust, or a total of 16.6 ounces or 471 grams. So I’ve been making pies with nearly 10% less pie dough than I should have been making.
Ina Garten’s Deep-Dish Apple Pie | Barefoot Contessa | Food Network
FAQ
How many ounces does a 9 inch deep-dish pie crust hold?
What is the volume of a 9 inch pie dish?
|
PAN SIZE
|
VOLUME
|
|
9-inch pie pan
|
4 cups
|
|
9x5x3-inch loaf pan
|
8 cups
|
|
15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan
|
10 cups
|
|
10×3-inch Bundt pan
|
12 cups
|
How much pastry do I need for a 9 inch pie?
How deep is a deep-dish pie?
How much filling do you need for a 9 inch pie?
Four cups of filling are required for a 9-inch pie. Mini pies typically use 1/3 cup of filling, depending on the flavor, but they may use a teaspoon more if the filling is too thick for some people. Make sure the pie pan is about 12 inches from the top. The dimensions of this pie pan are: 9″ x 9″. Top and bottom: 818 and 634, respectively.
How do you fill a 9 inch deep dish pie?
In general, the filling should fill the pie crust to just below the edge of the crust. Overfilling the pie can cause it to spill over during baking, resulting in a messy and uneven pie. Taking these factors into consideration will help ensure a perfectly filled 9 inch deep dish pie.
How much filling can a deep-dish pie crust hold?
A deep-dish pie crust can hold about seven cups of filling, which is about two more cups than a regular pie crust.
What size is a deep dish pie crust?
What Size Is a Deep-Dish Pie Crust? A deep-dish pie plate is 9 1/2 to 10 inches wide and around 2 inches deep; a regular pie plate is smaller, at about 9 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches deep. Because of its larger size, you need more pie dough to be able to cover the bottom and sides of the pie dish.