How to Step Up Your Pie Game

March 6th to the 12th is British Pie Week, so what better excuse to enjoy one of the nation’s favourite dishes? Whether you’re a vegetarian, meat-eater or a fan of fish dishes, there are numerous pies you can enjoy, especially as they don’t break the bank and aren’t difficult to make.

Even if you’ve never made a pie before, you don’t need to be put off giving this dish a go, especially as it is a great way to feed your whole family. To make whipping up a pie even easier this week, we’ve put together some handy tips and delicious recipes to ensure you get pie perfection.

The first thing you need to start with is your pastry. Whether you’re using puff or shortcrust, your pastry needs to be at the right temperature so you can roll it out properly without any issues.

If your pastry is too warm, it will get sticky so there’s more chance of it tearing or ending up a mess stuck to your countertop. On the other hand, if your pastry is too cool, it can start to crack, which isn’t great if it needs to be strong enough to hold a filling.

It is a good idea to chill your pastry but remove it from the fridge about ten minutes before you start rolling, allowing it to warm up if it is still cracking or put it back in the fridge if it’s sticky. This is the same whether you buy your pastry or make it yourself.

Pies with lots of saucy filling are absolutely delicious, especially on a cold day. However, they can also mean that the base of your pie gets super soggy, which not only makes dishing it up a bit of a nightmare, it isn’t all that appetising either.

If you don’t quite feel confident enough to deal with a pie base, why not make a pot pie instead? This simple idea is that you create a delicious filling with as much sauce or gravy as you like and then just top it with a pastry lid. You can do this in a big pie dish or individual ones, depending on your preference.

Daisies and Pie has a really great recipe for a tasty chicken and sweetcorn pie that your whole family is sure to love. You can make it simpler still by cooking it up in an Ingenio pan, which means you can make the filling and bake the whole pie in the same pan, saving on washing up.

Some ingredients in pies need to be layered up in order to ensure they all cook correctly so you avoid over or undercooked sections. This practical tip also looks super pretty when you dish up your pie and can make you look like a pie master.

Understanding which ingredients need longer to cook will allow you to plan your layers and ensure that every single part of your pie tastes as good as it looks. To help you get to grips with layered pies, give this gorgeous pork, chicken and apricot pie recipe from Baking Martha a try.

Pastry can be a pretty scary thing to try and perfect and even buying it ready-made is no guarantee of your pie turning out just as you want it. So rather than fight a losing battle with pastry, why not make a pie without any?

There are plenty of other ways to top a pie that will make it just as delicious, meaning you have more time to focus on making the filling as mouth-watering as possible. Give Celery and Cupcakes’ luxury fish pie recipe a try for this family favourite with a difference. Once again, you can make it even easier with an Ingenio pan.

If you’re a pie making novice, one of the best options is to start with a sweet pie – not least because you can get away with making a tart rather than a covered pie if you want to cheat. Sweet pies are a bit easier to manage, as most of them don’t need you to cook any part of the filling first.

You do, however, need to blind bake the case if you’re making a tart, which means partially baking the pastry so it doesn’t go soggy. This is best done with baking beads, to stop the pastry rising too much, ensuring you get a nice flat base and can still fit in plenty of filling – which is the most important part in our book. To give a blind baked tart a go, try this dark chocolate and rosemary tart recipe from From My Dining Table a go.

For covered sweet pies, you don’t tend to need to blind bake the base as the filling and pastry will cook all at the same time. This can put you at risk of a soggy bottom but following this recipe for pear and apple pie from Ever So Sweet should help you avoid this and start you off on your sweet pie journey.

Serve it up with vanilla ice cream, custard or cream and you’re sure to get asked to bake it over and over again.