Making a successful homemade pie crust isn't for the insecure home cook. There's a lot that can go wrong—and when pie goes wrong, it's hard to get it back on track.
Among the things to pay attention to is the pie dough’s thickness. "You want to measure your dough to make sure it has a uniform thickness throughout so it bakes evenly," says Epi Food Director Rhoda Boone. Too thick, and you’re looking at an unevenly cooked pie. Too thin, and the crust may darken too quickly.
You can't really eyeball a dough's thickness (unless you have a magic sense of what 1/8 of an inch looks like). So there's no getting around it: you're going to need to measure.
But don't reach for your ruler. Instead, reach into your piggy bank. Just a couple of quarters is all you need to get the pie crust to the right thickness every time.
Here’s how it works: Place yourpie doughon the counter. Using a rolling pin (preferably with a thicker center and tapered ends, which prevents your crust from being too thick in the middle), start toroll out the dough into a disc. Now take two quarters and stack them up next to the dough. Together, the coin stack’s height is roughly equivalent to 1/8 of an inch, which is the Epicurious Test Kitchen's recommended thickness for pie dough.
Now call the person who said that fifty cents doesn't buy anything anymore, because it just bought you a perfect pie.
