pie crust leaking butter during blind bake

I used this all butter pie crust for the first time (https://food52.com/recipes...) and while blind baking (at 425 following this recipe https://food52.com/recipes...) lots and lots of butter leaked out of the crust and hit the bottom of my oven, leading to smoke alarms blaring. I cleaned the oven and popped it back in for a second bit of blind baking at 375 with a cookie sheet under the pie pan to catch leaky butter, though now the melted butter is running into the bottom of the pan.

Is this because of the temperature? Or normal for all butter crusts? Or did I do something wrong? I have more of the same crust to use for another pie tomorrow and am trying to figure out what to do.

Thanks!

Addison Kemp
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6 Comments

Stephanie B.
Stephanie B. November 23, 2017
A few things could be going on. 1) You could be overworking the butter/dough while you're mixing it, but typically pie dough comes together fairly quickly 2) The dough is getting too warm. This could be because it needs to be chilled longer between steps, or your kitchen is too warm and everything (counter, bowls, flour, etc.) are warming up the butter. 3) The baking temp might be too high.
 
Addison K.
Addison K. November 23, 2017
Is it possible for this to happen because the crust was TOO cold? I just realized it had been hanging out in the freezer before baking (next to the tart crust that was actually supposed to be in there...)

Thank you!
 
Matti N.
Matti N. November 23, 2017
Your dough was too warm. Put the other crust in the fridge and make sure it's cold when going into the oven.

And put a cookie sheet underneath just in case. :-)
 
Addison K.
Addison K. November 23, 2017
Is it possible for this to happen because the crust was TOO cold? I just realized it had been hanging out in the freezer before baking (next to the tart crust that was actually supposed to be in there...)

Thank you!
 
kathrynlynn
kathrynlynn February 14, 2021
Girl...I feel your pain...Smoke alarms blaring banned from making pie crust again. It was the same recipe too the "All Buttah Pie Dough", I made sure everything was cold between and after each step and before it went in the oven, and it kept happening... Only thing that worked was trying different ingredients/technique/recipes... Switching to European butter made a huge difference, the melting point is higher and it has less moisture than American butter (and other reasons seasons, what their feeding the cows etc). Brand's I've had success with are, Plugra, and Kerrygold. Another tip is to try grating the butter into the mixture. Also maybe not adding too much water to the pie crust in the first place. Hope this helps.
 
Shelley
Shelley October 17, 2021
I also feel the pain. I've tried freezing the pie crust-still leaked all over, refrigerated for 60 minutes-leaked all over. I use Land of Lakes unsalted butter(cut in cubes then freeze x15 min), put anything used to make pie crust in the fridge the night b4 making pie. So went back to my go to butter and shortening recipe, That saves the smoky taste of tart and pie dough as well as no shrill of the smoke detectors! Try using equal parts of cold Apple brandy and water for the liquid for Apple pie dough. Yum
 
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