On occassion, depending on the type of pie, I end up with a soggy crust. My daughter told me about a suggestion she read to avoid this problem:

Put your store bought bottom crust into the pie dish. Brush entirely with an egg white and let dry thoroughly. Add filling, top crust and bake.

Have any of you tried this and what were the results? My pumpkin pie is about the only one that doesn't get soggy. Egg custard, apple, berry all get soggy.

Bakers, perhaps you have another suggestion.

Thanks for your advice.

Foodfan, there are a few things you can do that I learned (and have done) from Ruth Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible. The egg white coating definitely does help. For pies without a top crust you can fully prebake the bottom crust and brush it with the egg white. Make sure to do it when the pie is slightly cooled since a hot crust will make the egg white flake off. Instead of the egg white, you can also brush the bottom crust with seedless preserves, or cover it with crushed cookies, such as gingersnaps or chocolate or lemon wafers.

For two-crust pies, you can start the pie baking on the floor of the oven or on a pizza stone. You can start it off there, then move it to the bottom rack of your oven for the remainder of baking time. I've found that Pyrex pie dishes work especially well in heat conduction. They also allow you to kind of see how dark the crust is getting. If you use a pizza stone you can let it preheat in the oven so it's hot when the pie goes in. Also, if the stone is really hot, you could just put it on the bottom shelf of the oven instead of the oven floor for the entire baking time. I hope that helps...and/or makes sense!

One last thing...if it's compatible with the pie filling, you can brush a thin chocolate glaze onto the bottom of a baked pie crust or tart shell.