For Chilled Pies, Melted Butter Is Key For The Crust
When it comes to making the perfect pie crust, one rule many bakers never stray from is using cold butter. There's a good reason for this: When butter is cold, it doesn't begin to melt until it's in the oven and nestled snugly into pockets of dough, creating those coveted flaky layers in the crust.
Fortunately, for busy bakers who don't have time to turn out a classic dough, not every crust requires cold butter. In fact, crusts for chilled pies — think pumpkin, lemon meringue, zesty key lime pie, banana cream, and the like — are better off leaning on the sturdier side. Less flakiness makes for neater slices and helps the dense filling stay intact on the plate.
For these kinds of pies, using melted butter is the way to go. Not only does this method speed up the pie-making process, but it also requires less expertise and fewer kitchen tools.
Easy as pie
Consider the textural differences between cold-butter pie dough and chocolate chip cookie dough. When prepared correctly, the former should be moist but slightly crumbly. Such consistency makes for a deliciously flaky crust, but it can also be a hassle to roll out if it's not properly chilled.
Cookie dough, on the other hand, which typically calls for softened, room-temperature butter, should be silky and smooth, almost like Play-Doh. It is far more pliable than classic pie dough and can be shaped by hand.
Likewise, pie dough made with melted butter takes away the need for a rolling pin, a measuring stick, and, by extension, a knack for transferring a sheet of dough from the countertop to the pie dish. Many bakers don't even bother rolling the dough into a neat disc, opting instead to break it up into a pie dish and press it in like patchwork.
No bake, no problem
We can't think of a better way to capitalize on the easiness of a melted-butter pie crust than by pairing it with a tall, creamy, glorious, no-bake filling. Unlike, say, jammy fruit pies, the constituents of this tried-and-true genre often get their heft from ingredients like cream cheese and Cool Whip, leaving out the raw egg and taking away the need to bake.
Per the latter, we're thinking specifically of watermelon pie, a viral treat that blew up on TikTok in the summer of 2023 for its refreshing bits of fruit swirled into a cloud-like amalgam of Cool Whip, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. Other classic summer-appropriate classics include key lime and lemon meringue. Though certain versions of these pies call for baking, others leave out the raw eggs in favor of cream cheese. While chilled pies are great for warm weather, you'll also find plenty of no-bake recipes that were made for the holidays, like our eggnog cream cheese pie.