Elsewhere I have covered making pastry dough (Eleanor's Pie Pastry) and fruit fillings (Fruit Pie Fillings). Down the road I will cover Chicken Pot Pie. Here I will go over how I assemble a pastry pie.
When I put my bottom crust in the pie pan I settle it in then trim off the excess to the edge of the pan.
A word of caution: don't overfill you pies. If you do you will have the contents bubbling over and making a mess around the rimmed pan and possibly the oven.
Once I have the filling in my pie shell, I roll out my top crust. Once it is ready to go on the pie I take some egg wash (an egg mixed well with about 1/4 cup of cold water) and brush it on the rim of the bottom crust. I then lay the top crust on and pat it down all the way around the rim.
I cut the excess off leaving about 1/4" between the cut edge and the rim of the pan.
I have found that when I secure the rim of the pie there is an air build up under the crust. To alleviate this I cut some air holes in the crust.
I lift the edge of the pie up, including the bottom rim and tuck the top rim under the bottom rim. I go around the perimeter of the pie doing this then I go around again crimping the edge to make a peaked edge. Then using the thumb and forefinger of one hand and the forefinger of the other I finish sealing the edge in a scalloped manner.
At this point I finish up any other decoration I am going to put on the top of the pie.
As a final touch I brush egg wash on the top of the pie. This gives the crust a nice golden brown colour when baked. This is optional.
As the egg wash is wet I put the pies in the freezer uncovered for several hours to let them partially freeze and then I put them each in a sealed bag to await their date with the oven.
When I want to serve the pie I take it out of the freezer the night before and leave it in the fridge to slowly thaw.
To bake the pie I put it on a rimmed pan lined with parchment paper.
I bake my pies at 425F for 15 minutes and then put a pie cap on (a foil pie pan with a 2" diameter hole in the bottom put on the pie upside down). I reduce the heat to 375F and bake for an additional 40 minutes until the fruit in the pie is bubbling. (You can see the bubbling fruit through the slits in the crust.)