It depends on context, of course. If I am making a custard pie or no bake pie filling, I parbake or full bake the crust. However, if it's a fruit pie, such as apple pie with a crust covering, then the crust needs baked with the fruit filling.

My question is mainly directed towards the second scenario. I made an apple pie, for which I fried the apples and reduced the juices to a syrup for the filling. I used about 500 grams of my butter pie crust recipe for the bottom crust, and 150 grams for the top. The bottom crust was rolled 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, and the top crust was very thin, probably 1/8.

The bottom crust did cook through, but was steamed more than baked. Not crumbly and didn't development any lamination.

The pie was baked at 425 for 1 hour, in a ceramic pie dish with a thick metal baking sheet underneath. I would think that'd be good enough to get the bottom crust to crumble, but apparently not.

Should I make it thinner in the future? Should I just switch to metal? I love my pie dish and really don't want to switch to metal if I can help it.