From Taste of Home · Emily Way · · 1m 20s
Le Creuset's $30 Christmas tree pie vent
A tiny ceramic tree with a gold star that keeps your holiday pie crust from going soggy.
In brief
A tiny ceramic tree with a gold star that keeps your holiday pie crust from going soggy. A pie vent is a $30 fix for soggy crust and bubbled-over filling, and this one happens to look like a Christmas tree. Originally reported by Taste of Home.
Christmas creeps into September
Le Creuset has already dropped its holiday baking piece, and the brand's seasonal pie tools tend to sell out before December arrives.
“we're not the only ones planning ahead!”
A pie tree, not a pie bird
It's a winter tree topped with a real gold star, made from the same ceramic as the brand's Dutch ovens. Thirty dollars.
“You've heard of a pie bird, but what about a pie tree?”
What it actually does
Arches on the bottom redirect excess moisture away from the crust, so the bottom doesn't turn to mush under a wet filling.
Steam gets an exit
The figure is hollow, so steam escapes through the middle instead of forcing filling out over the edge of the crust. Neater pie, better texture.
“the hollow vent allows steam to escape, so the pie filling doesn't bubble out of the crust”
Built to survive a kitchen
Non-porous, scratch-resistant, naturally nonstick, and safe from 500ºF down to -9ºF. Chill it, bake it, reheat it, rinse it clean.
Where to get one
Sold at Le Creuset, Williams Sonoma, Nordstrom and Amazon for $30, with a limited 10-year warranty. An easy gift for anyone who bakes.
At a glance
A pie vent is a $30 fix for soggy crust and bubbled-over filling, and this one happens to look like a Christmas tree.
