I don't know what this would do to make the crust more flaky, but it would solve the mess problem for me - I can make a decent pie crust, but I rarely do it because when I do, I end up with flour and dough bits all over the kitchen floor and livingroom carpet (the dinning table, which is my work surface for baking, is in the livingroom). I spend half an hour on the pie, then another half an hour cleaning up. So this might prevent some of that spillage when rolling out the dough...

The only advantage I can see to this is keeping the process a bit tidier. In that respect, if you make pies with kids, it could be good.

But I see no way that it would actually improve the pastry.

If your dough is shrinking, it's probably because you're not letting it rest. After you put the pastry in the pan, you should lightly cover with plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for a little bit (even 15 minutes). Relaxes the gluten after all that rolling and turning so it won't tighten up in the oven so much.

I often find that the dough shrinks when I add too much moisture, it should be a little dry when before it rests. The hour or so in the fridge will help it come together. As for the bag my first thought was cleaning it afterwards... annoying! Plus not every crust recipe will give you the same amount so you shouldn't be rolling them all out to the same diameter.

If your crust is shrinking up, you're overactivating the gluten. Mostly, that means you need to work your dough less, but resting might help as well.

Pie crusts scare me, a lot. I'd buy anything of reasonable size and price that would make them less scary.

I'm a fanatic pie baker, but never make my own crusts. There are perfectly suitable crusts in the freezer section of the grocery store. Frozen crusts aren't ideal, but I just don't think the results of making homemade pie crusts is worth the effort for the result. Without spending tons of time making pie crusts, I can whip up and apple, lemon meringue, pecan....well any pie, in about 10 minutes (excluding baking time). And no messy flour to clean up!

Sheesh, use a freaking gallon-sized Ziploc. It works great and costs about 1/60th as much.

Stoat, are there specific freezer crust brands that you like? I went on a must-make-own-crusts kick, but I share Rosie's ability to strew the entire apartment with dampened hunks of flour... which is somewhat discouraging...

Pastry isn't scary! With a bit of practise you just get to know what to do with it. I think this is probably more to do with rubbish British food than my culinary skills (!), but I've never tasted frozen pastry as good as home made (except puff and filo pastry which are so fiddly!). I haven't got round the flour-flinging problem either, but I love making pastry and bread dough (please no bread machines!) so much I don't care! Don't really get this pie crust bag thing - you wouldn't be able to rescue the pastry if it got too dry/sticky when you were rolling it.

I got this bag a few weeks ago and LOVE IT! It is great for keeping the flour and dough in one place, and awesome for sizing. Most importantly the transfer into the pan always gave me trouble, now it's a non-issue! Just baked a sour cherry pie 2 hours ago using it!

As for Stoat, I'm sorry to say if you enjoy frozen crusts you've clearly never tried Dorie Greenspan's "Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough" never will I use frozen dough again, even when I make pies to donate to the Salvation Army at Thanksgiving! We all deserve better!

Anywho, love the pie rolling bag! Anything to make life easier and cleaner!

I MUST try this baggy thing... I love baking but my crusts tend to break while transferring to the pie dish... mind you, they taste devine, but they are a "blah" on the looks department.

one long sheet of waxed paper sprayed with non-stick spray - fold in half - plop dough ball in center of bottom part - roll. My dad's used this technique for years. The best part is very little clean-up and easy crust transfer. I would be leery of something that has a zipper as I'd constantly be cleaning off bits of old dried-on crust