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Hi, Aaron,
My pie crust (see earlier post) for my pumpkin pie was prebaked. I used my buttermilk pie crust recipe, with 2 Tbs. sugar, and accidentally used all butter rather than half butter and half Crisco. Except for one little side, there was no shrinkage.
My technique is an amalgamation of several sources. The pie recipe is adapted from the KAF 200th Anniversary Cookbook but I used 2 1/2 cups pastry flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour. When I add the liquid, after cutting in the butter, I follow Ken Haedrich's instructions and add all the liquid at once. I refrigerate for an hour. In this case, it was longer because, like you, I have others mucking around in my kitchen area. The dough really was too hard when I started to roll it out. I follow the technique in the Cooks Baking Illustrated and in The Dessert Bible, but I roll the dough out onto a wide piece of parchment paper (Reynolds), cover it with a wide piece of saran (cooking store), then roll it out to 1/8th inch, in part because I like crust. It could be rolled thinner, using pastry wands to get the height exact. I then flip the whole thing over and peel off the parchment. I put my hand between the saran and the counter, and pick up the crust and gently fit it over the pie plate, then carefully position it. When I'm satisfied, I peel off the saran, then finish tucking it into the pie plate. I fold over the edges and crimp them so that they rest on the pie rim. I then lightly cover with the saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for 40 minutes. Usually, I then move it to the freezer for 20 minutes, but his time I put it outside on the cement, where it was below freezing and put a plastic cover over it to ward off inquisitive animals. I left it there for 30 minutes. I preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes at 375F.
Note: I like Emile Henry ceramic pie plates for my pumpkin and apple pies. (I use a metal one for blueberry, cherry, or pecan.)
When I am ready to bake, I put an industrial coffee filter in the pie plate That was a hint from KAF, but instead of selling them, they now sell these fancy liners from England. Coffee filters are cheaper (office store online; restaurant store), and I've discovered can be used for other things, such as draining pumpkin puree. The two Cooks books used double layer aluminum foil. I've also used parchment.
I think that it is silly that the Serious Eats author uses sugar. What a waste. Buy cheap beans and use them over and over and over. I've been using one set for over 25 years. I don't think that I've used enough, hence the one spot of shrinkage, so I'm going to make sure that next time it is full. Don't use ceramic pie weights--they get too hot and melt the butter in the crust. I would think metal pie chains would be equally as bad.
Once the beans are in, the pie plate goes into the middle of the oven to bake at 375F for 21 minutes until the sides are set. Remove pie plate from oven. Carefully lift out the liner with beans. (I move it to a heat-safe plate to cool.) Return the pie plate to the oven. If filling will require 20 minutes or less of baking time, bake 7 minutes more. If it will require more than 20 minutes, bake only 4 minutes more. If filling requires no baking, then bake 15-20 minutes more.
However, I like to go by whether the bottom looks sufficiently cooked to me on time. For my pumpkin pies, and additional 5-6 minutes will do it. (Note: my pumpkin pie filling is hot when I put it into the hot crust.) Once the filling is in, I bake at 425F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F. I check the pie for doneness starting 8 minutes after that. This time it took 10 minutes after I turned down the heat. Next time, I will likely put a pie shield over the crust, because my husband would prefer that it be more lightly baked.
I cannot at the moment remember if I put the pecan pie filling into a hot crust; my husband buried the box with that cookbook, and I don't expect to see it until next summer. It's Bernard Clayton's Pecan Pie recipe form The Complete Book of Pastry: Sweet and Savory.
I hope that some of this information might help you to tweak what you do. I expect that Mike Nolan, who has more experience than I, will also weigh in.
As for turkey roasting--my husband has taken over that, but this year, I actually got the rack moved down lower, and he was amazed that it cooked faster and the top did not dry out. When I roast turkeys, I follow Rick Rogers methods in Thanksgiving 101.
On Thursday I made Skinny Pumpkin Pie, recipe on the Betty Crocker web site. It's an oil crust that only uses 1/4 cup of oil. I've made oil crusts before, in fact they are my mainstay, I call them "good enough crusts". This crust, however, was just too little oil. It turned out a bit hard and stuck to the pie plate in spots even though I gave the plate a light spray of Pam. The filling was OK but a little soft. It tasted fine as I seasoned it my way (1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, nothing else). I don't care for traditional pumpkin pie seasoning (people who don't like pumpkin pie tend to like mine). Not a waste but I've made better.
Today I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake. I haven't made this is several years but I remember it being pretty good, a little heavy because of the pumpkin but good. It smelled pretty good coming out of the oven. I'll be serving it tomorrow. The pics are from several years ago, the last time I had made it.
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