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Baking homemade pies takes a bit of skill and little finesse, but once you've learned the essentials, especially turning out pie crust, you'll soon commit the rest to memory. Whether you're making pies with fruit, custard or cream the rules for baking pies are basically the same.

The Crust
Making the crust is hands-down the most difficult part of making a pie. The key to a good, flaky pie crust can be boiled down to one word: cold. All of your ingredients, including the flour, should be cold. The water that you use should be ice water. If you are serious about making pies, you might consider buying a marble slab and refrigerating it before you make your crust. You can then roll your dough out on a cold surface.

Another thing to know is that flours are not created equal. All flours contain gluten, a protein that helps dough have strength and structure. The normal, all-purpose flour that you use day in and day out is relatively high in gluten and can lead to a brittle crust. Look for recipes that call for at least some pastry or cake flour.

The final trick to making pie crust dough is to handle the dough as little as possible. The object is to prevent the fats that you are using, whether in the form of butter, margarine or shortening, from completely blending into the flour. It is the fat between layers of flour that makes a piecrust flaky. Your dough should consist of lumps of flour, water and fat about the size of peas after cutting together the ingredients.

Meringue
What would lemon meringue pie be without a good meringue? Meringue is a concoction made from whipped egg whites and sugar. Whipping egg whites adds air to the whites, making the whites puffy and billowy. The sugar in meringue keeps the egg whites from collapsing while making the meringue sweet.