Pie baking assist apparatus

Baking assist apparatus for use in the baking of an unbaked pie crust having a malleable dough base and a malleable peripheral dough wall extending transversely therefrom formed in and overlying a pie pan having a rigid base and a rigid peripheral wall extending transversely therefrom, said baking assist apparatus comprising:

• a passive resistance band formed of a continuous, thin-walled, flexible, elongate web element formed of a heat resistant material having mutually parallel inward-facing and outward-facing surfaces separated by a predetermined web thickness, said surfaces terminating at first and second mutually parallel edges defining a web height therebetween,
• wherein the dough wall has an outward-facing surface and an inward-facing surface, and said outward-facing surface of said web element is configured for positioning against the inward-facing surface of the dough wall of the pie crust,
• wherein said web element is configured to impart to the dough wall a manually applied compressive force causing compression thereof against the rigid peripheral wall of the pie pan such that the dough wall adopts the shape of the rigid peripheral wall and so as to adopt a selected thickness,
• and wherein at least one of said edges of said web element is configured for impressing into a surface of the unbaked pie crust juxtaposed to the dough wall so as to assist in anchoring said web element in said compression position, thereby to fixate the pie crust dough wall portion and to resist deformation thereof during baking.