did you prick the bottom & sides of the crust?

Tami, I sure hope someone comes up with a cure for that shrinking pie crust. Happens to me every time unless I buy a premade crust. I've pricked the bottom and sides, tried the "put beans in the crust" and every imaginable thing to keep it from shrinking, but they always do. My mother used to turn the pie plate upside down and lay the crust over it and then bake it. Guess she crimped the crust after it was upside down, 'cause they were always pretty and never shrank. Didn't work so well for me. Maybe we are stretching our crust too thin?? I don't know~

Doesn't matter though in your case. That chocolate pie sounds delish!

Joann, yes I did. I've made pies for years, just haven't made my own crust for a long time. It just never tasted the way I wanted, and was a hassle to make. The crust just kind of slid down the sides of the pie plate. I will try using a plate with more sloping sides instead of the one I used last time that had straiter sides. I may even get out the food processor and make a different recipe. Mom's never did that, but when I make her recipe it just doesn't tastet the same. LOL I guess my hands don't taste like hers did! My DH always says that when I make his mom's recipes and they don't taste the same it's because I didn't use my hands when I mixed it!

Patti, I think it's because there was so much butter and lard in the recipe. ( I used lard because I had it for another recipe!) The chocolate pie is just chocolate pudding in the baked crust with Dream Whip made with a small teaspoon of cocoa powder and a T. of sugar added to the instructions on the box for the topping. But it is good!

Beans/pie weights don't keep a crust from shrinking, they keep it from puffing up.

The biggest thing to remember to prevent shrinking is to carefully lay the crust in the pie pan WITHOUT STRETCHING IT. If it's stretched at all, the gluten will spring back during the baking process, causing the dough to creep down the sides. And sometimes a very short crust will melt too much and sort of fall down. When I put crust in a pan I ease it in and actually push more down the sides so I'm sure it's not stretched.

Another thing I do is make sure it extends over the sices of the pie pan, so it has something to sort of grab onto.