How do I make a beautiful pre-baked pie crust?

I fought this myself yesterday, and finally won by doing the weights (lentils, in my case), and then nestling a second pie plate inside the beans. I have no idea why this happens, and so consistently, but I really do feel your pain. As does the fabulous woman behind smitten kitchen, who chronicled her recent triumph over the problem http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/the-great-unshrinkable-sweet-tart-shell/. It's a tart shell recipe, rather than a pie crust, but it should be fine as a pie crust. Though, no, I've not tried it myself.

This can happen if the dough is overprocessed, so that rather than little pockets of flour-coated butter flecking the dough you've got a homogenous flour/butter paste. The butter melts too fast and there's no flour/water dough structure to hold it up. Are you using a food processor? If so, make sure not to overprocess - the flour/butter mixture should range from pea-size butter lumps to grains like coarse cornmeal, depending on the texture you want. There should be no unincorporated flour. Or if you cut in the butter by hand, make sure the butter never warms up - to the point of putting the half-worked mixture in the fridge from time to time to cool it down. It can also happen sometimes if your dough is too wet overall - always add just enough (cold!) water to make the flour/butter mix barely hold together. The amount will differ depending on the humidity that day. If you've added all the water and it still seem dry, let the dough rest for a little while and see if it's more workable then, rather than adding more water straightaway. Most finished doughs should feel like play doh, dry to the touch.

Just a note, all the pumpkin pies I've ever baked were baked in a raw pie shell, so you shouldn't have this problem with those.

My process, which never fails, uses the Joy of Cooking recipe. I use half frozen butter, half chilled shortening for the fats. I do all the mixing by hand. I refrigerate before rolling out, freeze after it's in the pan. It goes straight from freezer to oven, and I use either beans or glass marbles as weights. I have a million pie plates of various materials; I don't think that's your problem. I'm going to agree with the posters above that say you're either doing too good of a job combining your fat and flour, or using too much water, and I'm banking on the former. It should look rough, kind of sandy, not at all smooth before you add the water. You should see some bigger, pea-sized chunks of flour-coated fat. Try using the recipe that worked best, but do it by hand, cutting in the fat with two knives, or a pastry cutter if you have one. Do the butter first, then the shortening, if you use a combination, because the shortening needs less coaxing.

what directions are you using? it's generally a good idea to let pie crust dough sit around for awhile (15 mins) at room temperature before putting it in a hot oven - keep it wrapped in plastic or covered, tho, so you don't lose to much moisture

Are you putting a store-bought crust from a box into your own nonstick pan? Perhaps try something that isn't nonstick. Have you calibrated your oven temperature? Do you have an electric oven with poor heat cycling? I think I recall Dorie Greenspan suggesting preheating to a higher temperature (say 450) and turning it down once you put the shell in the oven--that way the first 10 minutes of your bake time won't be at a low point in the heat cycle.

Wow, weird, don't know how I missed that you were making your own from scratch. My reading skills aren't up to par today. So anyway ignore my first sentence, but do still think about the nonstick pan issue.

Try not putting your dough in the freezer before you bake it. I roll mine out and put it in the pie plate right before going in the oven and don't have any problems. Also, what's your flour:butter ratio? I make my pie crusts with 1.5c flour and 1.5 sticks of butter.

Here is how my wife does it. She has baked for many years. She does not know about putting a pastry shell in the freezer. She makes from scratch only and the pastry dough is at room temperature. She puts the crust in the pie pan and takes a dinner fork and perforates the crust all over the bottom and the sides. The punctures are close together. She bakes in a preheated oven at 450º for 12 to 15 minutes. The time is based upon when the crust is golden brown. Never a failure. Crust is tasty and flaky.