Berry Pie: Part Deux

For the second consecutive week, I made a 9-inch blueberry pie. I was invited to hot pot and I volunteered to feed 20 people dessert as part of my contribution to the party. Of course, one pie wasn't enough so the plan was to make an apple pie as well. I had to rope in my friend Richard to help out. Actually, he did most of the work while I was barking orders. I needed help and he wanted to learn to make pies, so it was a win-win situation.

In my last week's post, I mentioned that I would make the following adjustments for the blueberry pie:
-blind bake the pie to harden the bottom crust,
-create more steam vents by having a lattice top crust, and
-opt out blueberry jam.

I made the adjustments and this is how it turned out.

While it looked good, I made some mistakes in the process. I blind baked the bottom crust however, I forgot to add a parchment paper and dry rice for weight.

Blind baked at 200°F for 8 minutes

I took the pie out immediately after realizing my blunder and you can see that it's not completely cooked. There were also air pockets forming as a result of not using a fork to punch holes. Despite baking at a low temperature for only 8 minutes, the pie shrunk so the edges had to be patched.

I baked the two pies at the same time with the apple pie on the bottom rack. They were baked at 425°F for 25 minutes and I noticed that the top crust of the berry pie was golden already while the apple pie was mostly white. That's when I realized that in the 'bake' function, heat comes from the top and bottom of the oven only. The bottom crust of the berry pie wasn't cooked at all while the bottom crust of the the apple pie was cooked. I should have set the oven to 'convection' where heat is transferred equally to all sides of the pies.

Berry pie was placed on the top rack

Apple pie was placed on the bottom rack

After baking both pies for 25 minutes, I switched racks with the apple pie on top. I switched to convection heat and baked between 325°F and 375°F until I saw juice coming out of the steam vents. Unfortunately, I didn't time after I switched racks. The berry pie came out of the oven first, as expected.

See the difference between the two apple pies?

The above picture from two weeks ago is what I would like my apple pie to look.

The berry pie wasn't runny at all. As a matter of fact, there wasn't enough juice. Compared to my last berry pie, I pretty much went from one end of the spectrum to the other. The bottom crust was a little soft as well. At least the top crust was perfect!

If I had left the berry pie in the oven for a little longer, I believe that would've fixed both of these problems.

On the other hand, the apple pie had a crispier bottom crust while the top was a little soft. Filling was cooked perfectly. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of a slice of the apple pie as there were too many things going on at that time.

The problems that I encountered this week were mainly due to not baking properly. If I use the 'bake' function again while baking two pies, I'll make sure they are not placed directly above the other. For next week, I'll also make sure to have a wider bottom crust and blind bake properly. While I didn't receive negative feedback from my friends, I still haven't perfected the berry pie. Next week, part trois!

Eating Humble Berry Pie

I looked up 'eating humble pie' on the Internet after my friend mentioned it. I didn't know what that expression meant but now that I do, it seems fitting for this week's post. Here I am, excited to serve my first berry pie to my friends and it looked so promising.

Baked at 425°F for 25 minutes then 375°F for 10 minutes

Golden crust, sweet buttery smell with sprinkled sugar on top. It all seemed perfect. I cut the pie and when I picked up a slice, gushes of berries and juice began to flood the tray as the pie slowly deflated along with my excitement. It was the runniest pie I've ever made.

I couldn't even see the bottom crust. The crust was crispy as usual as I did not change the recipe. I couldn't even tell if it was flaky with all that juice. The filling was delicious as it had enough sweetness with a little bit of tart and spice. Below are the ingredients for this filling:
- 4 cups of blueberries (1 for jam)
- 1 cup of raspberries
- 3 tablespoons of tapioca starch
- half a cup of sugar
- half a teaspoon of cinnamon
- half a teaspoon of nutmeg

I first made blueberry jam by mashing the blueberries with a little bit of water in a low-heated pot. A tablespoon of tapioca starch was added to thicken the jam. The jam was added to the rest of the ingredients and were mixed by hand. Raspberries soften so fast.

Looking back, the jam was unnecessary considering how runny the pie was. I'm probably not gonna use raspberries again after next week because they easily turn into liquid and they're expensive. However, the pie may lose its tartness.

I wasn't expecting the filling to go runny this quickly and I only baked the pie for 35 minutes instead of 45 minutes for an apple pie.

For my next pie, I will use the same ingredients but I won't prepare the blueberry jam. I will also blind bake the pie with a lattice top. Apparently, it's not doable but I'll see it for myself. Blind baking will harden the bottom crust and the lattice top will allow more heat to come out. The lattice top also takes less time to cook since the surface area is smaller, so the pie should not take too long to bake. With less time in the oven, the filling shouldn't be runny as well.

Well, I thought I knew what I was doing when in fact, I was eating a humble pie in front of my friends. But it was delicious!

Eat it, Corey!

I could never understand why people like to eat pies à la mode. Personally, I prefer warm desserts but I can understand why many like it cold. Pies are sweet as is and to add ice cream on top of that, it's just too much. It also makes the crust soggy unless you consume it within a matter of minutes right after putting ice cream on the pie.

I invited my friends over once to try my pie and one of them was disappointed to learn that I didn't have ice cream. I baked a fresh apple pie and when I looked into my freezer, I saw a medium-sized Wendy's Frosty. My friend immediately shouted 'Eat it, Corey!' That's when I found out he snuck it in the freezer when I wasn't looking. I'm still surprised that he went out of his way to buy a Frosty just to compliment my pie.

Well, lucky for him, I had ice cream yesterday when he came over for the Super Bowl.

I still need to work on taking good pictures.

I made a 9-inch apple pie yesterday but it was the first one using the same seriouseats.com's technique that I've been using in recent weeks. Probably the best 9-inch pie I've made to date as it wasn't runny at all; apples were soft; and the crust was crispy. Well, on areas without the ice cream anyway. Almonds don't really work with pies but they go well with ice cream.

Baked at 425°F for the first 25 minutes and then 375°F for the last 20.

As for the crust, it's good but not perfect. I'm starting to think that this is probably the best this technique and recipe will get for me. Nonetheless, it was a delicious pie!

And it looked good! One thing I've noticed is that it's easier to make a 9-inch pie over an apple pot pie.

Baked fresh at 425°F for the first 20 minutes and then
375°F for the last 15.

There seems to be a fine line between under-cooking and over-cooking an apple pot pie. I tend to over-cook a little only because I want the crust to be crispy. Under-cooking a pie results in crispy apples and very little juice. The margin between under-cooking and over-cooking an apple pie seems to be within 3 to 5 minutes. The pot pie that you see right above was made last week and it was a little runny. This is compared to the fresh pie made in my last post where it was baked 5 minutes less.

Baked fresh at 425°F for the first 15 minutes and then
375°F for the last 15.

I'll have to try it with less apples in the future. However, for next week, my friend asked me to make a berry pie.

Hopefully, it won't be a humble pie.