Blind baking

One of my co-workers left this week. Since he was a fan of this blog, I wanted him to try my pies before he left. I made an apple and a blueberry pie again since there are quite a few people in my group. The pies were prepared a day before being put in the oven.

I'm still trying to perfect the berry pie although this time, I was using only blueberries. I'm too cheap to buy raspberries.

Last week, I screwed up the blind baking process so I made sure not do that again for this week. I punched some holes at the bottom and on the sides of the crust with a fork.

I then added a sheet of parchment paper on the dough filled with dry rice.

I then baked it at 250°F for 10 minutes.

There were no air pockets. I expected the crust to shrink but it didn't. I put the fillings in the pie and left it in the fridge while I rolled the upper crust and cut it into strips. Once I took the pie out from the fridge, I realized that the bottom crust was too brittle for the upper crust to be tucked in underneath.

Strips of were not tucked in underneath the bottom crust

I baked both the apple pie and blueberry pie the following morning at the same time at 425°F for 25 minutes, although they weren't on top of each other this time.

Why didn't I think of this last week?

The pies switched place after 13 minutes because I wasn't sure if the centre of my oven was hotter than other areas. I turned the temperature down to 375°F, and the blueberry pie started bubbling already. I let it bubbled for a little longer before taking it out as I wanted it to be a little bit more runny than last week.

Baked at 425°F for 25 minutes and then 375°F for only 4 more minutes

As you can see, the egg white was enough to hold the strips together; tucking was not necessary. The pie tasted good but it wasn't tart compared to my last berry pie. The blueberries were soft as I wanted them to be, but they were a little runny as it soften the bottom crust.

The top crust was crispy but I couldn't tell if the bottom crust was as I quickly finished my slice; I had a meeting to attend to! One thing that I'm certain though is that the juice seemed to have seeped into the bottom crust. It could have been due to the blind baking process where I had to use a fork to punch holes on the bottom crust. The juice could have seeped in the bottom crust overnight in the fridge. Or I could have left the pie in the oven for too long. So many possibilities!

Baked at 425°F for 25 minutes then 375°F for 20 minutes

The apple pie didn't turn out too well either as it was runny as well. Normally, the apple pie doesn't get runny when baked at 425°F for 25 minutes then 375°F for 20 minutes using Gala apples. Putting the pie in the fridge for a day may have weaken the outer membrane of the apple slices, and thus releasing more juice when baked. I supposed an apple pie that is prepared a day prior to must be baked shorter than usual.

As for the berry pie, I'll have to suck it up and pay a little extra for the raspberries. They make a big difference on the pie that's worth the cost. As for my other adjustments to toughen the bottom crust, I'll have to think about it later. It's 3:00 in the morning right now and I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

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.

And so it begins!

I woke up one weekend only to think about eating a slice of apple pie. That one flaky, buttery, sweet slice that I never had in my life. Is it really hard to make a perfect pie? Immediately, I searched on the Internet, hopped into my car, and bought all the ingredients and tools to make a pie. Five hours later, voila!

Not exactly what I envisioned that morning. The crust was rock solid and the filling was runny and very tart. I did eat the whole pie that week. I figured forcing myself to finish this atrocious beast will only make me want to make a better pie. And it did!

 

Crust was a little burnt as I decided to make it thinner. I also added more water to the crust to make it easier to roll. Filling was still runny but at least it was better than 'edible'. After several tries, it's finally looking more like my dream pie.

Since this last picture was taken, I've been focusing on individual pot pies. The challenge is to bake a frozen pie as it often goes runny. I use different apples now as well (Gala). More on this in the future!