- Is this what blackberries are now? It's my thumb. (chuckles) That's one berry, that aint right. Maybe it's a snozzberries, I always wonder what Willy
Wonka was talking about with those, "The snozzberries taste
like snozzberries!" (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Erin Jeanne McDowell, and welcome to this episode
of "Bake It Up a Notch." This is part three of our
four-part pie spectacular. We're covering all things you need to know to get in the best pie shape of your life in celebration of my upcoming
book, "The Book on Pie." I'm so excited today
because we are talking about one of my favorite
kind of pies, fruit pie. At its core fruit pie is one
of the easiest pies out there. It's a little bit of fruit, of course, with sweetener and some kind of thickener to sort of bind it, but there are a lot of
things to consider with it. Every piece of fruit is different, every piece of fruit whether
it's in or out of season, whether you're picking it fresh, whether it's been frozen they're
are all kinds of factors, and all sorts of things to consider, because even if you have a great recipe, if you don't know what you're looking for your fruit pies can go awry very easily, and you can end up with
a big juicy, sappy mess. We are gonna show you
all the tips and tricks to get fruit pies right every single time. Plus, as always, we are gonna show you where things can go wrong and
if possible how to fix it. So if this sounds like
something you're interested in be sure to do me a favor
click Like and Subscribe on this video so you can be notified when new episodes become available, so let's get baking. (upbeat music) There aren't too many pieces of equipment that aren't covered in episode one of our four-part pie spectacular where we covered doughs and crust, so take a look at that episode for the equipment you're gonna need. The only additional pieces of equipment that can sometimes be helpful
when making fruit pies, we're going to be cooking on the stovetop. You may need a nice heavy
bottomed pot or pan, and sometimes I like to
puree my fruit fillings for that I might use an immersion blender, a food processor, or a
blender, anything goes. So other than that all the
tools you need are going to be in our first episode of our
pie spectacular check it out. (piano music) The first thing to think about when you're making a fruit
pie is the fruit itself. This is the hardest thing
to explain to people who are new to baking pies, because they already
inherently don't understand the ingredients quite as well, and that's what I'm hoping to
get across to everyone today. First of all, think about
if the fruit is ripe, and in season, or firmer
and more out of season. It's not necessarily
bad to use out of season or firmer fruits to make a pie, in fact, it can just
adjust the type of pie that you're making. This is one of the lessons and
kind of the main takeaways. You wanna consider your
method of preparation based on the kind of fruit you're using, so if the fruit is really
really ripe you may want to try a different method. I think that one of the
most misunderstood things about fruit pies is that many recipes just have you tossing raw
fruit with other ingredients, putting it into a shell and baking, and of course that works, it works great, but you can also precook
your pie fillings. Out of season or under ripe fruit like, just by saying that you might be thinking, "Well, that's not good fruit." But of course, in many
places in the country and all over the world
sometimes you get some fruit and it just isn't the best year even if it is the right season, or maybe if you're in between seasons which is where we're at right now. We're kind of just finishing summer so I can still get peaches, but they're quite firm. They're not you know, a
good juicy ripe peach. And then of course, I'm also
getting kind of fall produce, like these Concord grapes,
and good apples, and pears. So when you're in between seasons that doesn't mean you
should stop making pies. It just means you wanna consider
the method of preparation. Out of season fruits or
fruits that are just firmer even if they are in season, fruits that are a little less ripe. They have a tendency of course
to be firmer and less juicy. That sounds bad, but that doesn't always
mean they don't have flavor. These fruits can benefit from kind of concentrating
their flavors using techniques like grilling or roasting. You can also macerate the fruit to help bring out some of the juices and concentrate them down. But out of season fruit or
firmer fruit is also really great for an often forgotten preparation, which are whole fruit pies. You can wrap a whole piece of
cord fruit or cleaned fruit, trimmed with pie dough and bake it. It's pie at its simplest. So the firmer the fruit is
the more likely it's going to hold up for a longer time in the oven. These are all the kinds of
things that you can consider when you're choosing both
your method of preparation, and the kind of pie you're gonna make based on the fruit you're starting with. One of my favorite ways
to make a fruit pie is to use a combination of fruits, sort of a blackberry blueberry situation, or a strawberry peach. There are tons of options of course when you start combining fruits, but when you're mixing up
fruits it can be even harder to determine that juiciness level, so it's something really
important to consider. I mentioned before this
macerating technique, I first learned about this technique from one of my baking
mentors, Rose Levy Beranbaum. She tosses the fruit
with some of the sugar or all of the sugar from the recipe, and allows some of the juices to come out then reduces it down. We're gonna talk more about it later, but I bring it up now because
it's especially great to do when using a combination of fruits. Because you can macerate
the fruits together, those juices are gonna get
pulled out by the sugar then you can reduce them down together, and just better control
the juiciness of your pies. When you wanna use a
combination of fruits, this is also a great time to
consider precooked fillings because you can precook the
filling either together, or separate and control that thickness to exactly where you want it. Plus, with precooked fillings you can also do different decorating techniques, like swirling them together, creating patterns, it's really an opportunity to
make your pie extra beautiful and extra special. So when you're thinking
about combinations of fruits just remember that two different
kinds of fruits are going to have two different levels of juiciness. You wanna control that
as best you can upfront, so that you don't end up
with a mess of a pie later. We can't talk about fruit
pies without covering one of the most common questions
I get asked which is, what about frozen fruit? It is A-okay to use frozen fruit in a pie, but you do need to consider
the overall preparation from starting with frozen fruits to which way you're going to actually prepare your pie filling. There're a few things to consider; first of all, when you use
frozen fruit you do need to thaw the fruit before
baking it into a pie. Why? The main reason is
because as the fruit thaws it releases a ton of moisture. If you use frozen fruit in the pie filling it's going to release
that moisture in the oven; therefore, making an incredibly soggy pie, if you thaw the fruit you
can control the moisture. You can either reduce the juices that come off of the thawed fruit, or you can just remove them
leaving only the fruit behind. The choice is sort of up to you. I usually opt to reduce the juices because I want all that
flavor from the frozen fruit. But you can see a good example here I have some frozen wild blueberries which are one of my favorite
kinds of blueberries to use to make a blueberry pie. They are so sweet and so juicy, but they're very, very small. Even these tiny small berries
release a hefty amount of juice when thawed, so it's really really important
that you do this step, don't skip it or you're
gonna have a runny pie. After you thaw the fruit you can either use it
in a precooked filling, or an uncooked raw filling. If you're using a raw filling you can either discard these
juices as I mentioned before, or reduce them down to
about a third of a cup then add them back to your filling. If you want to use a precooked filling, you wanna start by reducing these juices. You wanna concentrate those flavors before you even begin cooking
the rest of the filling. And remember, frozen fruit
that's been thawed is going to break down a little bit
faster because it's (laughs) Bren, what is it Brimley? Did you just wink at me.
- Yeah. (Erin laughs) - And back to bed he goes, my dog, and lessly entertaining. I don't remember what I was saying, does anyone one else. (laughs) When you're making a precooked filling with thawed frozen fruit
remember that during the thawing the fruit is going to
break down a little bit just inherently that's what
happens when you freeze and thaw the fruit. Some of that moisture comes
out all of those things. So again, that fruit is
going to break down quicker in the pot too, so you wanna really think
about reducing the juices before adding the fruit back in, or you could end up with
sort of a jammier filling, unless that's what you're going for, which would be delicious too. Even if that happens you can save it just make a jammy filling, it'll be great. Now, that covers your frozen fruit for whether you're using a
cooked filling or raw filling, but also what about
freezing the fruit yourself. One of the best ways to have
good seasonal fruit year round is to freeze a little when it's good. Go to the farm and pick a little, or if you've got a bush out
in your yard, or a tree, pick the good stuff and freeze
the things that are good for freezing; berries, stone fruit, lots of things freeze great. What I like to do is a method
that is formerly called IQF, or Individually Quick Frozen. This is sort of a home version, so it's not the appropriate, or full way that they would do this if they were doing it industrially. But what you wanna do is you
want to arrange your fruit in an even layer on a sheet pan. The fruit to be barely touching, but you don't want it touching too much. You put the whole sheet
pan into the freezer and freeze the fruit until it
is fully, fully, fully frozen. After that point, the fruit
can pop off of the sheet tray and be put into a storage
container, a zip top, plastic bag, whatever you prefer. Individually quick freezing
the fruit kind of helps it maintain its structure and
shape a little bit better. So if you are freezing a pie you can still have nice big
chunks if you want them, and a little bit more versatility with how you're gonna
prepare your final pie. (ambient music) Let's talk about the most
common kind of fruit filling, uncooked or raw fruit filling. I may have not said that
with as much enthusiasm as I normally talk about things here on "Bake It Up a Notch" because it's actually one of
my least favorite methods. I still use it, and I think it's important to talk about how to get the best results. But you're going to see that
I get a little more excited about some of the other methods
that we're going to discuss that give you a little bit
more consistent results. The problem with using raw
fruit is that we don't know that juiciness level of the fruit itself. Even if you taste a
little bit of it at first you don't know how much is hiding inside that is gonna come out in the oven. This is an important time to remember some of the scientific elements
of some of our ingredients. Sugar is hygroscopic, that means it pulls
moisture out of things, and so when you toss sugar
with an ingredient like fruit, it starts to pull some of the juices out. If it does that in the oven you end up with a very soggy, juicy pie. If you take care of it
before you put the pie into the oven in some form
or another you'll end up with a more consistent result. I first learned about this technique from one of my baking
mentors, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and she actually has a
genius recipe on Food52 that features this method and
uses it with great results. Today I'm using it with peaches. You can see if I hold
this up a little bit, the peaches have been
macerating for several hours. During that time the sugar has
pulled a lot of moisture out of the peaches. During that maceration time when at the beginning of the
maceration time I tossed it with either a portion of
the sugar from the recipe or the entire thing, it
sort of depends again, on what recipe you're using. I toss it a few times as it sits to kind of redistribute that sugar and make sure that it's
touching all of the fruit, getting all of those juices out. Once it's macerated for several hours, it can pull out as much
as a cup of liquid, it depends on the recipe, and the type of fruit you're using, but really a lot of liquid can come out. We don't want that much liquid in our pie. We wanna reduce that
kind of across the board, my magic number is about a 1/3 of a cup, somewhere between a 1/4 of a cup and a third of a cup is
the magic magic amount. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to strain this peach mixture. I'm just gonna pour it
right into a strainer, reserving the juices. I'll save the fruit for later. And if your fruit isn't super delicate you can actually press pretty firmly to help release some of those juices. We really wanna make sure that we get everything out of there. We want all of those juices
to end up in our pie, but we wanna reduce some of the water. What happens by reducing some of the water is we leave just the
sweetness of the fruit, the flavor of the fruit behind, we end up with this
incredibly flavorful liquid. So what we'll do is we'll
take this to the stovetop, we'll cook it in a small pot
till it's about that amount. If you do this maceration process, and you only end up with about a quarter to a third of a cup of liquid just proceed with your recipe
as is using that liquid. But at least you know before
you even make the pie, you know before you put it in the oven that you're in control
of the liquid situation, you're in control the
filling, you got this. So we put this in a pot, we cook it down, reduce it on the stovetop
until it gets the amount that we wanted. When it does it will
look sort of like this. It'll be slightly deeper in color, and it will be thicker and more syrupy. We wanna make sure that that
mixture cools a little bit, but usually tossing it
back with the fruit, the fruit itself is cool. It's you know, at room temperature. Usually this is such a
small amount of liquid that you can kind of toss
it right back into it. So now that's one of the reasons that I think fruit fillings, raw fruit fillings are so beloved is they're a little bit easier, because now all we have to do
is toss our remaining sugar and our starch whatever
our thickening agent is with the fruit, and then we can add that juicy liquid and any other flavorful
ingredients we're adding back in, so I'm just gonna add the sugar. This mixture uses some
flour instead of cornstarch. I'm just gonna toss that until the fruit is
evenly coated with both. Of course, you can use a
spoon or spatula for this, but if you haven't been able to tell yet on "Bake It Up a Notch," I
like to use my hands, guys. You can feel the food. You can feel what's happening. You can see if it's even, or if something's going on. All really important good stuff. Also, you might notice
because I am doing this with some peaches here that
I did not peel my peaches. This is a little Erin PSA for
whoever out there wants it. (upbeat music) I don't always feel my fruit. I like the peels. There's a lot of nutrients in there. There's a lot of flavor in there, There's a lot of tartness, and most of all there's
some thickening ability. That skin really can help
naturally thicken up a filling, so I like to leave it on. If you don't totally fine, peel your fruit, good for you. It's your choice, that's the customizability of pies. I know some people think
it's a little tough even after baking, so it's totally up to you. I like the color. I like the flavor. I like what it does, and like I said there's a lot
of nutrients in there too. All right, now our reduced juices go in. Oh my God, that looks so pretty. Get all of them, scraped like it's your Christmas bonus. Oh yes. So this mixture should look
when it's done quite gloppy, and that's because the
thickener that we're using to help thicken the final
pie is not cooked at all. This is completely raw. That's important to
remember because people tend to forget the most important step when they are making a raw
or uncooked fruit filling. At some point this mixture
has to come to a boil, or it's going to taste like starch, and it's not going to be thick enough. If it does not come to
a boil, an active boil, it's not gonna be thick
enough when you slice it. So this is all to say that your fruit pie that's made with an uncooked
fruit filling has to, has to, has to show
visible signs of bubbling, or lots of steam coming through
the vents of the top crust. So either way, whether it's
a single crust or lattice, and you can see bubbles
coming out from it, or whether it's a double crust, and maybe there's a little bubble, but lots and lots of steam then you know that that
starch has been activated, it's been cooked, and that pie is going to
be as thick as you want it. So that's the simplicity and how to make an uncooked fruit filling. (ambient music) Guys, let's talk about
precooked fruit fillings. These are incredibly
underrated in my opinion. No one knows enough about these. No one does these, and I don't know why. They make more consistent, reliable fruit pies every single time, and the feeling gets a boost of flavor from any kind of cooking that you do that concentrates those flavors. I love a precooked fruit filling. So let's talk about all the
different ways you can do it. The most common way to do
a precooked fruit filling is on the stovetop. What you're gonna do
usually is toss the fruit with a little bit of sugar, and let it start to break down. This is that same moment
that we wanna consider the final texture that we want in our pie. If we want big chunks of fruit, and we want nice variance of texture, that's when we're gonna want to consider, making sure we don't cook this too long. If we cook it too long between
that initial cook time, and the oven time the fruit
might break down a lot more. This is especially important
for really tender fruits like berries. Other fruits like cherries,
like what I've got here, you know, are a little sturdier, and you have to really
really cook for a long time to be able to get them to break down, so you can not worry
about lengthier cook times and getting that juiciness
level just right. After your fruit has started
to break down a little bit with the sugar and is
starting to get closer to the consistency that you want, a little bit tender, some
of those juices coming out, that's when you're gonna
wanna add the thickener. What I like to do is stir
some of that thickener in with some granulated sugar. The granules of the sugar
help break up the cornstarch so that when you add it to the pot as the sugar dissolves the
cornstarch is evenly dispersed. This is also important because
we're going to be adding it to an already hot fruit mixture, so the cornstarch dissolves
easily in cold liquids, but not as easily once the mixture is hot. And this is my preferred method, because I like to get
some of that juiciness out before I add the thickener. Once you've added the thickener you want to cook the mixture
until it reaches the thickness that you're looking for. Now this is gonna vary a little bit based on the type of pie you're doing. Remember, double crust fruit
pies are gonna bake longer in the oven than single crust fruit pies, so you might wanna cook the
filling a little bit more for a single crust it's not
going to thicken up as much in its bake time. If you add thickener to your mixture and it still isn't thick enough remember, it's going to thick
and more as it cools down, and it needs to cool down
before you put it into a crust. Putting hot filling of
any kind into a crust unless the recipe specifically specifies to do so can make the
crust a little bit soggy, so I like to make sure we
cool the filling completely before we go on. My preferred way to do this
quickly is on a baking sheet just like this. I spread out the hot
filling into an even layer, and that increased surface
area helps it cool faster, so I don't have to be
waiting for hours and hours as it cools in a bowl. But it's important to remember this is another precooked fruit filling, and as you can see it's a lot looser than this precooked fruit filling, that's because these are berries, berries have more juice, and I like then a juicier berry pie. So this is one of those
times that it's important to remember at the end of the day pie is still about preference. All your desserts are, anything you're making at
your home you can customize to make it exactly how you like it. So I like a pie that holds a slice, I like to be able to lift that pie out, and not have the filling falling out. But I also like there to be
a little bit of juiciness, so what you prefer is the right way. There's no one right way to pie guys, there are so many right ways, and this is just one of them. I will say that I think precooked fillings give you the most reliable result, and they are adjustable. If your filling is a little bit too thin and you were wishing it was
thicker even after it cooled, you can stir in a little
bit more thickener to the cooled filling and
return it to the pot to cook. If your filling is a little bit too thick you can always thin it down
with a little bit of water or a flavorful liquid like juice, whatever you want to kind of
get it to the right consistency and get a juicier pie back. Once your filling has cooled completely like this triple berry filling, we can pour it right into our crust. This is going to be a
single crust fruit pie with a streusel topping. So I've already par baked
and cooled my crust, and now I'm adding the pie filling back into the cooled crust. Remember, this filling is going
to thicken more in the oven because that starch is going to continue its thickening abilities. What is important to
remember is I always talk about how important it is for
fruit pies to come to a boil, but when you precook the fruit
filling it comes to a boil before the oven. So in the oven when it bakes
it may actually have more of a matte effect on the surface than that kind of bubbly,
juicy, overflowing sort of look. So it's important to remember especially when you're making a single crust pie with a precooked fruit filling that it isn't likely to bubble. Instead, it's going to get
kind of an even matte look on the surface and that's
how you know it's done. (ambient music) Okay, so we talked about
uncooked fruit fillings and precooked fruit fillings which I obviously favor a little bit, but there is something
else to think about. Rules are made to be broken
so you can precook a filling and still get some of that juiciness, and that freshness from
an uncooked filling. How do you do it? By just stirring some raw fruit into your precooked filling. I like to do this when I'm
doing combinations of fruit, but it's also great with fruits
that are particularly juicy where you want a little bit
of juiciness in that pie. A great example is like a
blueberry pie, or a cherry pie, this one's gonna be cherry raspberry, and that raspberries are gonna add a little bit of juiciness. They're gonna stay whole and fresh. They're gonna break down into the oven, and do all these you
know, juicy oven things that they like to do. And the precooked fruit
filling is gonna stay it's normal thicked, thicked, thicked, did I just say thicked. It's going to say it's
normal thickened self, and the juices from the
raspberry are just going to kind of juice it up a little bit. So like I said rules
are made to be broken, it doesn't have to be one or the other, in fact, if you wanna do a
partially precooked filling, it can be both. And you know what's really crazy it didn't even need thickener. Okay, sorry. - I'm ready. - I'm ready too.
- Are you ready? - Oh, am I ready. Okay, this is actually one of
my favorite types of fillings to talk about because
it's pretty unexpected. For this filling I roasted the fruit. I first came about doing
this when I was working on an article for Food52 on
how to make an easy oven jam. Instead of having to cook
all of it on the stovetop, and reduce it down I did it in the oven. The increased surface
area of a baking sheet allows the fruit, the juices of the fruit to kind of spread out, and they thicken a lot quicker to kind of this jammy consistency. It's really amazing. So in that sheet pan
jam article that I wrote when the fruit was roasted
it was tender enough that you would just sort
of use a potato masher and mash it up and boom, you've got jam. But then one day I was
in my kitchen thinking, "Boom, I could have pie filling, I could have pie filling
by roasting it," right? So that's what I did I gave it a try, and in my new cookbook, "The Book on Pie," I have an amazing roasted strawberry pie, and an amazing roasted pineapple pie, but today, I made a roasted blueberry pie. And what is so cool about this method is the fruit stays relatively whole, and you get that kind of feeling
of larger pieces of fruit, but the juices inside the fruit reduce in such a way that you
usually don't even need to add thickener to the pie. Yes, that's right, no thickener,
I can hardly believe it, but it's true. So all that is in this
pie is blueberries, sugar, and some flavoring, some
lemon zest, some lemon juice, you know the typical
sorts of additional things you would add to make that
filling taste so great. So you're gonna see I'm gonna shake it, and then my overhead
camera there you can see that it's firm, it's still
got some juiciness to it, but it's firm, and I didn't add any cornstarch. I didn't add any flour. So I've found that the cool
thing about using roasting as a method for pie filling, not only is it pretty easy and hands off, but it also produces a filling that is really, really concentrated, and has this incredible depth of flavor. My assistant Katie, she gave a slice of that roasted strawberry pie to someone, and they said it tasted
the most strawberry of anything they've ever tasted. And that's how I feel about it, so this really concentrated, but also this really naturally
beautiful consistency. And while we're talking about
unexpected cooking methods, another one that you might
wanna try is grilling. Grilling fruit can kind of
concentrate the flavors, and give it a little bit of a char then you can just go ahead and chop it, and use it in either a
precooked or uncooked filling. But I love that little boost of flavor that the grilling gives it, and I also like that
little bit of smokiness. So remember, it's okay
to think outside the box with your fruit fillings, and all your pie fillings really, because you might find
something unexpected that makes a really great pie. (chiming music) Crust considerations. These are the things
you need to think about when you are making a fruit pie. The most important thing
is single crust pies. Single crust pies benefit from par baking. Remember, the general rule
is that a single crust pie has less bake time in the oven, so it generally will not
get brown sufficiently on the bottom of the crust, and you might end up with a soggy bottom, if you don't take care of par
baking that crust a little bit before you put your
filling in and bake again. Double crust pies on the other hand which of course are extremely popular in the fruit pie category and genre are usually require a longer bake time, and as a result they usually
will bake sufficiently in that amount of time
including the bottom crust, and therefore don't require par baking. I will say again that I
like to bake, and par bake, and really just generally
bake pies on a baking steel, or a pizza stone. Either one of these is great for ensuring that you get more heat
to the bottom of the pie, and make sure that it's
really browning consistently, and evenly and that we don't end up with any soggy bottoms that could ruin our perfect fruit pies. (upbeat music) One of my favorite
sub-categories of fruit pies is the upside down fruit pie. The most famous of which
would be the tart to tan. I like to make tart to tan, or upside down fruit pies
with any kind of fruit. This one I have here is pineapple. The way that you make an upside
down pie is very different than a typical pie because
there's only crust on the top which of course becomes the bottom. So we're going to invert this
pie in just a few moments. This just came out of the oven. You have to unmold it while it's hot, but it is good to give
it a few moments to cool, because what we've done is we
started with sort of a butter and sugar mixture in the pan, and then we added our fruit to that after that sugar began to
caramelize a little bit. It makes this sort of yummy caramel sauce, and then the fruit cooks in it. We put the dough on top, that's another thing that's so different about upside down pies
is that the dough goes into like a hot pan, which is crazy. And then we bake it until that
pastry gets nice, and puffy, and fluffy, and perfect, and then we invert it
while it's still warm, and that caramel sort
of covers all the fruit. It even runs down in
the sides a little bit. It is killer, and it's actually an incredibly easy pie to make, no thickeners, no nothing. It's a great dinner party dessert. More people should be making tart to tans, let's unmold this beauty. (tranquil music) (laughs) It is normal when you unmold
a tart to tan sometimes for some of the fruit to
either stay stuck in the pan, or to just kind of become displaced. I'm a food stylist, so I've got tweezers, but
a fork, a little spatula, whatever you got, you can
just push your fruit back into its place. And as it cools the
caramel is going to harden, and it will kind of re-adhere
itself to your crust, and make this incredibly
delicious, beautiful situation. So the takeaway here
upside down fruit pies are incredibly easy. They're really adaptable to
just about any type of fruit, and they are so delicious. If you're interested in
more about upside down or tart to tan let me
know in the comments. We're considering maybe
making some more of these down the line if that would
interest our viewers here on "Bake It Up a Notch." And in the meantime I'm
gonna go ask my buddy Brimley what he thinks about this upside down pie. But of course, he won't get to sample it, I'll save the sampling for me. (laughs) (chiming music) So how can you tell when
your fruit pie is done? We've talked about it
a little bit throughout with the different cooking methods, but I still wanna put it kind of in a succinct cheaters guide
so that you know exactly what you need to know to get
it right every single time. If you're working with an
uncooked or raw fruit filling, you wanna make sure that that pie bubbles, we wanna see bubbles to know that the thickener is activated. If you're working with a
precooked fruit filling it will have a matte sort of
darkened look to the surface, a slightly darker hue than
it was when you put the pie into the oven. And another reminder people ask me a lot about pies browning too quickly. When I make fruit pies I don't always egg wash the entire pie. If I'm making a single crust
pie I might egg wash the edge. If I'm making a double crust pie I might only egg wash the top of it, because the edges tend to
brown enough on their own in that lengthier time in the oven. But if you find that a portion, or most of your crust
is browning too quickly, remember, you're in
control this pie situation, you can tend part of or
the entire pie with foil to help it prevent continuing
to brown excessively, and you can also reduce
the oven temperature. Sometimes your oven is running hot and you might not even know it, So knock the oven temperature
down 25 to even 50 degrees for the remainder of bake time. Just remember that when you
knock down that temperature the bake time is gonna be longer, so keep that in mind. Don't take that pie out too soon, or you'll end up with a soggy bottom, or maybe even a runny filling. Upside down pies are slightly trickier to determine the doneness, because of course the fruit
itself is out of your view, it's underneath the crust in the pan. So the best factor to look for is a really evenly golden brown crust. If it's only brown at the edges, it's likely not done. Don't take it out until
it gets evenly golden, or you'll have kind of a
doughy bit in the center. The other thing that you can look for with upside down fruit
pies is some bubbling around the edges, around the outside where the crust kind of ends. That shows that the caramel
underneath is bubbling, it's steaming, and it's a good sign that it's ready to come out. (upbeat music) So here's the good news about fruit pies, if you follow the
guidelines that I gave you in the first part of this episode, you're not gonna have a lot of mistakes. They're actually incredibly forgiving, and incredibly delicious even when you mess them up a little bit, or even when they are a little too juicy, you know, they really
are just such great pies, they're just such great pies. But there are a few things to think about, so I wouldn't leave you
hanging about those mistakes. The first one is right in front of me and it's one of the most common ones. I got a question a lot when
my first cookbook came out about one of my favorite
pies, my Concord grape pie. It's a delicious pie, really
tart, juicy, so delicious, but it is entirely liquid when it is still hot, and that is really true for
most fruit pie fillings, if not all of them, actually. Yeah, yeah, it's all of them. All of them are going to
be loose when they're hot, so it's really important
to let it cool entirely before you serve it. "But Erin, I like to eat my pie warm." Understood, I get ya,
I'm with you on that. We've got a solution for that. But first, here's what I'm talking about when I shake this pie you
can see from overhead, look how loose this filling is. This is a precooked fruit filling, which is already thicker
than a raw fruit filling, and it will continue to
thicken up as this pie cools. But for right now it is
absolutely positively way too warm to cut. If we cut this pie it will be soup. That doesn't mean the recipe doesn't work. It doesn't mean we baked a bad pie, it just means we have to
have a little patience. And I know that's very difficult, especially when your
house smells like pie, but you can make your
pies ahead and instead opt to refresh them. I write about this technique
of refreshing a lot in my upcoming book "The Book on Pie," but the number one thing to remember is that refreshing is possible
both to recrisp the crust and to gently warm the filling. My general advice when
reheating is to start with your pie, or your slice of pie, or your individual pie,
whatever you're reheating, gently tented with foil. I like to start that way just in case it browns
a little bit too much in the process of reheating. Then you want to take that foil off towards the end of the
bake time to help recrisp that outside edge of the crust to help bring a little bit of
the color back into your pie. You can reheat gently at
different temperatures, one of my favorite techniques is actually to put it in the oven and
start to preheat the oven with the pie in it to
375 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do that it will sort
of gently bring the pie up to temperature as the
oven comes to temperature, then you just usually need
a few minutes depending on how big the portion or entire pie if you're doing an entire pie is. You could need as little as
five minutes after preheating, and up to maybe 15 or even 20. Just remember still give
it a good five-sh minutes of cool time before you dig in, but because the pie has set completely it will warm in that time, but it won't necessarily return to this sort of jiggly liquid state. So refreshing your pies
is a great opportunity if you love a warm slice of apple pie, or any kind of fruit pie opt for reheating instead of cutting it while it's warm. Now this is one I've already
talked about quite a bit in this episode and it's
a really important one. This is a raw fruit filling
that has been baked. You see we've got kind
of a mixture of jamminess and some pieces of whole fruit just by the nature of some of
that fruit being very soft, and juicy, and breaking down, and some of that fruit being
firmer and staying together, but I did not let this pie come to a boil. You can also notice that
the outside of this crust is significantly lighter
than the crust next to it, and that's because it
didn't bake quite enough. I like a really dark golden brown, crispy, flaky, crunchy crust. I want all those things. So we are cutting into this, and we are gonna see, oh my
gosh, I can already, (chuckles) the mistakes happen part guys is my like favorite part of this show, but it's also my least favorite, it's all rolled into one, because I wanna show you
'cause I want you to know what it looks like, but it also breaks my
heart when the pie is not what it could be. But don't worry I'm gonna fix this pie, and we can still eat this pie. Never fear about that, I had a great question
about that on YouTube. No pie is wasted even mistakes happen pies not in this kitchen. So I'm cutting into this
and you can already see I basically it won't even
hold a line in the filling from where I'm standing. And it just, this filling did not, the thickener did not activate. So even as it sat to cool
it didn't thicken anymore, because that thickener
didn't fully activate. (laughs) Well, the crust is flaky you can see that, look how flaky that is, dang! (laughs) The fruit is not even
staying on the slice of pie. Most of it fell back into the pie plate. So again, this would be tasty, possibly, but it might also have a
noticeable starch taste. I get a comment a lot on my Instagram from people who say, "Do
you have any pie recipes that don't use cornstarch? I hate the way it tastes." I'm sure that there are people out there with incredibly strong palates
who can taste cornstarch, but if you use cornstarch effectively you should not taste it. The only time you should taste it is if you use it improperly, if it doesn't cook out. So if flour, cornstarch, tapioca, whatever starch you're using, they all work, they all work great, but you have to actually
get them to the point that they can activate; otherwise, you're gonna end up with pie that is basically soup. That was gross, wasn't it? (laughs) The last major mistake that
I do find people make a lot has to do with those things
we were talking about the very beginning of this episode, choosing the right preparation method for the type of fruit you're using. Remember, really, really overripe fruit actually works great in a pie, but when it's really, really overripe it's going to be very soft and very juicy. So sometimes it's best to lean into that, go with kind of a jammier method, or a precooked filling
that you can thicken up and get those flavors in there. Similarly, if a fruit is really firm, I mentioned you might wanna
opt for a whole fruit option, like my apple dumpling recipe
that's great on Food52. You might also want to
opt to cook that fruit in a way that concentrates the flavors that it does have. Because if you have a rock hard peach there still is juiciness
and sugar in there, there's just not as much
as in a really juicy, you know, really in season peach. So by grilling it or by roasting it you can kind of concentrate the flavors that are in there and kind
of give them that boost that they need to really
still make a good pie. And then finally, when you've got fruit that's kind of just right, you sort of have your pick of options. You can use a raw, uncooked, filling, you can still opt to precook it, you can reduce the juices, you can kind of go any of these routes just go with what is gonna work best for the fruit and you're gonna end up with the best pie that
that fruit could make. (guitar music) I was like can I lift
this whole thing out? No not yet, (chuckles) she's
like, "No, it's not possible." It's possible, I promise. It's pie-ssible. Yes.
- Oh my God. - Let's talk about storing fruit pies, because unfortunately, fruit pies are one of the most sensitive to store. They really are best when they
are made relatively fresh, or when they are refreshed
fairly soon after being baked. So remember, when you're
working with an unbaked pie, they can be held in the refrigerator, you should cover them
loosely with plastic wrap, so that the dough doesn't dry out. I usually don't like to keep pies, assembled pies like that
unbaked in the fridge for any longer than two hours. Because again, that
sugar is in the filling, and it's going to continue to kind of pull moisture out even if you've got a precooked, or if you're working with
the raw fruit filling, especially then. So no more than two
hours in the refrigerator unbaked covered loosely with plastic wrap. Once the pies are baked
they are really best stored at room temperature. That's the best opportunity
for the crust to stay crisp, so you can just cover them
loosely in plastic wrap, or even tend to them loosely with foil, and they're going to be
good for a day or two. As fruit pies sit at room temperature they will lose a little bit of
the crispness of their crust. So remember, they can be
refreshed using the methods that I talked about before which will help to recrisp the crust, and it'll also give the filling
a little bit of a warm boost to kind of get that whole pie
back to as close as possible to when it was fresh. (upbeat music) Let's talk about
decorating your fruit pies. You're gonna find tons of
ideas for decorating pies in my new book, "The Book on Pie," but I have a few that
kind of are particular to fruit pies that are
always really fun to discuss. The first one is what's
right in front of me and it's talking about
decorative techniques you can do with your crust
specifically your top crust. This is a piece of dough that I rolled out to make the top crust, and I've been taking some little cutouts from it using this little, these are sometimes called pie stamps, because they're not only a cutter, they also have a little plunger
that makes an indentation that is really cute, and
attractive, and pretty on the final pie. What I'm doing here is
I'm taking some cutouts from you can see kind of this indentation on the outside of my dough here. What I did was I turned
my pie plate upside down and gently pressed it into
the dough to make this guide, because what I'm going to do
is I'm going to make a cut out from the top crust of my pie. So I'm gonna take these little snowflake pieces out eventually, and then gently unfurl this
top crust on top of my pie. This is particularly fun because it's a nice
way to kind of show off your fruit filling on the inside, because you're gonna
take these pieces out, and you can see the color
of your fruit filling, and you can give it some
room to bubble over. Plus, you can save these
little cutouts as decorations for the outer edge of your pie. You can transfer them to another pie. You can bake them as pie scraps, snacks, and just munch on them, tons and tons of possibilities there. Another one of my favorite
top crust techniques is latticing a pie. I have a great article on Food52 that features tons of
different ways to lattice. There's so many more than
just one way to lattice guys. There's so many ways to lattice. I also did a classic
lattice on this pie today. Remember, they're both
woven and unwoven lattices, so if lattices feel difficult to you, remember, you could start
with one that's just unwoven. Lay all the strips one direction, then lay more strips and other direction, no weaving required. You can also use things
like braids and twists, multiple strands of pie dough braided, or twisted together as some of
your strips in your lattice, or even as edges decorative
around the outside edge. There are so many possibilities
of things you can do to get creative with your dough, and the best part is
they're all so delicious. My number one tip for using a lattice is to make the strips slightly thicker than you would if you were
just doing a top crust, or even the bottom crust which
you want to be nice and thin. When you're working with a lattice you pull the strips back repeatedly, pulling them back, laying them back down, that action of pulling even
if the dough is really nice and chilled can kind of
stretch the dough a little bit. If you want to avoid that stretching, rolling it a little bit
thicker helps make that strip, that lattice a little bit hardier. Plus who's mad at a little bit more crust on the top of their pie? Not I. The last thing I wanna talk
about is garnishing fruit pies. Because remember, you can garnish
any kind of pie, you know, people tend to think, "Oh, I put whipped cream on cream pies," or "I put meringue on lemon pie." But you can really do
those kinds of garnishes, those finishing techniques
on anything you desire. I mentioned earlier that one
of my all time favorite pies is Concord grape pie. So in my new pie book I have a great Concord
grape meringue pie recipe. I think it is so
delicious with, oh my God, look at this meringue. I love you, I think. It's the perfect swoop. It's the perfect, I don't
even wanna put it on the pie, I just want to like marry it on the spatula right here, right now, and forever and ever they were happy. Oh, it's falling. (laughs) Not happy forever. I'm just gonna put this
meringue on the pie. Whenever I put meringue on a pie, don't forget to watch my meringue episode of "Bake It Up a Notch," if you're thinking, "I'm
scared of meringue." You don't need to be scared of meringue. There's lots of amazing
things about meringue, and they are not scary. I like to pile my meringue a
little bit more in the center than at the edges. Then I can just kind of
scoop it out to the edges while still maintaining
that slightly mounted look in the front. So I pile everything in the center and then just kind of gently
push from the center down to make kind of sloped sides on the pie. You can also not do this and just spread it in an even layer, but a little bit of a mound
is always so beautiful, especially on a meringue pie. It makes it look so towering so mile high. It's like one of those, just
one of those things, right. And then of course, if you wanted to you could torch this meringue, because we like fire in this kitchen. But if you don't wanna torch it, it's also delicious, just like this. Remember, pies are an opportunity
to be just as creative with your decorating as
you can be with something, like layer cakes, pastries, anything. There's a ton of fun to be had here, so get creative, find some pictures that
inspire you, and get baking. You can make any kind of pie, kind of elevate it, take it to the next level with some of these fun
decorative techniques. Give it some swoops. Give it a nice little dollop on top, that'll look cool. That'll look cool. Was that cool?
- Yes. - Okay. (man whispers) It wasn't, I'm gonna swoop it. (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah ♪ Thank you so much for
joining me for this episode of "Bake It Up a Notch" where we talked all things fruit pies. I hope this episode arms you
to get the most consistent and best fruit pies that you've ever had, so that you can be making
a lot more fruit pies, because you should, you should be making tons of these, especially as we head into fall, and I hope that this episode had tons of information for you. If there's any questions
that I did not answer be sure to leave them in the comments. I'd love to see what you're baking with #bakeitupanotch. Be sure to tune in next month for the last part of our pie spectacular. We are talking cream,
chiffon, and cold set pies. It's gonna to be a ton of fun, don't miss it, until then happy baking. (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah ♪
