My grandmother taught me to sprinkle flour in a fruit pie, apple, rhubarb, blueberry, to try to get it to thicken, and not be a runny mess. Sometimes it worked, often it didn't, at worst the flour just sat there and baked into lumps. The idea behind flour, was to get the starch to absorb the liquid from the fruit, the starch granules expand, and form a sauce. Good idea, but not the most reliable in my experience. Cornstarch is much more reliable. For fruit like rhubarb, blueberries, strawberries I cut the fruit, add a little liquid (brandy, bourbon or water) sugar, and a heaping soup spoon of corn starch and pre-cook it while the pie shell is blind baking. You cook it over medium low or medium heat, until the fruit starts to release it's juice, and the starch starts to thicken. Put in the partially baked pie or tart shell and bake as you normally would. When cooled the liquid sets to a gel, allowing a slice to come out relatively clean, heaven on a plate.
Fruit pectin will also thicken a sauce. Cranberries, often have enough pectin to thicken without adding anything. An alternative would be to add pectin to thicken a pie - has anyone done that?
I've only used pectin to thicken jam successfully made in a bread maker.
ReplyDeleteJam in a bread maker, that is a new one for me
DeleteNo, I use a cornstarch slurry to thicken my fruity pie filling.
ReplyDeleteWorks, most of the time
DeleteI use a cook to thicken a pie.
ReplyDeleteKeep exploring the joy of cooking
DeleteA most practical approach.
Deletethe only "pie" I've ever made is a quiche lorraine with a frozen pie crust. call me lazy.
ReplyDeleteSavory with eggs, eggs become the thickening agent. I have overcome my fear of pastry,
DeleteMy mother taught me the corn starch method years ago but I haven't made a fruit pie in ages.
ReplyDeleteI bake more than I use to
DeleteI make a cherry pie with either fresh tart cherries or canned tart cherries (not cherry pie filling). I use a Betty Crocker cookbook recipe. It calls for two cans of drained cherries, 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar, 1/3 cup of flour. Mix the dry stuff first, and add the drained cherries. I never drain the cherries thoroughly; just empty the cans into a strainer, and then immediately dump into the mixing bowl with the mixed dry ingredients. (This gets a little cherry water in the mix without making it all too runny.) Then add 1/4 teaspoon of real almond extract. This is the secret ingredient. It adds a tiny bit of a kick to the now sweetened cherry mix. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of red food coloring if the cherries are kind of anemic looking. I stir this a little bit and then set aside while I work on the crust. I either make one from scratch or use the rolled up crust packages from the dairy and butter aisle. I don't like the frozen crusts, but they could work, too. I've never tried blind baking a crust, but that would be doable, as well. I then thoroughly stir the cherry mixture, pour it into the crust in the pan, and then dot with 2 tablespoons of margarine or butter cut into small pieces. I top this with a lattice crust that I liberally sprinkle with sugar, cover the edge of the crust with foil (the whole time), and bake at 375 for an hour, checking after 45 minutes. This is for a 9" pie, not deep dish. I've been told that this is the best cherry pie people have eaten. I take no credit for this. It's all Betty Crocker. I still think the key is the almond extract and the sugared lattice top! I think the almond extract might work in certain berry pies, too. Sorry for such a long post.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try that, I have cherries in the pantry
DeleteDon't forget the pure almond extract; it makes all the difference!! Enjoy.
DeleteI recently tried making marmalade from grapefruit. It was flop. Would that I added pectin !
ReplyDeleteI use tapioca starch with fruit pies.
ReplyDelete