[Sca-cooks] Pie crust help!!!

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:

> In general, when you have a very moist filling,
> there are some things 
> you can do to limit the damage. You seem to
> have tried some of them.
> 
> For one-crust pies, an at least partial blind
> baking seems to help, 
> especially if you brush egg white onto the
> inside of the bottom first.

Did that.  Didn't help.  The bottom was slightly
less soggy, but was difficult to unstick from
the pie pan, as the egg whites had gone through
the prick holes and burned to the pie pan.  This
was on a prebaked crust for a chess pie.
> 
> Mealy pie doughs tend to be more waterproof
> (all other things being 
> equal) than flaky ones.

Hmmm.  Hadn't heard that before.  Do you have
a recipe?  Everyone seems to strive for and
appreciate flaky crusts only.
> 
> What, if anything, do you bind the fruit juices
> with? Some people 
> make a pre-cooked filling with cornstarch or
> flour, or an uncooked 
> filling with flour (my standard apple pie uses
> this method), while 
> some European tart recipes even call for things
> like tapioca or 
> arrowroot, or cake crumbs sprinkled with
> varying degrees of 
> liberality on the bottom of the pie.

I mostly use tapioca.  I have used cornstarch
occasionally.  But even when the filling is
thick and not runny, the crusts still are soggy.
> 
> A good pan is pretty important. If it were up
> to me almost everything 
> would be cast iron, but in general a good,
> heavy pan is best. The pie 
> equivalent of the old thin-steel cake pans, the
> ones that begin to 
> season black on their own after some use, seem
> to improve with age 
> (possibly because as they season and develop a
> coating, they get 
> thicker and heavier). You might actually try a
> black iron skillet: a 
> bit on the rustic side, but it does a good job
> and helps bring heat 
> to the crust, cooking it before it turns to
> roux in the pan. Or try 
> using one of those oven stone or tile systems.

The pie pans I have been using are two, as I
usually make two pies at a time.  Both were
inherited from my grandmother, who was a master
of pie crusts.  One is ceramic and the other
is aluminum.  Both are about 50+ years old.

I haven't tried the oven stone/tile systems
yet.  I read somewhere that putting the baking
pie on a cookie sheet would bake the bottom
crust faster and better, but that didn't work
for me.
> 
> Try baking the pies on a lower oven rack: it's
> possible that either 
> you're baking them too quickly and deceiving
> yourself a bit as to 
> their doneness based on how brown they are, but
> in any case you may 
> simply need to give a little greater priority
> to the bottom crust; 
> what one of my culinary instructors used to
> call "giving it a little 
> more sunshine" (usually when we'd take
> something black and smoking 
> out of the oven, but nonetheless...). Obviously
> you don't want to use 
> the bottom of the oven itself. Actually, this
> assumes a gas oven. If 
> electric, I'm not sure if it would be the same.

When I bake two pies at a time, one is on the
lower rack and the other on the upper in my gas
oven.  Both usually are soggy.  My baking times
are usually what the recipe calls for.

Here is what I did with the blueberry pies that
I made yesterday.  

I prebaked the crusts according to the package;
11 min. at 450 degrees.  They came out lovely
brown and were completely baked at that point.
I lowered the oven temp to 375 degrees.

I made a custard filling of 4 eggs, 1 1/3 cups
sugar, 2 cups buttermilk, 3/4 cups butter.

I washed and dried 2 pints of blueberries.  I
placed one pint of blueberries in each pie pan.
I poured half of the custard in each pie pan.
I put one pie on the upper shelf and one on
the lower shelf.  I baked the pies for one hour
when the custard was set and just a touch brown
on top.

I served the one pie at room temp.  The custard
was set, but the bottom crust, which had been
thoroughly baked, was moist and soggy.  

> 
> Finally, the last, and possibly most important
> thing, is to 
> understand what you've got, and that it is
> never going to be a 
> brick-oven Neapolitan pizza margarita. In other
> words, liquids tend 
> to travel down, and you're not going to get a
> really crisp crust no 
> matter what you do. But, as I say, you can
> limit the damage.
> 
> Maybe you could give us a recipe or two and we
> could try to spot 
> obvious sources of difficulty...

Okay.  The previous pie I made was a two crust
peach pie.  The peaches were home grown white
fleshed freestone peaches.  Again, I used
Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts.

5 cups peaches, stoned, peeled and cut unto
eighths
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup tapioca
2 tbsp butter

I mixed the peaches, brown sugar, salt, and
tapioca together, then placed filling into 
prepared botton crust.  I cut butter into small
cubes and dotted the filling with them.  I then
covered the filling with the top crust and placed
about 8 to 10 vent holes on the top crust.

The oven was preheated to 450 degrees.  I baked
the pie for 10 minutes.  I then reduced the
temperature to 350 degrees and baked the pie
for a further 45 minutes.  I had placed this
pie on a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf.

When I served this at room temperature, the top
crust was perfect, the filling juicy but not
overly juicy and the bottom crust was doughy and
soggy.  If I remember correctly, I used my
grandmother's aluminum pie pan.

So, does anything pop out that I should do
differently?

Thanks.

Huette

=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.


		
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