Pies Lesson 3

You have already learned the most important things about making pies, and if you can roll out a successful crust then 99% the battle is won. With this lesson we are going to go thru the odds and ends, you might be wondering about, and hopefully clear up any questions you might have.

I thought we would go thru fillings really briefly, there are so many different types,that we can never cover it really thoroughly, but since most pies have recipes for the filling, that are pretty basic, I won’t go into it too heavily.
It is worth mentioning however that different fruits are treated differently, depending on their flavor and liquid content, what you would do with an apple pie, versus a cherry pie is far different.
Sweetening varies widely, with some fruit pies you will add lemon juice to them because they are overly sweet, and other fruit pies require extra sugar because they are very tart. Blackberry pie is a good example of this.
There 3 basic thickeners that you will encounter, flour,cornstarch and tapioca. I personally prefer cornstarch and flour, but have been known to use tapioca in cherry pies.
Sugar will also add to the thickness, which is why you will see a recipe for blueberry pie, that has sugar, and then lemon juice to offset the sweetness.
Fruit pie fillings are usually just a matter of mixing frozen fruit, with flour/cornstarch and sugar, any spices and then putting in the pie shell. Very easy, but don’t make the mistake of using the same ratio of sugar to flour in every pie, check your recipe first.
Pumpkin pie is a favorite in our house, and is very easy to make, recipes abound, and if you make your own filling from pumpkins instead of from the can, you will find several recipes on the internet. My favorite way to do pumpkin, is to buy the small sugar pumpkins/or grow them, and cut them in half, clean them and place them on a cookie sheet, and back till tender. Then just follow the recipe, to make your pie. If you find your pumpkin a bit too stringy, run it thru a food processor for a minute.
Something important to cover is pie filling that don’t require, cooking, or are cooked before being placed in the pie plate. In this case it is necessary to prebake your pie shell. If you have ever done this before, you know that if you do not put something in the shell it will puff up, and be useless for a pie filling. Now you can buy pie weights in the store, but what I was taught is much easier, simply spray a pie plate of identical size with a bit of cooking spray, and place it inside the pie plate, that has your unbaked crust, bake for 13-15 minutes and remove plate, you will have a great pre-baked shell.
It is so easy to come up with fillings for prebaked shells, a box of pudding, a bit of dreamwhip and some milk, gives you a quick dessert! You can freeze the shells before they are baked, if you have some disposable pie tins, or a lot of extra aluminum or glass ones. Then pop one in the oven to bake, add a filling and have an elegant pie, in 30 minutes or less. Some fillings take a bit longer, cheesecake pies, sour cream raisin, lemon Meringue all require some extra work but are well worth it. Easy fillings, might be banana pudding with bananas sliced in it. A chocolate mousse mix, with whip cream and chocolate curls. Coconut pie can be made by using a vanilla, pudding mix, adding coconut, to it, add a whipped topping and put toasted coconut on top.

Another think I wanted to cover briefly in this lesson, was tops. Most pies have another pie crust on top, but it does not have to be that way. One thing I do often is to combine 1 part butter to 2 parts flour or oats(or both) and 2 parts sugar or brown sugar. This is my favorite topping, and it is super simple to make. If you are a beginning pie maker, make a bottom crust, (they don’t get as tough ) and put a topping on it, a there you go?.

There is also for the more skilled baker several lattice tops you can make, I had hoped to demonstrate this to you, but never got that far, it is a bit time intensive, and can be difficult because you have to keep the dough chilled as you work.

Finally Freezing crusts, I usually portion my pie crust into one crust sections, and freeze it. When I want to use it I pull what I need allow it to thaw, and roll it out. It is best to thaw it in the fridge for a day or two… so it is easier to roll. You can also roll the crusts out, and either lay them flat and flash freeze them and put them into a Large bag to store, OR put them in pie tins and freeze. You may also freeze pies that have already been baked.
I hope that this series of lessons has been informative and you have learned from it, Lesson 4 is simple, if you want, make a pie, once you are done, take a picture, and send it to me, and we will create a final lesson with your pics.
Other than that, you should have all the tools now to make a perfect pie, I wish you pie success, and if you ever have a question or need some help never hesitate to ask, my door is always open.