Mushy apples. Sloppy filling. Bad butter. There are so many wrong ways to make an apple pie.
"I'm so nervous I'm shakin' in me Wellies." Perhaps the most common mistake people make is
using the wrong type of apples. While they all have their pros and cons,
there are a few varieties that are seemingly incompatible with this baked classic.
For starters, you want tart apples, so they balance the flavors from added sweeteners.
But there are other elements in play as well. While Macintosh fit the bill on the tartness,
they're no good for baking. They offer a softer bite and won't hold
up well in the oven, where the heat will turn them into mush.
Instead, you'll want fruit with firm flesh that won't collapse under high heat. So,
Gala and Red Delicious apples are a big no-no. Another feature to look out for
is juiciness. While these types of apples make for a wonderful snack on their own,
they can turn your filling into a soupy mess when used in pies. You're better off choosing varieties
with a low juice content, like Golden Delicious, Pinata, Granny Smith, and Rome Beauty Apples.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's pick some apples!"
No one likes cutting into a pie with runny filling. Not only does
it destroy the looks of the dessert, it also messes with the flavor. Even worse,
you'll end up with something more like apple pie soup.
Science of Cooking notes that thickeners add viscosity and body
to your food without altering other properties. These additions work by
binding to water molecules and absorbing all the moisture. And every baker's pantry
is sure to be stocked with cornstarch. It works faster than flour and forms a smooth,
clear filling — that is, at least according to one baker you might know; Martha Stewart.
"Oh! Good pie."
You can also add tapioca, flour, arrowroot starch, and potato starch. And agar-agar is another good
option. Baking Kneads also recommends using instant pudding mix as a thickener. Besides
improving the overall consistency, adding the dry powder also kicks up the flavor. The world
is your oyster, but most home bakers go for vanilla to knock that pie out of the park.
An award-winning pie demands the perfect crust: balanced and buttery, flaky but fall-off-your-fork
tender. And it should be a beautiful golden brown that showcases the apple filling. It turns out,
the perfect crust comes down to one important ingredient — good ol' butter.
Butter can be tricky to work with, especially when it comes to achieving the right temperature
for pastries. So be sure to incorporate chilled butter when making your dough. Warm butter will
harden the dough and make it more challenging to work with, resulting in a tough crust.
"Mmmm […] It's good."
Happily, chilled butter helps your baked pastry to puff. Once you've rolled and folded your dough,
those bits of butter create pockets of air in the oven, under the heat,
resulting in that melt-in-your-mouth flaky crust. Still, according to Quartz,
you don't want the butter to be too cold either, because it will be impossible to mix.
The next time you're in a hurry and leave dough out on the counter,
think again. This might jeopardize the entire integrity of your crust.
It will come out soggy and soft and won't be able to hold the pie filling together.
"Do you know how hard it is to make an apple pie?"
Back to that cold butter thing, if you don't chill your dough in the fridge, the butter in it will
start to melt. And instead of rising in the oven, it will collapse. As the New York Times notes,
the dough needs to stay chilled in order to remain firm when it goes in the oven. Plus,
chilled dough is easier to roll out because the gluten has had time to relax.
After that, just form the dough into a ball, wrap it in airtight plastic,
and let it rest for 2 hours in the fridge. If your pie typically has a hard and crumbly
crust, chances are you overworked the dough. You only really have to knead it lightly until it's
smooth. According to Culinary Choice, overworking forms gluten. And while it's excellent for baking
bread, it's bad news for pastries. The result will be a disappointing crust with a hard,
chewy texture that falls apart in your hands and possibly ruins your hopes and dreams.
"Don't over-handle it. You want it right on the verge of crumbling at any moment."
But you can easily tell if the dough is over-kneaded just by touching
it to see if it's hard and tight. When rolling, it won't stretch, and instead,
it breaks apart. Over-working typically occurs when your dough is sticky. And
you likely end up rolling it too much because the dough keeps sticking to the rolling pin.
Cookbook author Erin McDowell recommends chilling the dough and rolling it with
additional flour to balance the excess liquid so it doesn't stick, according to Food52. You
can also try the timeless method of rolling the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.
Probably the worst-case scenario when baking a pie is nothing short of a horror scene. The filling
has secretly shrunk, but the crust remains looking like it's still a great pie. And,
unbeknownst to anyone, there's a disappointing gap between the filling and the crust. It's a
total bummer to find out too late that you forgot to slice some air vents.
Erin McDowell notes that your crust needs to be vented to avoid the dreaded pie gap.
As your dessert bakes in the oven, the apples shrink and create a void full of
hot air. The best way to avoid this is by cutting vents into the top layer. So,
as the filling shrinks, the top crust settles as it bakes, and the steam has a chance to escape.
You can use a fork or a knife to do the work. Make roughly 4 to 5 slits that are 2 inches apart. And
just widen the gap with your fingers, if needed. If you want to go full Instagram-worthy, you
can try a pastry cutter to create cute geometric shapes like stars, hearts, flowers, and diamonds.
When it comes to your bake, there are two ways to go about it. You can use raw
apples or you can cook them first. While both methods yield plate-licking results,
raw apples are more notorious for the pie gap.
According to the Detroit Free Press, raw apples shrink down in the oven as they cook. And as they
decrease in volume, this allows air to get trapped between the crust and the filling.
But cooking your apples beforehand means no shrinkage once the pie hits the oven.
As Gordon Ramsay explains it, the secret to a great pie lies in caramelizing the apples
with sugar and cinnamon before adding them to the crust. And, hey, if it's good enough for Gordon
Ramsay, it's definitely good enough for us. People, size matters here! And if you don't cut
your apples evenly, you're setting yourself up for failure right from the start. Beside
the fact that different sizes could ruin the texture, they will also destroy the
overall look. And who wants to spend all this time baking, just to end up with a lumpy pie.
"We'll just tell your mother that we ate it all."
Odd sized apples won't cook at the same rate. The smaller pieces cook faster,
and the larger ones may even stay raw.
Granted, peeling and slicing a bunch of apples is a task. But Shelly from Frugal Family Home
explained the easy way to do it. Start by cutting off the top of the apple. Next,
peel your apples in a circular motion. Then, cut four large chunks close to the core. Lastly,
slice the apples to about a quarter of an inch thick. You can even use a vegetable slicer to
do the job. After that, you're good to go! Of course, flaky crust recipes call for butter.
But you might want to swap in an alternative, instead. Whether you're out of the real stuff,
or want to try a new method, it's important not to use the wrong type of fat for pie dough.
According to Cooking Light, if you swap real butter with vegetable shortening,
you'll likely be delightfully surprised by the results. Although you'll get a dough
that's a little darker than its butter-based counterpart, you'll still get that flaky bite.
Plus, since shortening has little to no taste, it won't affect the flavor profile.
"Pie crust and apple. Apple pie."
On the other hand, vegan shortening can have a strong plant-like flavor and be crumbly in
texture, so you're better off avoiding it altogether. Unrefined coconut oil adds a
strong flavor to the dough, but it does lead to a nice golden crust. Meanwhile,
palm oil is definitely not a great option due to its unpleasant flavor. Plus,
the dough becomes really hard to work with and requires a lot of water.
If you've been trying to figure out why your apple pie is always burnt or undercooked when
you take it out of the oven, you might be baking it on the wrong rack. While you might
assume that the middle rack is a neutral zone and a safe bet, when it comes to pie,
there is only one spot to put it. And it's not at the top, where it will get scorched.
"This must be where pies go when they die."
Since most of the crust is situated at the base of the dessert, you want the heat from the bottom
of the oven to thoroughly cook the dough. This is why you should reach for a lower rack. According
to Cook For Folks, a glass dish on the bottom rack bakes a beautiful golden crust. And if
your crust is browning or burning from the bottom, you can always move the pie up a level or two.
The best part about baking a pie is cutting it into perfect slices and eating it. But imagine
the horror when the bottom is soggy and your apple pie immediately starts falling apart. Well,
fret not fellow dessert lovers, there's a simple solution. All you have to do is
brush the bottom of your crust with an egg white wash. While brushing the top of baked goods is
relatively common, an egg white wash is also the perfect solution to preventing a soggy bottom.
"Had to show off my flaky-bottom crust."
According to The Pioneer Woman, to make the wash, just whisk one tablespoon of water
with an egg white until it's well combined. Then, use a silicone pastry brush to apply
the mixture to your crust. Live Well Bake notes that the proteins from the egg whites work as a
non-permeable barrier that prevents the moisture in the filling from making the crust soggy.
Who doesn't want to dive right into a freshly baked pie? But good things
come to those who wait. And it's imperative that you let the pie
rest until it's cool. We promise, it will be worth that extra time.
"That's disgusting."
"It's American."
As it turns out, it's not about the pie being too hot to handle. Instead,
it's about allowing the filling a chance to cool down and set.
If you dig in when it's piping hot, you'll be cutting into runny insides.
A typical filling is loaded with sugar, which takes time to cool and become firm. And according
to Cake Decorist, the pie should cool for at least four hours before slicing. Yeah,
that's a long time to wait to taste your work! Thankfully there's a faster way. You can also
throw the pie in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before devouring a slice. That is,
unless someone else gets to it first. By now you might be thinking you know
every possible tip and trick in the book. But wait! We've got one more.
According to Martha Stewart, cold water is a must in order to bake a perfect,
flaky pie crust. We already know that it's essential to work with cold butter
to create those pockets of air that puff up the crust. And, similarly,
ice water is also important since it interacts with both the fat and flour; first by keeping
the butter or shortening from melting and second by preventing gluten from developing. Double duty.
"Nobody wanted seconds of my pie! Said the crust wasn't flaky."
If gluten develops in the dough, the crust will become too hard and chewy. And unlike warm water,
cold water isn't so easily absorbed by the flour. This also prevents over-hydration,
which causes the pie to shrink in the oven. Plus, ice cold water ensures that
the dough remains tender. One Reddit user recommends keeping all your ingredients
cold — including the butter and ice water — so you can roll out your best possible crust.
"Chop chop! Time to get bakin'. Daddy want pie."
Well, we can practically smell the warm apples and cinnamon coming
from the kitchen! Looks like there's no question about what we're baking next!