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Issue Date: July 22, 2001
Clean-Cut Peach Pie
No more glop: A marathon of testing yields a perfect pie, chock full of fruit and with a beautifully browned crust that slices neatly.
FRUIT COBBLERS are delicious and cook-friendly. Unlike pies, they're not supposed to slice neatly -- so what if the fruit doesn't thicken quite enough? And unlike pies, with their bothersome undercooked bottom crust and top crust that threatens to burn, cobblers have just one layer of pastry to bake right. But I had tired of playing my cobbler hand when all I really wanted to bake and serve was a beautiful pie.
I wanted a pie that held its shape when cut. I wanted both the top and bottom crusts baked to golden brown perfection. I wanted a filling with clear, soft, lightly thickened juices that just barely held the fruit in suspension. A pretty tall order. Because peaches are plentiful and reasonably priced in July, I decided to learn what I could from testing that fruit.
The pick of the thickeners
There were several fruit pie questions -- how much fruit, the ratio of sugar to fruit, which flavorings -- but none so important or complicated as how to thicken the filling. I tested the obvious thickeners (flour, cornstarch, tapioca, arrowroot) and the not-so-obvious (egg, Clearjel, potato starch, grated apple) and several combinations (flour-cornstarch, tapioca-cornstarch). I also tested eight techniques in which some or all of the peaches or juices were cooked, either with thickener or without, before filling the pie. After 31 tests, I found there were still too many potential thickeners and techniques to declare a winner. Three thickeners (arrowroot, potato starch, a tapioca-cornstarch mix) and two techniques (sugaring the peaches and letting them drain; cooking a small portion of the peaches with sugar and thickener) were under consideration. After making another round of small pies, I declared potato starch the winning thickener, for it was especially soft and clear, yet firm.
I also learned that draining the peaches with a couple of extra tablespoons of sugar before making the filling not only helped to intensify the flavor of the peaches, but also rid the pie of nearly a half-cup of excess peach juice, resulting in a firm, yet supple, pie. By draining off some of the juice rather than increasing the thickener, I could fill the pie with peaches and not have to worry about oozing liquid.
On to the crust ...
Up to this point, my pie crust formula had always been two parts flour to one part fat. For flavor I added a little salt, and to encourage browning I added a touch of sugar. However divine this rich butter crust, it could be temperamental, testing even a veteran pie maker. Unless absolutely frigid, the dough was hard to roll out and always threatened to melt or tear. During baking, chunks of melting fat made the dough wonderfully flaky, but sometimes left little holes.
After experimentation, I found I could cut back dramatically on the butter and shortening by adding cream cheese. Like butter and shortening, cream cheese enriched the pastry. But unlike straight fat, cream cheese made the pastry more elastic and much easier to roll -- no tears, no holes, no more having to treat this pastry with extra care. It was forgiving and friendly.
I knew from other experiments that I got the sheen and the crisp, sweet top crust I wanted by brushing the pastry with egg white and sprinkling it with sugar. This time I discovered that it mattered when the pie got this "egg wash." If I applied it before baking, the fluting tended to bloat, losing the crisp, distinct shape. But when I waited 20 minutes into the baking process, the pastry held its shape.
Baking help from Home Depot
Getting a neat slice of pie out of the pan depends on a properly thickened filling. But a fully cooked bottom crust also is crucial; a limp, gummy crust means a messy wedge of pie. Baking on the bottom oven rack just wasn't enough to brown the pie bottom. I also tried baking it directly on the oven floor, but browning was uneven and part of the pie was borderline burned in just 20 minutes.
Ever since testing bread and pizza for my book The Perfect Recipe, I've lined my oven rack with unglazed quarry tiles. In The Pastry Bible, baking expert Rose Levy Beranbaum suggests cooking pies on a pizza stone to improve the bottom crust. Because I don't own a pizza stone, I tried four 9-inch unglazed quarry tiles (purchased at Home Depot for about 55 cents apiece), preheated on the bottom rack for about 30 minutes. It worked. The bottom crust browned beautifully.
I also placed the pie on a sheet of heavy-duty foil set on the tiles. It caught drips and kept the fluted edge from overbrowning. Rather than try to make and fit a foil ring for the pie edge, I simply lifted the foil up and around the pie edges for the last 20 minutes of baking.
I usually have a pound of butter and a couple of shortening sticks in the freezer, which means I can start making a pie at a moment's notice.
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As-Easy-As-It-Gets Pie Dough
2 1/4 cups bleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 stick (8 Tbs.) butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, frozen solid
8 Tbs. (4 ounces) cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, chilled in freezer until very cold
4 Tbs. vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, frozen solid
1/3 cup ice water
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Peach Pie Filling
6 cups peeled and sliced ripe peaches (about 6 large or 11 medium, totaling 3 pounds)
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. granulated sugar (plus an additional 1 1/2 Tbs. for finishing crust)
3 Tbs. potato starch, potato flour or arrowroot*
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 Tb. butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg white, beaten
Back to recipe
*Find powder-fine potato starch or potato flour in the kosher or health-food aisle.
First, make the dough: Mix flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with metal blade. Add butter and pulse 4 times, 1 second each. Add cream cheese and shortening and pulse another four or five times, 1 long second each, until fats are pea- and fine gravel-sized.
Dump mixture into a bowl and rub flour-fat mixture through fingertips to blend. Stir in water with a spatula until dough clumps form. Press clumps together with your palm to form a cohesive ball. Divide into 2/3 and 1/3 portion sizes. Wrap in plastic wrap, then flatten to thick disks. Refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 1 hour. (Or refrigerate up to 2 days or freeze up to 2 months.)
When ready to bake the pie, place peaches in a large colander. Sprinkle with 2 Tbs. sugar and let stand until almost 1/2 cup juice is released, about 30 minutes.
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and place four 9-inch unglazed quarry tiles on rack to form an 18-inch square.
(A pizza stone will work, too.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and let tiles heat for at least 30 minutes.
Roll larger dough disk on a floured work surface into a 13-inch circle. Fold dough in half, setting pie plate next to fold line. Quickly lift dough into pie plate and unfold. Press dough into pan sides with other hand so that dough fits in pan. Trim excess. Refrigerate pie shell while preparing filling.
Mix 3/4 cup sugar with potato starch and salt. Add to peaches, along with almond extract; toss to combine.
Roll out remaining dough to a 12-inch circle.
Add fruit filling to pie shell and dot with butter.
Fold dough circle in half, setting filled pie shell next to fold line. Quickly lift dough into pie plate and unfold. Trim all around to a half-inch beyond lip of pan. Roll overhanging dough under with fingertips so it is flush with lip of pan. Flute dough edge all around.
Set an 18-inch square of heavy-duty foil on tiles or pizza stone. Set pie on foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pie from oven, brush with beaten egg white, sprinkle with 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes longer. Bring foil around pie to loosely cover. Bake until filling bubbles, 15-20 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack, 2-3 hours.
Serves: 8.
Per serving: 517 calories, 70g carbohydrates, 6g protein, 24g fat (12 saturated), 3g fiber, 490mg sodium.
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Not All Fruits Cook Alike
OK, so we figured out Perfect Peach Pie. Now learn the ends and outs of pies made from blueberries, blackberries and sour cherries.
With my peach pie filling perfected, I was ready to move on to blueberries and blackberries. I knew these fruits were probably even more juicy than peaches, so to determine if they should be treated the same way, I made two different pies -- one with drained fruit, the other with berries tossed with sugar and potato starch. After 10 minutes of draining the fruit, however, I realized the sugar wouldn't penetrate whole berries like peeled and sliced peaches -- at least any time soon. For the sugar to do its work, the berries had to be crushed. The fillings made with crushed berries, however, were juicy and jam-like, the bruised berries having disintegrated. The juices of the whole-berry pies were also thin -- blueberries in particular.
In my research, I had remembered reading about blueberries in Jeffrey Steingarten's "The Man Who Ate Everything" (Knopf, 1997). According to Steingarten, "blueberry skins contain oxalic acid, which attacks nearly all starch thickeners. Peeling blueberries, he rightly adds, "is an unheard-of task and would wreck their taste and shape. So we must expect irregular success in the thickening process."
I confirmed the blueberry's unique problem with food scientist and cookbook author Shirley Corriher ("CookWise", Morrow 1997). According to Corriher, however, the acid in the blueberry skins could only affect the starch if it were uncooked. Adding the berries to cooked starch seemed the only way to guarantee a consistently thickened pie. The starch pastes that I had considered for peach pie made sense here. Because of the blueberry's affect on the raw starch, I had no choice but to thicken it with at least some water. But clearly I didn't want to use any more than was absolutely necessary.
After much tinkering with method as well as water, starch, sugar and berry quantities, I finally hit upon a ratio and technique that worked. I heated a minimal amount of water (1/2 cup) and enough potato starch (1/4 cup) and sugar (3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs.) to deliver a just-right sweetened pie with soft, thick juices. Without the sugar, the starch paste was almost thick enough to bounce. Even with the sugar, the paste was too thick. But I realized that as soon as the starch thickened, the blueberry's acidity couldn't affect it. With this in mind, I added one cup of puréed blueberries to the thick paste, loosening it enough to stir into the whole berries. The paste was hot, but when tossed with a large quantity of whole berries, it cooled immediately and could be turned into the pie shell without delay. Since blueberries were more intense than peaches and since the extra water in the blueberry pie resulted in frequent juice overflow, I decreased the fruit quantity from six to five cups.
With the blueberry pie problem solved, the blackberry pie came together quite easily. Since the blackberries couldn't be drained either, I made a starch paste for this filling as well. Unlike blueberries, whose acidic skin reeked havoc with the starch, blackberry purée could be added with the starch and sugar from the start and did not require the extra water to rehydrate it.
Sour cherries are the right choice cherry pie, but it is rare to find them in their fresh and frozen form. Using a hybrid method I developed a great cherry pie with the canned variety. As with peaches, I drained the cherries (of course there's no need to sugar them and let them stand. Canned cherries are floating in juice already.) But unlike juicy peaches, canned cherries were limp and needed some of their liquid added back in. Instead of discarding the canned cherry juice, I made a starch paste with some of it as with the blueberry and blackberry pies.
If the pastry and fruit are good, I don't think pies need lots of flavorings. Like the peach pie, cherry needed only a breath of almond extract. And after trying several different flavorings with the berry pies, I found a touch of grated lemon zest lightened their intensity.
Perfect Blueberry Pie
Serves 8
1 recipe for As-Easy-as-It-Gets Pie Dough
Blueberry Filling:
5 cups (about 2 1/2 pints) fresh blueberries, picked over and stems discarded, rinsed
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. sugar
Pinch salt
1/4 cup potato starch or potato flour
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1 Tb. butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg white, beaten, for pastry wash
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
Make pie dough according to directions given for Perfect Peach Pie.
Purée 1 cup of the blueberries in a food processor fitted with the metal blade; set aside.
Whisking constantly, bring the sugar, salt, starch and water to a very thick paste over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. As mixture thickens and starts to stick to pan bottom, whisk in blueberry purée and lemon zest and bring to a simmer. Pour thickener over remaining blueberries and stir to combine.
Pour blueberry filling into bottom pie shell and dot with the 1 Tb. butter. Cover with top layer of pastry dough, and continue to follow directions for Perfect Peach Pie, adding the beaten egg wash and sugar when indicated.
Perfect Blackberry Pie
Serves 8
1 recipe for As-Easy-as-It-Gets Pie Dough
Blackberry Filling:
5 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1/4 cup potato starch or potato flour
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1 Tb. butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg white, beaten, for pastry wash
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
Make pie dough according to directions given for Perfect Peach Pie.
Purée 1 cup of the blackberries in a food processor fitted with the metal blade; set aside.
Stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, bring the sugar, salt, starch and blackberry purée to the consistency of thick jam over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Stir in lemon zest. Pour thickener over remaining blackberries and stir to combine.
Pour blackberry filling into bottom pie shell and dot with the 1 Tb. butter. Cover with top layer of pastry dough, and continue to follow directions for Perfect Peach Pie, adding the beaten egg wash and sugar when indicated.
Perfect Cherry Pie
Serves 8
Two cans of sour cherries just aren't enough to make a full pie. I use 3 drained cans, which yields just a little over 5 cups cherries, about the same amount of fruit used to make the other pies.
1 recipe for As-Easy-as-It-Gets Pie Dough
Cherry Filling:
3 cans (16 ounces each) water pack red tart pitted cherries, drained, with 1 cup of cherry juice reserved
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1/4 cup potato starch flour
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 Tb. butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg white, beaten, for pastry wash
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
Make pie dough according to directions given for Perfect Peach Pie.
Stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, bring the 1 cup reserved cherry juice, sugar, salt and potato starch to a very thick paste over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Off heat, stir in almond extract, then scrape paste into cherries; stir to combine.
Pour cherry filling into bottom pie shell and dot with the 1 Tb. butter. Cover with top layer of pastry dough, and continue to follow directions for Perfect Peach Pie, adding the beaten egg wash and sugar when indicated.
Contributing Editor Pam Anderson is the author of "How to Cook Without a Book" (Broadway, $25)
and The Perfect Recipe (Houghton Mifflin, $27).
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