Unicycling for pie! How to thicken the filling?

Off-topic
1

I made my first pie tonight, a berry pie. Everything turned out tasty, but the filling is too runny.

Here’s what I did:

  • 4 cups of frozen strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries defrosted in the microwave
  • 1/2 cup of raw cane sugar
  • some honey
  • 1/4 cup of flour
  • a pat of butter
  • some salt too

All mixed together and put in my homemade crust. Cooked in the oven for about 90 minutes at 350 F. Cooled to room temperature before I cut it. Lots of berry ooze.

Should I have added more dry stuff to the filling? Should I have let the filling boil for longer?

2

Maybe use powdered sugar instead, I made a cake with powdered sugar icing. The powdered sugar absorbs liquid really good. Or you could maybe add a bit more flour.

3

I tend to believe that a caramelizable form sugar is important for the recipe, but I could be wrong.

I saw some mention of corn starch in some filling recipes. Is that better than flour?

Why didn’t my chemistry classes ever cover pie filling? :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Whenever I want to thicken a sauce, corn starch does the job much better than flour… dunno why, but it seems to work with most any liquid. Flour tends to make my sauces pasty, while the corn starch gives me something more jelly-like.

Didn’t you guys cover polymers?

5

Check out The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Beranbaum. She adds cornstarch, and in some cases, cooks-down a portion of the fruit before adding it to the pie (see the blueberry open-face recipe). For apples, she macerates them first, collects the fluid, and then reduces that before adding it to the pie. It adds some complexity to the recipe but apparently it is quite effective.

I haven’t tried this yet myself, but I’m sure it works since her books are so well-written.

6

I think it’s because your ingredients are off. Try switching to these:

3 eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

7

90 mins at 350 F - that’s about 180 C. Wasn’t it black? At that temperature it shouldn’t take more than about 30 mins.

Could try cooking the fruit from frozen - they’ll release less juice.

Does it matter if it’s juicy? - some of the best things are:)

Wassail!

8

My crust was perfectly golden after 90 minutes. Fruit syrup makes the pie hard to serve, but that’s not much of a problem since I’m the only one eating it. :slight_smile:

I did learn about polymers in my high school chemistry class, but I only remember talking about polyesters. Esters can be yummy. Polyesters, on the other hand, don’t taste very good. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the tips. I did some research and found several possible ways to make it work better.

  1. Berries are relatively low in pectin (the gelatinous stuff in fruit), so I could add pectin to make it more jelly like.

  2. Starches are good. Flour is only ~75% starch, so corn starch would be better.

  3. I should defrost the berries before I’m going to use them to get rid of excess liquid and possibly cook them down as U-Turn recommended.

I’ll have to make a pecan pie sometime, but corn syrup and white sugar are banned from my kitchen. I’d just buy the $5.99 pie at the store if I wanted all that processed stuff in it. :wink:

9

i thought cornstarch was something to do with babies? :thinking:

10

It’s vital so that my pie doesn’t end up with a bad case of diaper rash. :wink:

11

im sorry but why is a thread about cooking a pie, on a unicycle forum for

12

Cause its in the section called “Just Conversation.”

13

because this is the just conversation forum, anything goes

14

for what?

This is Just Conversation. We can talk about whatever we want (within norms of decency).

15

Haha, all three of us said almost the same thing all within a few seconds.

16

That’s sad :slight_smile:

As no pie crust has the right to be golden after 90 mins at 180 C, one possibility is that the oven isn’t as hot as you think. Following that route, you need the starch in flour to denature through being heated to close to boiling point to thicken the juice, so maybe the filling didn’t get hot enough for the starch to do its job?

17

Well, the filling did boil for at least half an hour. I had a pan to catch the boil over.

I’m not sure if the oven was fully preheated when I put the pie in, but the oven usually preheats within 15 minutes. Every pie recipe that I’ve seen says at least 45 minutes at 350 F.

I’m thinking I should make some pasties in my next adventure with pie crust. While I do enjoy fruit pie, I’ve always been more into hearty meals than desserts.

18

I’m thinking you should, too.

And I’m thinking you should invite me over when you do :smiley:

Muni and pasties sounds like a great mix, dontchathink?

19

Corn starch is a secret weapon that is pretty killer. I would highly recomend it, unless you plan on putting your pie in the fridge, or reheating it.

Corn starch Gelatinizes (I don’t know if thats a word) when its cooled, and it will actualy liquify your filling if you reheat it and let it sit for a bit.

The trick to corn starch is to put alot of it in with a tiny bit of water, mix until its all in the water, then poor it into the filling while heating it. It will then take a tiny bit of time to thicken up and will thicken up more as it cools.

There are a few others ways to thicken something like this, I will take a look at my old notes (always a good time to do research on thickeners!), but I know Corn starch is quick and easy and has saved me on numerous occasions.

20

I was about to suggest using arrowroot as a thickener, as in my experience you need less of it than cornflour. A quick google came up with the following, which is new to me and sounds pertinent:

  • Cornstarch is the best choice for thickening dairy-based sauces. Arrowroot becomes slimy when mixed with milk products.
  • Choose arrowroot if you're thickening an acidic liquid. Cornstarch loses potency when mixed with acids.

Pasties are good.