So who better to provide us with expertise in baking the best pies than Nicole Rucker, author of Dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers? She’s spent years working as the pastry chef in top restaurants like Gjusta and owns her own pie company, Rucker’s Pie. Her self-proclaimed lifelong passion is helping home cooks find the same magical alchemy she’s achieved with fruit desserts. Here are Nicole’s top tips for achieving pie perfection. Try them when baking our sweet Summer Fruit Pie or Old-Fashioned Apple Pie recipe. Structure plays a role, too. The open structure of a lattice top allows steam to evaporate more freely than a vented solid crust; a crumble top releases extra thickener into the filling, so adjustments should be made to the amount of thickener in the fruit. RELATED: The 6 Best Practices for Baking With Fruit, According to a Cookbook Author To bake an evenly browned crust, try Rucker’s genius method: “I preheat the oven to a high temperature of 400°F to blast the crust with heat at the beginning. Through trial and error, and many different ovens, I have found that it’s the best way for me to make sure my crust stays in the shape I want it to,” says Rucker. “I lower the temperature as soon as the pie goes into the oven to prevent the high temperature from cooking the top crust too quickly.” You’ll never bake a soggy bottom again. “I prefer taste over beauty every day, and a fruit filling with too much thickener does not taste good,” explains Rucker. Instead, she recommends aiming for a softly set fruit filling with just the right amount of thickened juices and fruit. That way, the slice will be able to stand on its own while still oozing the just-right amount of sweet sauce. If you plan to serve your pie warm from the oven, remember that starch thickens as it cools. Conversely, a warm, saucy pie will be slightly more settled and stiff the next day.
Frozen peaches, apples, and rhubarb are all suitable to be baked without thawing and draining. Frozen blueberries, strawberries, and cherries must be thawed first, and for best results should be precooked with the sugar and starch until the juices are thickened. Raspberries and blackberries are generally OK to use straight from the freezer in small amounts, but if you were to make a pie with 100 percent blackberries and use frozen fruit, Nicole recommends treating the blackberries like blueberries and precooking them. If you would like to use frozen berries mixed with fresh apples, pears, or peaches, you can add them frozen to the filling without risking a wet pie.
Takeaway? The practice is an ingredient, too. RELATED: 9 Delicious Fruit-Filled Summer Dessert Recipes
