Apple Pie Thickener Question

[Romy]

When making apple pie, I use a modified version of an old(ish) Bon Appetit recipe that employs pre-cooking and boiling the released juices, and I'll never make it any other way. The recipe is here.

Pre-cooking the fruit quickly extracts the juice that would otherwise flood your pie pan when you cut the first slice, and make your bottom crust gummy. Gross! It is also beneficial if you make a double crust pie-- the fruit is pre-shrunk, so your top crust won't cave in or hover above a filling that has cooked down in the oven.

I use a combination of sweet/soft and crisp/tart apples in my pie. It yields a not-too-sweet filling, and the soft apples melt in and around the crisp ones which hold their shape, and still offer resistance when bitten. A filling that is all one texture is just not as interesting. And no need to cool and re-heat (unless you want to).

I use my own crust recipe, and take some liberties with the amount of spices. I also use dark brown sugar instead of light brown. Another benefit to pre-cooking-- you can taste your pie filling before baking and get a reliable sense of how the end product will taste, allowing you to add a little more of any ingredient before sealing your pie up. This pie has won me an award, and numerous accolades from (often rather fervent and opinionated) apple pie lovers.

Perhaps I am mad for sharing my secret, but i hope that no one ever has to suffer through a runny pie again!

[janeer]

I prefer flour over cornstarch with apple pies. I just feel that the cornstarch gets a bit clear and gummy and doesn't really add much flavor to the apples. Apples need earthiness that comes from flour. And I definitely don't like clear gel as it's like gmo or something scientific.

For berry and cherry pies; however, I do prefer cornstarch. For peach, I like potato starch.

I do think we must be twins separated at birth. With you on this 100%, identical conclusions on all points. A subject I feel very strongly about.

The idea of pre-cooking the apples strikes me as...ridiculous. Like the whole brining thing (just cook it properly...).

As for the apples themselves, the perfumey character of Golden Delicious is all wrong for an American apple pie. Gravensteins, Cortlands, Macouns, Greenings, many others are preferable.

[Kay]

Romy,

Thank you for sharing this apple pie recipe. It sounds delicious and your photo is wonderful. I want to try this pie for Christmas this year, but I will need to bake it at home and then freeze it for transport.

Advice anyone?--What will freezing do to the filling of the above mentioned apple pie if frozen, thawed and then warmed gently on Christmas Day? Or maybe I should put the pie together and freeze it and then bake on Christmas. That would be possible, but only if absolutely necessary.

My first experience with precooking a pie filling was years ago, recipe of Mrs. Knott’s Boysenberry Pie from the Knott’s Berry Farm 1976 cookbook. In that recipe, a simple syrup is made, (of water, sugar, dash salt, bit of corn syrup and lemon juice). This syrup is then thickened with slurry of cornstarch and water, one pound of boysenberries (still frozen in the recipe but fresh I imagine would be even better) is gently stirred into the hot syrup and the fruit/syrup mixture is immediately poured into the bottom crust, top crust added and baked at 400 F for 40 minutes. Made a delicious pie with no hollow under the crust. I really prefer flour as a thickener in fruit pies, so when I make this again, I will change out the CS for flour.

[Romy]

Kay-- Good luck with the recipe! Like some of the commenters on the website say, this makes a very full pie, so I slightly increase my dough recipe to make sure there is enough to work with.

I've never frozen the pie filling before, but I can't see why you couldn't if necessary. Just keeping it chilled might be enough, though, depending on how far you need to travel. You can freeze pie dough, wrapped very well, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. I think if you plan on freezing your pie you might want to freeze the filling and dough separately and then put the pie together and bake it when you get to your destination. The dough on the outside will definitely thaw faster than the filling, and could effect its flakiness.

I agree that using flour as a thickener is ideal if you're not looking for a stiff gel filling, or super clear glaze-like consistency. It adds flavor to the liquid you're thickening, not just viscosity. Though of course, that's not always desirable!