How to Master Fruit Pies | Bake It Up a Notch with Erin McDowell

- Is this what blackberries are now? It's my thumb. (laughs) That's a berry, that's not right. Maybe they're snozzberries, I always wonder what Willy Wonka was talking about with that: "Snozzberries taste like snozzberries!" (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Erin Jeanne McDowell and welcome to this episode of "Bake It Up a Notch." This is the third part of our spectacular four part cake. We're cov

erin

g everything you need to know to get the best pie of your life in celebration of my upcoming book, "The Book on Pie." I'm so excited today because we're talking about one of my favorite cakes,

fruit

cake.

In essence,

fruit

cake is one of the easiest cakes out there. It's a bit of fruit, of course, with sweetener and some kind of thickener to bind it together, but there are a lot of things to consider. Every piece of fruit is different, every piece of fruit, whether it's in season or out of season, whether you pick it fresh or whether it's frozen, it's all kinds of factors and all kinds of things to consider, because even if you have a great recipe If you don't know what you're looking for, your fruitcakes can very easily go wrong and you end up with a big juicy, cheesy mess.

We'll show you all the tips and tricks to make fruitcakes turn out well every time. Plus, as always, we'll show you where things can go wrong and, if possible, how to fix it. So if this sounds like something you're interested in, be sure to do me a favor and like and subscribe to this video to get notified when new episodes are available, so let's get started. (upbeat music) There isn't much equipment that isn't covered in episode one of our four-part pie spectacular where we cover the crusts and crust, so take a look at that episode to learn about the equipment you'll need. .

The only additional equipment that can sometimes be useful when making fruit

pies

will be cooking on the stove. You may need a good thick bottomed pot or pan and sometimes I like to puree my fruit fillings, for that I can use an immersion blender, food processor or blender, anything goes. Other than that, all the tools you need will be in our first episode of our spectacular cake, check it out. (piano music) The first thing you should think about when you're making a fruitcake is the fruit itself. This is the hardest thing to explain to people who are new to baking cakes, because they inherently don't understand the ingredients as well anymore, and that's what I hope to convey to everyone today.

First, think about whether the fruit is ripe and in season, or firmer and out of season. It's not necessarily a bad thing to use out-of-season or firmer fruits to make a cake; In fact, it can adjust the type of cake you're making. This is one of the lessons and one of the main conclusions. You should consider your preparation method based on the type of fruit you are using, so if the fruit is really ripe, you may want to try a different method. I think one of the most misunderstood things about fruitcakes is that in many recipes you just have to mix raw fruit with other ingredients, put a peel on them and

bake

them, and of course, that works, it works very well, but you can also pre-cook them. pie fillings.

Out of season or underripe fruit, just by saying it you might be thinking, "Well, that's not good fruit." But of course, in many places in the country and the world sometimes you get fruit and it's just not the best year even if it's the right season, or maybe if you're between seasons which is where you are right now. We're almost at the end of summer, so I can still get peaches, but they're pretty firm. They're not, you know, a nice ripe, juicy peach. And then of course I also get fall produce, like these Concord grapes and good apples and pears.

So when you're between seasons, that doesn't mean you should stop making

pies

. It simply means that you need to consider the preparation method. Fruits out of season or simply firmer even if they are in season, fruits that are a little less ripe. Of course, they tend to be firmer and less juicy. That sounds bad, but that doesn't always mean they're tasteless. These fruits can benefit from concentrating their flavors using techniques such as grilling or roasting. You can also macerate the fruit to help extract some of the juices and concentrate them. But out-of-season fruit or firmer fruit is also great for an often-forgotten preparation, which is whole fruit pies.

You can wrap a whole piece of cordon fruit or clean fruit, decorate it with pie dough and

bake

it. It's cake in its simplest form. So the firmer the fruit, the more likely it is to last longer in the oven. These are all types of things you can consider when choosing both the preparation method and the type of cake you are going to make based on the fruit you are starting with. One of my favorite ways to make a fruitcake is to use a combination of fruits, sort of a blackberry, blueberry or a strawberry peach situation.

Of course, there are tons of options when you start combining fruits, but when blending it can be even more difficult to determine the level of juiciness, so it's a really important thing to consider. I mentioned this maceration technique before. I first learned about this technique from one of my baking mentors, Rose Levy Beranbaum. She mixes the fruit with a little sugar or all the sugar in the recipe, lets some of the juice come out, and then reduces it. We'll talk more about this later, but I mention it now because it's especially good when using a combination of fruits.

Because you can macerate the fruits together, the sugar will extract those juices, then you can reduce them together and better control the juiciness of your cakes. When you want to use a combination of fruits, this is also a good time to consider pre-cooked fillings because you can pre-cook the filling together or separate them and control the thickness exactly where you want it. In addition, with pre-baked fillings you can also do different decorating techniques, such as twisting them together, creating patterns, it is really an opportunity to make your cake more beautiful and more special. So when thinking about fruit combinations, remember that two different types of fruits will have two different levels of juiciness.

You want to control that as best as you can from the beginning, so you don't end up with a messy cake later. We can't talk about fruitcakes without addressing one of the most common questions I get asked: what about frozen fruit? It's okay to use frozen fruit in a pie, but you need to consider the overall preparation, from starting with frozen fruit to how you'll prepare the pie filling. There are a few things to consider; Firstly, when you use frozen fruit, you must thaw it before baking it into a cake. Because? The main reason is that as the fruit thaws, it releases a lot of moisture.

If you use frozen fruit in the pie filling, it will release that moisture in the oven; therefore, when making an incredibly soggy cake, if you defrost the fruit you can control the humidity. You can reduce the juices that come out of the thawed fruit or simply eliminate them, leaving only the fruit. The choice is up to you. I usually opt to cut back on juices because I want all that flavor from frozen fruit. But you can see a good example here. I have some frozen wild blueberries which are one of my favorite types of blueberries for making blueberry pie.

They are so sweet and so juicy, but they are very, very small. Even these small berries release a lot of juice when thawed, so it is very important that you follow this step, do not skip it or you will have a runny cake. After thawing the fruit, you can use it in a pre-cooked filling or a raw raw filling. If you are using a raw filling, you can discard these juices as I mentioned before, or reduce them to about a third of a cup and then add them back to the filling. If you want to use a pre-cooked filling, you should start by reducing these juices.

You want to concentrate those flavors before you even start cooking the rest of the filling. And remember, frozen fruit that's been thawed will break down a little faster because it's (laughs) Bren, what's Brimley? Did you just wink at me? -Yes. (Erin laughs) -And she goes back to bed, my dog, and less entertained. I don't remember what she was saying, does anyone else remember? (laughs) When you're making a pre-cooked filling with thawed frozen fruit, remember that during thawing the fruit will break down a little bit, inherently that's what happens when you freeze and thaw it. Some of that moisture comes out of all that stuff.

Again, that fruit will also break down faster in the pot, so you really need to think about reducing the juices before adding the fruit back in, or you might end up with a more jammy sort of filling, unless that's what you're into. searching. looking for, which would also be delicious. Even if that happens, you can save it, just make a jam filling, it will be great. Now, that covers frozen fruit, whether you use a cooked or raw filling, but also if you freeze the fruit yourself. One of the best ways to have good seasonal fruit all year round is to freeze it for a bit when it's good.

Go to the farm and pick some, or if you have a bush or tree in your garden, pick the good stuff and freeze the good stuff; Berries, stone fruits and many things freeze very well. What I like to do is a method that used to be called IQF or Individual Quick Freezing. This is sort of a homemade version, so it's not the proper or complete way they would do this if they did it industrially. But what you want to do is place the fruit in an even layer on a baking sheet. The fruit should barely be touched, but you don't want it to be touched too much.

You put the entire tray in the freezer and freeze the fruit until it is completely frozen. After that point, the fruit can be removed from the tray and placed in a storage container, a resealable lid, a plastic bag, whatever you prefer. Individual quick freezing of the fruit helps it maintain its structure and shape a little better. So if you're freezing a cake, you can still have nice big pieces if you want them, and a little more versatility in how you'll prepare your final cake. (background music) Let's talk about the most common type of fruit filling, raw or raw fruit filling.

I may not have said that as enthusiastically as I normally talk about things here on "Bake It Up a Notch" because it's actually one of my least favorite methods. I still use it and think it's important to talk about how to get the best results. But you'll see that I'm a little more excited about some of the other methods we're going to discuss that give you a little more consistent results. The problem with using raw fruit is that we don't know the level of juiciness of the fruit itself. Even if you taste a little at first, you don't know how much is hidden inside and will come out in the oven.

This is an important time to remember some of the science behind some of our ingredients. Sugar is hygroscopic, that means it draws moisture out of things, so when you mix sugar with an ingredient like fruit, it starts to draw out some of the juice. If you do it in the oven, you will get a very juicy and soggy cake. If you take care of it before putting the cake in the oven in one way or another, you will get a more consistent result. I first learned about this technique from one of my baking mentors, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and she has a great recipe on Food52 that features this method and uses it with great results.

Today I'm using it with peaches. You can see if I lift this up a little, the peaches have been macerating for several hours. During that time the sugar has removed a lot of moisture from the peaches. During that steeping time, when at the beginning of the steeping time I mix it with a portion of the sugar in the recipe or with everything, again it depends on the recipe you are using. I toss it a few times while it sits to redistribute the sugar and make sure it hits all of the fruit, bringing out all those juices.

Once macerated for several hours, it can extract up to a cup of liquid, depending on the recipe and the type of fruit you are using, but a lot of liquid can really come out. We don't want as much liquid in our cake. We want to reduce that kind of amount across the board, my magic number is about 1/3 cup, somewhere between 1/4 cup and a third of a cup is the magic amount. So what I'm going to do is strain this peach mixture. I'll just pour it directly into a strainer and reserve the juices. I'll save the fruit for later.

And if your fruit isn't very delicate, you can press it quite firmly to help release some of those juices. We really want to make sure we get everything out of there. We want all those juices to end up in our cake, but we want to reduce the water a little. What happens when we reduce a little bit of water is that we leave just the sweetness of the fruit, the flavor of the fruit, and we end up with this incredibly tasty liquid. So what we're going to do is we're going to take this to the stove, we're going to cook it in a small pot until it's about that amount.

If you do this mashing process and only get a quarter to a third cup ofliquid, simply continue with your recipe as you use that liquid. But at least you know it before you even make the cake, you know it before you put it in the oven and you have control of the liquid situation, you have control of the filling, you have this. So we put it in a pot, we cook it, we reduce it on the stove until we get the amount we wanted. When you do, it will look something like this. It will have a slightly deeper color and will be thicker and syrupier.

We want to make sure the mixture cools a little, but usually when you mix it with the fruit, the fruit itself is cold. You know, at room temperature. This is usually such a small amount of liquid that you can throw it back out. That's one of the reasons why I think fruit fillings, raw fruit fillings, are so loved because they're a little bit easier, because now all we have to do is throw away the remaining sugar and starch, whatever. whatever our thickening agent is, with the fruit, and then we can add that juicy liquid and whatever other tasty ingredients we're adding back in, so I'll just add the sugar.

This mixture uses a little flour instead of cornstarch. I'm going to stir that until the fruit is evenly coated with both. Of course, you can use a spoon or spatula for this, but if you haven't already noticed in "Bake It Up a Notch," I like to use my hands, guys. You can feel the food. You can feel what is happening. You can see if it's even or if something is going on. All good things really important. Also, you may notice that since I'm doing this with some peaches here, I didn't peel them. This is a little PSA from Erin for whoever she wants. (upbeat music) I don't always feel my fruit.

I like the shells. There are a lot of nutrients there. There is a lot of flavor there, a lot of acidity and, above all, a certain thickening capacity. That skin can really help naturally thicken a filling, which is why I like to leave it on. If that doesn't seem quite right to you, peel the fruit, good for you. It's your choice, that's the customization of the cakes. I know some people think it's a bit difficult even after baking it, so it's totally up to you. I like the color. I like the flavor. I like what it does and like I said, it contains a lot of nutrients too.

Alright, now our reduced juices come in. OMG, that looks so pretty. Get them all, scratched off like it's your Christmas bonus. Oh yeah. So this mixture should look pretty sticky when it's ready, and that's because the thickener we're using to help thicken the final cake isn't cooked at all. This is completely raw. This is important to remember because people tend to forget the most important step when making a raw or uncooked fruit filling. At some point this mixture has to boil, or it will taste starchy and won't be thick enough. If it doesn't come to a boil, an active boil, it won't be thick enough when you cut it.

So, all of this is to say that your fruit pie that is made with a raw fruit filling has to show visible signs of bubbling or a lot of steam coming out of the vents in the top crust. Either way, whether it's a single crust or a web, and you can see bubbles coming out of it, or if it's a double crust, and maybe there's a little bubble, but lots and lots of steam, then you know that starch has been activated. , it is already cooked and the cake will be as thick as you want. That's the simplicity and how to make a raw fruit filling. (background music) Guys, let's talk about pre-cooked fruit fillings.

These are incredibly underrated in my opinion. Nobody knows enough about this. Nobody does this and I don't know why. They make more consistent and reliable fruitcakes every time, and the sensation gets a flavor boost with any type of cooking you concentrate those flavors on. I love the precooked fruit filling. So let's talk about the different ways you can do it. The most common way to make a pre-cooked fruit filling is on the stove. What you will usually do is mix the fruit with a little sugar and let it start to break down. This is the same time we want to consider the final texture we want in our cake.

If we want big chunks of fruit and we want a good variation in texture, that's when we're going to want to consider it, making sure we don't cook this for too long. If we cook it for too long between that initial cooking time and the oven time, the fruit could break down much more. This is especially important for very tender fruits like berries. Other fruits like cherries, like the ones I have here, are a little tougher and have to be cooked for a long time to break down, so you don't have to worry about longer cooking. times and get that perfect level of juiciness.

After the fruit has started to break down a little bit with the sugar and starts to get closer to the consistency you want, a little tender and some of those juices come out, that's when you'll want to add the thickener. What I like to do is mix a little bit of that thickener with a little bit of granulated sugar. The sugar granules help break down the cornstarch so that when you add it to the pot, as the sugar dissolves, the cornstarch disperses evenly. This is also important because we will be adding it to an already hot fruit mixture, so cornstarch dissolves easily in cold liquids, but not so easily once the mixture is hot.

And this is my preferred method, because I like to get some of that juiciness out before adding the thickener. Once you have added the thickener you want to cook the mixture until it reaches the thickness you are looking for. Now this will vary a little depending on the type of cake you are making. Remember, double crust fruit pies will bake longer in the oven than single crust fruit pies, so you may want to cook the filling a little longer for a single crust as it won't thicken. both during the baking time. If you add thickener to your mixture and it is not yet thick enough, remember that it will thicken and get thicker as it cools, and it should cool before forming a base.

Putting hot filling of any kind into a crust, unless the recipe specifically calls for it, can make the crust a little soggy, so I like to make sure the filling cools completely before continuing. My favorite way to make this quickly is on a baking sheet like this one. I spread the hot filling out in an even layer and that greater surface area helps it cool faster, so I don't have to wait for hours and hours while it cools in a bowl. But it's important to remember that this is another pre-cooked fruit filling and as you can see it's a lot looser than this pre-cooked fruit filling, that's because they are berries, berries have more juice and I like a berry pie. juicier.

So this is one of those times when it's important to remember that, at the end of the day, cake is still a matter of preference. All your desserts, anything you are preparing at home, you can customize it so that it is exactly how you like it. So I like a cake that holds a slice, I like to be able to lift it up and not have the filling fall out. But I also like there to be a little bit of juiciness, so whatever you prefer is the right way. There is no one right way to make cakes, there are many right ways, and this is just one of them.

I will say that I think pre-cooked fillings give the most reliable result and are adjustable. If your filling is too thin and you wanted it to be thicker even after it cooled, you can add a little more thickener to the cooled filling and return it to the pot to cook. If the filling is too thick, you can always thin it with a little water or a flavorful liquid like juice, whatever you want to achieve the right consistency for a juicier cake. Once your filling has cooled completely like this triple berry filling, we can pour it directly into our crust.

This will be a single crust fruit pie with a streusel topping. So I've already baked and cooled my crust, and now I'm adding the pie filling back to the cooled crust. Remember, this filling will thicken more in the oven because the starch will continue to thicken. What's important to remember is that I always talk about how important it is for fruit pies to boil, but when you pre-bake the fruit filling, it boils before the oven. So in the oven, when it's baked, it can actually have more of a matte effect on the surface than that kind of bubbly, juicy, overflowing look.

Therefore, it is important to remember, especially when making a single-crust pie with a pre-baked fruit filling, that it is not likely to bubble. Instead, you'll get a uniform matte appearance on the surface and that's how you know it's done. (mood music) Okay, so we talked about raw fruit fillings and pre-cooked fruit fillings, which I obviously prefer a little bit, but there's something else to think about. Rules are made to be broken, so you can pre-cook a filling and still get some of that juiciness and freshness of a raw filling. How do you do it? Simply adding some raw fruit to your pre-cooked filling.

I like to do this when making fruit combinations, but it's also great with fruits that are particularly juicy and you want a little juiciness in that cake. A great example is like a blueberry pie or a cherry pie, this one will be cherry and raspberry, and the raspberries will add a little juiciness. They will stay whole and fresh. They'll get in the oven and do all those juicy things they like to do. And the precooked fruit filling will be normal, thick, thick, thick, did I just say thick? It will say it's normal and thick, and the juices from the raspberry will just give it a little juice.

So like I said, rules are made to be broken, it doesn't have to be one or the other, in fact if you want to make a partially pre-cooked filling it can be both. And you know what's really crazy: I didn't even need thickener. It is fine, I am sorry. - I'm ready. - I'm ready too. - Are you ready? - Oh, am I ready? Well, this is actually one of my favorite types of fillers to talk about because it's quite unexpected. For this filling I toasted the fruit. The first time I started doing this was when I was working on an article for Food52 about how to make easy oven jam.

Instead of having to cook it all on the stove and reduce it, I made it in the oven. Increasing the surface area of ​​a baking sheet allows the fruit and fruit juices to spread and thicken much faster to this jam-like consistency. It's really amazing. So in that skillet jam article I wrote when the fruit was roasted, it was tender enough that I could use a potato masher and mash it and boom, you have jam. But one day I was in my kitchen thinking, "Boom, I could have pie filling, I could have pie filling roasting it," right?

So that's what I did. I tried it, and in my new cookbook, "The Book on Pie," I have an amazing roasted strawberry pie and an amazing roasted pineapple pie, but today I made a roasted blueberry pie. And the nice thing about this method is that the fruit stays relatively whole and you get that feeling of larger pieces of fruit, but the juices inside the fruit are reduced in such a way that usually you don't even need to add thickener. to the cake. Yes, that's right, without thickener, I find it hard to believe, but it's true. So all that's in this pie is blueberries, sugar and a little bit of flavoring, a little bit of lemon zest, a little bit of lemon juice, you know the typical types of extra things that you would add to make that filling taste so good .

So you'll see I'm going to shake it, and then with my overhead camera you can see that it's firm, it still has some juiciness to it, but it's firm, and I didn't add any cornstarch. I didn't add any flour. So I discovered that the great thing about using roasting as a pie filling method is that not only is it pretty easy and simple, but it also produces a filling that is very, very concentrated and has an incredible depth of flavor. My assistant Katie gave a piece of that roasted strawberry pie to someone and said it tasted more strawberry than anything they had ever tasted.

And that's how I feel about it, so it's a really concentrated consistency, but also really beautiful and natural. And while we're talking about unexpected cooking methods, another one you might want to try is grilling. Grilling fruit can concentrate the flavors and give it some char, then you can go ahead and chop it and use it in a pre-cooked or raw filling. But I love that little hint of flavor that the grill gives it, and I also like that little bit of smokiness. So remember, it's okay to think outside the box with fruit fillings and, really, all pie fillings, because you may find something unexpected that makes a really great pie. (ringing music) Considerations on the bark.

These are the things you need to think about when making a fruitcake. The most important thing is the single-crust pies. Single crust cakes benefit from par baking. Remember, the general rule is that a single crust pie has less baking time in the oven, so it usually won't brown enough on the bottom of the crust andYou could end up with a soggy bottom, if you don't take care to bake that crust a little before putting the filling in and baking again. On the other hand, double crust pies, which of course are extremely popular in the fruit pie category and genre, generally require a longer baking time and, as a result, are usually baked long enough in that time period. , including the bottom crust, and therefore does not require prior baking.

I will say again that I like to bake and part bake and generally bake cakes on a baking steel or a pizza stone. Any of these are great for ensuring that more heat gets to the bottom of the cake and making sure that it browns really consistently and evenly and that we don't end up with soggy bottoms that could ruin our perfect fruit cakes. . (upbeat music) One of my favorite subcategories of fruitcakes is upside-down fruitcake. The most famous would be the tanning cake. I like to make upside down fruit tarts or fruit tarts with any type of fruit.

This one I have here is pineapple. The way an upside down pie is made is very different than a typical pie because there is only a crust on the top which of course becomes the bottom. So let's turn this cake around in a few moments. This just came out of the oven. You have to unmold it while it is hot, but it is good to give it a few moments to cool, because what we have done is that we start with a kind of mixture of butter and sugar in the pan, and then we add our fruit.

After that the sugar began to caramelize a little. It makes a kind of delicious caramel sauce and then the fruit is cooked in it. We put the dough on top, that's another thing that's so different from upside down pies is that the dough goes in like a hot pan, which is crazy. And then we bake it until the dough is nice and fluffy and fluffy and perfect, and then we invert it while it's still hot, and that caramel covers all the fruit. It even runs sideways a little. It's spectacular and it's actually an incredibly easy cake to make, no thickeners or anything.

It is a great dessert for a dinner. More people should be making cake to tan, let's unmold this beauty. (calm music) (laughs) It is normal that when you unmold a cake to brown, sometimes some fruits get stuck in the mold or simply move around. I'm a food stylist, so I have tongs, but a fork, a little spatula, whatever you have, you can just push the fruit into place. And as it cools, the caramel will harden and re-stick to the crust and create this incredibly delicious and beautiful situation. So making upside-down fruit cakes here is incredibly easy.

They are really adaptable to almost any type of fruit and are delicious. If you're interested in more on upside down or sour tanning, let me know in the comments. We're consid

erin

g doing more of these in the future if that interests our viewers here at "Bake It Up a Notch." And in the meantime I'm going to ask my friend Brimley what he thinks about this upside down cake. But of course he won't be able to try it, I'll keep the sample for myself. (laughter) (playing music) So how do you know when your fruitcake is ready? We've talked about it a little bit with the different cooking methods, but I still want to put it in a succinct cheater's guide so you know exactly what you need to know to get it right every time.

If you are working with a raw or raw fruit filling you need to make sure the cake is bubbling, we want to see bubbles so we know the thickener is activated. If you are working with a pre-baked fruit filling, it will have a matte, dark appearance on the surface, a slightly darker shade than when you put the cake in the oven. And another reminder that people ask me a lot about cakes browning too quickly. When I make fruit cakes, I don't always egg wash the entire cake. If I'm making a single crust pie, I might egg wash the edge.

If I'm making a double crust pie, I may just egg wash the top, because the edges tend to brown enough on their own during that longer time in the oven. But if you find that a portion or most of the crust is browning too quickly, remember that you are in control of the pie situation, you can cover part or all of the pie with aluminum foil to prevent further excessive browning and You can also reduce the oven temperature. Sometimes your oven is getting hot and you may not even know it, so lower the oven temperature by 25 to even 50 degrees for the rest of the baking time.

Just remember that when you lower that temperature, the baking time will be longer, so keep that in mind. Don't take the cake out too soon or you'll end up with a soggy bottom or even a runny filling. Upside-down pies are a little trickier to determine if they're cooked because of course the fruit itself is out of your sight, it's under the crust in the pan. So the best thing to look for is a very uniform golden brown crust. If it's only brown on the edges, it's probably undercooked. Don't take it out until it's evenly browned, or you'll have a bit of dough in the center.

The other thing you can look for with upside-down fruit pies is some bubbling around the edges, around the outside where the crust ends. That shows that the caramel underneath is bubbling, smoking, and is a good sign that it's ready to come out. (upbeat music) So here's the good news about fruitcakes: if you follow the guidelines I gave you in the first part of this episode, you won't make many mistakes. They're actually incredibly indulgent and incredibly delicious even when you mess them up a little bit, or even when they're too moist, you know, they really are great cakes, they're great cakes.

But there are some things to think about, so I wouldn't leave you thinking about those mistakes. The first one is right in front of me and is one of the most common. I got a lot of questions when my first cookbook about one of my favorite pies, my Concord Grape Pie, came out. It's a delicious pie, really tart, juicy, very delicious, but it's completely runny when it's still warm, and that's really true of most fruit pie fillings, if not all, actually. Yes, yes, it's all of them. They will all be loose when hot, so it is very important to let them cool completely before serving. "But Erin, I like to eat the cake hot." Got it, I get you, I'm with you on that.

We have a solution for that. But first, this is what I'm talking about when I shake this cake. You can see it from above, look how loose the filling is. This is a pre-baked fruit filling, which is already thicker than a raw fruit filling and will continue to thicken as the pie cools. But for now it's too hot to cut it. If we cut this cake it will be soup. That doesn't mean the recipe doesn't work. It doesn't mean we've baked a bad cake, it just means we need to have a little patience. And I know it's very difficult, especially when your house smells like cake, but you can prepare your cakes in advance and choose to refresh them.

I write a lot about this refreshing technique in my upcoming book "The Book on Pie", but the first thing I need to remember is that it is possible to refresh both to re-toast the crust and to gently warm the filling. My general advice when reheating is to start with your cake, or your slice of cake, or your individual cake, whatever you are reheating, covered gently with aluminum foil. I like to start it that way in case it browns too much during the reheating process. You should then remove the foil towards the end of the baking time to help crisp up the outside edge of the crust and help bring some color back into the pie.

You can gently reheat it at different temperatures, one of my favorite techniques is to put it in the oven and start preheating the oven with the cake inside to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do that, the cake will gently rise in temperature as the oven comes up to temperature, so you'll usually only need a few minutes depending on how big the slice is or the whole cake if you're making a whole cake. You may need as little as five minutes after preheating, and up to maybe 15 or even 20. Just remember to give it a good five minutes of time to cool before you start eating, but since the cake has completely set , it will get hot. that time, but it won't necessarily return to this kind of oscillating liquid state.

So, refreshing your pies is a great opportunity if you love a hot slice of apple pie or any type of fruit pie and choose to reheat it instead of cutting it while it's hot. This is one that I've already talked about quite a bit in this episode and it's really important. It is a raw fruit filling that has been baked. You see, we have kind of a mixture of jam and some pieces of whole fruit just by the nature that some of those fruits are very soft and juicy and fall apart, and some of those fruits are firmer and stay together, but I didn't let that This cake will come to a boil.

You may also notice that the outside of this crust is significantly lighter than the crust next to it, and that's because it wasn't baked long enough. I like a very dark, crispy, flaky, golden crust. I want all those things. So let's cut this, and let's see, oh my God, I can do it now, (laughs), the mistakes happen part, guys, it's my favorite part of this show, but it's also my least favorite, it's all in one. , because I want to show it to you because I want you to know what it looks like, but it also breaks my heart when the cake isn't what it could be.

But don't worry, I'm going to make this cake and we can still eat it. Don't be afraid of that, I had a great question about it on YouTube. No cake is wasted, even mistakes happen, cakes that are not found in this kitchen. So I'm cutting this out and you can see it basically won't even hold a line in the fill from where I'm standing. And simply, this filler did not, the thickener did not activate. So even when it cooled, it didn't thicken anymore, because that thickener didn't fully activate. (laughs) Well, the crust is flaky, you can see it, look how flaky it is, damn! (Laughs) The fruit doesn't even stay on the slice of cake.

Most of it fell back into the cake pan. Again, this would possibly be tasty, but could also have a noticeable starchy flavor. I get a lot of comments on my Instagram from people saying, "Do you have any cake recipes that don't use cornstarch? I hate the taste of it." I'm sure there are people with incredibly strong palates who can taste cornstarch, but if you're using it effectively, you shouldn't taste it. The only time you should try it is if you use it incorrectly, if it doesn't cook. So if flour, cornstarch, tapioca, whatever starch you're using, they all work, they all work great, but you really have to get them to the point where they can activate; otherwise, you'll end up with a pie that's basically soup.

That was disgusting, wasn't it? (laughs) The last major mistake I find people make frequently has to do with those things we were talking about at the beginning of this episode: choosing the right preparation method for the type of fruit you're using. Remember, very, very ripe fruit actually works very well in a pie, but when it is very, very ripe it will be very soft and very juicy. So sometimes it's better to lean towards that, go for a more candied method or a pre-cooked filling that you can thicken and get those flavors. Similarly, if a fruit is very firm, I mentioned that you might want to opt for a whole fruit option, like my apple dumpling recipe that is excellent on Food52.

You can also choose to cook that fruit in a way that concentrates the flavors it has. Because if you have a rock-hard peach, there's still juiciness and sugar, but there's not as much as in a really juicy, you know, really seasonal peach. So by roasting or broiling it, you can concentrate the flavors in it and give them that boost they need to make a good pie. And finally, when you have the right fruit, you can choose between options. You can use a raw, uncooked filling, you can still choose to pre-cook it, you can reduce the juices, you can go any of these routes, just choose what works best for the fruit and you'll be done. the best pie that fruit could make. (guitar music) I thought: can I get all this out?

Not yet, (laughs) and she says, "No, it's not possible." It's possible, I promise. It is easy to do. Yes. - Oh my god. - Let's talk about storing fruit pies, because unfortunately fruit pies are one of the most delicate to store. They really are best when prepared relatively fresh or when cooled shortly after baking. So remember, when working with an unbaked cake you can store in the refrigerator, you should cover it loosely with plastic wrap so the dough doesn't dry out. I usually don't like to store cakes, assembled cakes like that, unbaked in the refrigerator formore than two hours.

Because again, that sugar is in the filling and it will continue to draw out moisture even if you have a pre-cooked filling or if you're working with raw fruit filling, especially then. So no more than two hours in the refrigerator without baking and loosely covered with plastic wrap. Once the cakes are baked, it is best to store them at room temperature. That's the best chance for the crust to stay crispy, so you can cover them loosely with plastic wrap or even tent them loosely with aluminum foil and they'll be good for a day or two. As fruit pies sit at room temperature, they will lose some of the crispness of their crust.

So remember, they can be updated using the methods I talked about before, which will help get the crust crispy again and also give the filling a little warmth to get the whole pie back as close as possible. possible when it was fresh. (upbeat music) Let's talk about decorating your fruitcakes. You'll find tons of cake decorating ideas in my new book, "The Book on Pie," but I have a few that are particularly fruit pies, which are always so fun to talk about. The first one is the one right in front of me and it talks about decorative techniques that you can do with your bark, specifically your top bark.

This is a piece of dough that I rolled out to make the top crust, and I've been cutting some little scraps out of it using this little, sometimes they're called pie stamps, because not only are they a cutter, but they also have a little plunger that It makes an indentation that is really cute, attractive and pretty on the final cake. What I'm doing here is taking some cuts. You can see kind of an indentation on the outside of my dough here. What I did was I turned the pie plate upside down and gently pressed it into the dough to make this guide, because what I'm going to do is make a cut in the top crust of my pie.

So eventually I'll pull out these little snowflake pieces and then gently roll out this top crust on top of my pie. This is particularly fun because it's a good way to show off the fruit filling inside, because you're going to pull these pieces out and you can see the color of the fruit filling and you can give it some room for Bubble. Additionally, you can save these small cutouts as decorations for the outside edge of your cake. You can transfer them to another cake. You can bake them as pie scraps, snacks, and just chew them, there are tons and tons of possibilities.

Another of my favorite top crust techniques is to lattice a pie. I have a great article on Food52 that features tons of different ways to trellis. There are many more than just one way to fence boys. There are so many ways to trellis. I also made a classic lattice on this cake today. Remember, they are woven and non-woven lattices, so if lattices are difficult for you, remember that you can start with one that is simply non-woven. Lay all the strips in one direction, then lay more strips in another direction, no weaving necessary. You can also use things like braids and twists, multiple strands of cake dough braided or twisted together as some of the strips on the lattice, or even as decorative borders around the outside edge.

There are so many possibilities of things you can do to get creative with your dough, and the best part is that they are all delicious. My number one tip for using a lattice is to make the strips a little thicker than you would if you were just making a top base, or even the bottom base, which you want to be nice and thin. When you work with a lattice, you pull the strips back repeatedly, pulling them back, laying them down, that pulling action even if the dough is very good and cold can stretch the dough a little.

If you want to avoid that stretch, rolling it a little thicker helps make that strip, that net, a little stronger. Plus, who's mad about a little more crust on the top of their pie? I don't. The last thing I want to talk about is decorating fruit cakes. Because remember, you can decorate any type of cake, you know, people tend to think, "Oh, I put whipped cream on cream pies," or "I put meringue on key lime pie." But you can really do those kinds of garnishes, those finishing techniques on anything you want. I mentioned earlier that one of my all-time favorite pies is Concord Grape Pie.

So in my new pie book I have a great recipe for Concord Grape Meringue Pie. I think it's delicious with, oh my gosh, look at this meringue. I love you, I think. It's the perfect shot. It's perfect, I don't even want to put it on the cake, I just want to marry it on the spatula here and now, and forever and ever they will be happy. Oh, it's falling. (laughs) Not happily ever after. I'm going to put this meringue on the cake. Whenever I put meringue on a cake, be sure to watch my meringue episode of "Bake It Up a Notch" if you're thinking, "I'm afraid of meringue." You don't need to be afraid of meringue.

There are many surprising things about merengue and they are not scary. I like to mound the meringue a little more in the center than at the edges. Then I can pull it out to the edges while still keeping that slightly mounted look in the front. So I pile everything in the center and then gently push from the center down to make slanted sides on the cake. You also can't do this and just spread it in an even layer, but a small mound always looks very beautiful, especially on a meringue cake. It makes him look so imposing from a mile high.

It's like one of those, just one of those things, right? And then, of course, if you wanted, you could light this meringue, because in this kitchen we like fire. But if you don't want to burn it, it's also delicious, like this. Remember, cakes are an opportunity to be as creative with decorating as you can be with anything else, like layer cakes, cakes, anything. There's a ton of fun here, so get creative, find some images that inspire you, and get baking. You can make any type of cake, elevate it, and take it to the next level with some of these fun decorating techniques.

Give it a few hits. Give it a small spoonful on top, it will be great. That will be great. That was great? - Yes, good. (man whispers) It wasn't, I'm going to do it. (upbeat music) ♪ Yes ♪ Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of "Bake It Up a Notch" where we talk all things fruitcake. I hope this episode helps you get the best, most consistent fruitcakes you've ever had, so you can make a lot more fruitcakes, because you should, you should make tons of these, especially as we go along. until the fall and I hope this episode has a lot of information for you.

If there are any questions I didn't answer, be sure to leave them in the comments. I'd love to see what you're baking with #bakeitupa

notch

. Be sure to tune in next month to see the last piece of our spectacular cake. We are talking about cream pies, chiffon and cold curds. It's going to be so much fun, don't miss it, until then, happy baking. (upbeat music) ♪ Yes ♪