December 1, 2014 - 5:19am
slow and low baked pie
I wonder if anyone has tried this?
Instead of baking at 400°(F) or 350° or temp shifting, bake at 200° or 250° for a longer time.
I am thinking about this mostly in relation to apple pie or other pie that isn't custard or otherwise dairy based.
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pastry, puff or short crust is that they need an higher temperature to get the water in the butter or shortening to really vaporize and turn to steam to make the crust of a pie flaky and tender. At those low temperatures you are relying on the Maillard Reaction for browning instead of the browning due to caramelization that happens with baking at temperatures over 350 F.
At those low temperatures I'm guessing that the crust would be dense, rather than tender and flaky, and that it wouldn't brown either. It's not like baking a pumpernickel at 225F for 11 hours.
You could try putting some baking soda in the crust with a little bit of vinegar to help speed of the Maillard Reaction.
before the filling goes in.
An initial high temperature is necessary as that sear quickly vaporizes the fat in the crust, producing the flakiness that we all know and love. When I bake a pie with a pastry crust, I typically preheat to 500F and lower the heat to 425F as soon as I put the pie in the oven. I leave it there for 15 or 20 minutes. This produces flake. If you allow your fat to slowly reach a high temperature, it will melt slowly and will produce a soggier, less-flaky crust.
After that first 15 or 20 minutes, I turn the oven temperature down to around 360. You should feel free to experiment with lower heats at this point. For apple pie, that might be nice. The only thing I'd think about is the thickener you use. You may end up requiring less thickener if your filling is at a boiling temperature for a longer time. Also, keep in mind that different thickeners activate (and deactivate) at different heats.
Another possibility is to blind bake a crust and cook your filling in a saucepan for a longer time. That way, you could get the best of both worlds.
Either way, I wish you good luck and encourage you to post pictures.
"When I bake a pie with a pastry crust, I typically preheat to 500F and lower the heat to 425F as soon as I put the pie in the oven. I leave it there for 15 or 20 minutes. ...... After that first 15 or 20 minutes, I turn the oven temperature down to around 360."
this is kind of what I did for last weeks pie. I started at 500° convect and turned to 400 when the pie went in for 25 mins. That was too long, and I think the convect wasn't/isn't needed. Or perhaps convect for 15 and then no convect after at 350° ish.
I think your method is probably closer to what I should use. I use tapioca "flour" for the thickener and a wee bit of apple jack to replace a couple of tbsp of water in the pastry.
It is all about heat transfer efficiency, convection is kind of like wind chill in reverse. If I remember right when we had a convection oven we turned the temperature down 25 or 30 F.
Gerhard
I bake all my pies in the cheap oven in my rented apartment. I've never tried using convection, but it's probably worth experimenting with.
It probably doesn't matter too much what thickener you use. My point was more along the lines that, if you're cooking for a longer time, the juices in your filling will have more time to boil off. Tapioca flour is good. For apple pies, I typically use cornstarch or arrowroot.