Soggy bottom and sides

[Jilk]

Hi,
I used the bellow recipe for cherry pie.
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/22872/easy-cherry-pie-recipe/

Also used their dough recipe. I think I nailed the dough. The execution after that was a fail. I thawed some tart cherries. I strained them, added starch, sugar etc. as mentioned but it didn't thicken up at least not to much. Anyhow I drained the liquid some more as more formed after I added sugar and starch. Then I put the filling in the pie. Did everything seemingly correctly. I also used egg yolks and coated the bottom of the dough where the cherry filling would go.

Anyhow the crust edge of the pie was somewhat crusty but the top sides and bottom was very soggy and seemed raw.

I added pics... Is there any advice on how to prevent this? What could I do better?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't think you've done anything wrong - if you look at the photos of the cooked pie they had the same problem. There's too much liquid for the pastry to get crusty. I've never baked cherry pie, it's not a popular thing here in the UK, but with any pie with a wet filling it's often a good idea to blind bake the case before adding the filling and pastry top. I use ceramic baking beads, but if you don't want to buy them you can get good results from all sorts of things - rice is a good one.

The subject of blind baking came up recently, check out the advice here: Blind baking

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@Becky is sooo right about blind baking. I’m just discovering that now.

The other thing I’ve learned is there’s a formula to use for the filling.

For fruit that contains a lot of water, like blueberries and cherries, the keys are the ratio of fruit, sugar, and starch. Also the type of starch

• Sugar should be 25% of the weight of the fruit.
• Starch should be 5.5% the weight of the fruit
• Starch should be tapioca from the cassava root. So a reliable brand like Bob’s Red Mill. Do do not use tapioca pudding or cassava flour. It needs to be the tapioca starch. Some Asian brands of tapioca are made with a different plant, so for pie filling stick with a known brand.

I’ve been using this formula for going on two yrs now. Works every time.

This gaming changing fruit pie filling science is brought to the world by pastry chef baking science geek of geeks Ms. Stella Parks—to whom I kowtow in respect and utter amazement at her total awesomeness!


https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/07/how-to-make-the-perfect-blueberry-pie.html



https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/06/fresh-cherry-pie-filling-recipe.html

This is a cherry pie I baked using Stella’s formula. I baked it in a tart pan. When it cooled I moved to on to a pizza pan. I sliced it on the pizza plate to see if how much juice would leak out. To my utter amazement this is how it sliced. Thank you Stella!

 

[Becky]

Wow, that is impressive @Norcalbaker59! Kinda want to make a cherry pie now...

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Wow, that is impressive @Norcalbaker59! Kinda want to make a cherry pie now...

Thank you @Becky. Alas, it’s just not a sour cherry pie On the east coast they have a variety of sour cherry that makes a pie to die for. The cherry is not super sour, it’s a sweet tangy fruit. It is so popular that bakers start marking their calendars and watching for the first fruit to show up in the stores. It’s only available for a couple of weeks each year. But it has such a cult following the fruit will sell out within a few days. It was sour cherry pie that really triggered my passion in baking.

I asked Stella Parks (via Serious Eats) whether there was a way to make a better cherry pie with sweet cherries. It’s not that sweet cherry is a bad pie, it’s just so sweet to me. She said her recipes on Serious Eats has two types of cherries because she too couldn’t get sour cherries. So come next cherry season I’m going to try her pie.

Have you tried her piecrust recipe? I of course have to use my gluten-free recipe, but I made Stella’s pie crust a couple of times just to test it. I’ll tell you, Becky, that recipe is excellent for anyone who thinks they can’t make a crust. Whenever someone asks for my pie crust recipe, I send them her recipe and the link to the video that demonstrates how she makes it. Even my brother who does not bake, made a pie using her piecrust. It turned out perfect. So good my sister-in-law asked him to make a second pie to take to work. Now all of his friends thinks he’s a master baker.

Stella’s cherry pie
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes...-pie-filling-recipe.html#comment-anchor-31842

 

[Becky]

Lol, is there nothing Stella Parks can't do?!

I know what you mean about cherries, they can be far too sweet IMO. I don't think I've ever tried fresh sour cherries, even the dried version is hard to find. Maybe I should try and grow some...

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Lol, is there nothing Stella Parks can't do?!

I know what you mean about cherries, they can be far too sweet IMO. I don't think I've ever tried fresh sour cherries, even the dried version is hard to find. Maybe I should try and grow some...

LOL yeah there’s not much Stella Parks can’t do.