An intense blueberry filling that thickens up just because the crust becomes golden and flaky. A mixture of wild and cultivated blueberries provides the filling incredible depth of taste. Tapioca starch types a gentle, clear gel that is by no means cloudy, slimy, or gloppy. A 4:1 ratio of fruit to sugar raises tapioca's gelatinization point so the filling and crust will cook at the same fee, meaning you never must trade a thick filling for a soggy crust! Tempered-glass pie plates conduct heat rapidly and evenly to the dough, producing a far crispier crust than heavy ceramic or stoneware. Despite what a sure respected but completely unnamed supply would have you imagine, picture-excellent blueberry pie is ridiculously simple to make. That's because blueberries aren't some mystery of the universe, full of variables no man can account for; they're filled with water. Tasty water, to make certain, however water that may be precisely gauged thanks to one thing often known as a scale.
Whether it is recent or frozen (more on that here), sex a fruit's weight provides us a dependable indication of its water content, so we are able to easily predict how much starch is needed to form a gel and sex how much sugar is required to guard that starch from thermal hydrolysis, a.okay.a. You may read up on the science behind my system right here, but in observe all you need to know is this: Whatever your fruit, you will need 5.5% of its weight in tapioca starch and 25% of its weight in sugar, tossed in a crust, baked until bubbling-hot, and cooled to 85°F (29°C). With these guidelines, you may all the time count on a pie that is juicy yet beautifully thick, by no means runny or gloppy. Truth be told, dating it does not matter whether or not you've obtained blueberries, cherries, or plums, because water is the one factor we need to account for in the case of thickening a pie.
But wait, you cry. What about pectin? Doesn't that, like, have something to do with pie? Ehhh, not really. For the uninitiated, pectin is a soluble fiber discovered in lots of fruits, and when cooked it will help liquids to gel. It's solely pure to think about this pure thickener must play an vital position in fruit pies, however pectin is slightly fussy, prepared to carry out solely below particular circumstances. Aside from focus, which varies from fruit to fruit, pectin requires just the correct quantity of sugar, acidity, and heat earlier than it may actually kick into gear. In response to my pal Cathy Barrow, author of Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry, pectin does not actually do its thing till about 220°F (104°C). That's effectively above the inner temperature of any pie, considerably hampering pectin's energy to gel. What's extra, compared with jams and jellies, pie filling contains manner much less sugar and acid-two more elements that reduce pectin's role as a thickener.
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So whereas it is true that blueberries include a good amount of pectin, it is of little use inside the context of a low-sugar, low-acid, low-heat pie. Put merely, with regards to blueberry pie, pectin is totally irrelevant. Which means blueberry pie is useless straightforward to thicken, as a result of there are no wild playing cards to consider. Some bakers thicken their pies by cooking down the berries' juice to focus the taste, however to me that makes for a jammy pie that is thick but also slightly dry. Others favor a pie so juicy it must be served with a spoon. My recipe offers the better of both worlds: a blueberry pie that is lusciously thick and straightforward to slice, meet women however with all its natural juices intact. It also wants a crispy, flaky, golden crust on the top and bottom, with out requiring any par-baking. In fact, that's not a feat any outdated recipe can achieve, however with my old style flaky pie dough, you may never have to worry about a soggy backside crust once more.