Jun Jun: I haven’t seen your pie; how I wish you could send me a picture of this. But this kind of problem is usually caused by several factors; first, your crust might be so thick that the time it spends in the oven is not long enough for it to be fully baked. Or, your filling could be too liquid or too watery; apples, as you know, contain a lot of water. During baking, this water is released, and your crust absorbs it, resulting in that uncooked look. Your crust might also have too much fat, which melts prematurely during the early stages of baking. Your crust will then absorb it and look "wet" and look under-baked.

Just make sure that your recipes for pie crust are well-proportioned. Look for a reputable baking book to read. They have good and tested recipes that will give you the right results. Always bake your pies in the lowest rack of the oven to ensure that your bottom crust is baked well.

With regards to your filling, use apples that don’t have too much water in them, like the Granny Smith variety (which may be too sour for Filipino tastes) or better yet, use whatever apples you like but be sure to compensate for their liquid by adding more thickeners, such as flour and tapioca, which will readily absorb the excess liquid in the formula and help create the gelatinous filling that everyone enjoys.

Adoree: Most apple pie recipes call for baking the crust (both top and bottom) together with the filling. Because the bottom crust is fully covered by the filling, its center usually does not brown when baked; in addition, apples secrete liquid while being cooked, so the crust tends to absorb this, resulting in that unbaked look and soggy texture. To minimize this effect, a form of starch (like flour, cornstarch, or tapioca) is added to the apples so that the liquid will thicken and not be fully absorbed by the crust. You may also put a cookie sheet inside the oven while preheating it; when you are ready to bake the pie, put the pie plate on top of it so the crust will get more heat from the cookie sheet and bake more evenly at the bottom.

Jun Jun: The golden brown look is due to several reasons too, and with pie crust, it is the result of egg wash being brushed on it just before it is baked. Whatever you do, the normal type of crust will not brown nicely since you don’t have enough sugar in the dough. One way to give it that golden brown color is to use an egg wash. My standard recipe for egg wash is 1 egg, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 tbsp. water. This will also create some shine on the upper crust.

Adoree: Pie dough usually needs to be brushed with an egg wash to give it the golden brown that we all look for in a baked product. This egg wash (which can just be beaten egg; sometimes, water or milk is added to the egg) is brushed on the dough before baking. This can be repeated towards the last 10-15 minutes of baking.

Jun Jun: Several factors will cause this to happen. First and foremost is the type of apples you use—delicious apples are very watery, so they have to be rendered or cooked a bit, strained, and then cooled. This can then be used as the filling, because the cooking or rendering process will release some of the water in the apples. Also, some starch in the form of flour, cornstarch, or tapioca is needed to bind with whatever liquid is present in the filling.

Adoree: Apples water when baked or cooked, and in order to regulate this so it won’t ruin the pie, a form of starch has to be added to the filling to thicken the liquid coming out from the apples. If your recipe already calls for flour or cornstarch, and you still find the filling watery, then go ahead and add a little more flour or cornstarch (depending on what the recipe calls for; about 1-2 additional tablespoons will suffice) the next time you make it.

Jun Jun: Of course! A classic French apple tart has no topping and just has streusel on top to "cover" it, thus lessening the effects of over-drying. This is also baked together with the pie itself. The bottom crust is still very important since it serves as the "container" for the dessert, and the dough will prevent the filling from leaking from the sides. Others don’t even put toppings on it anymore since they want fillings that are a bit dry and moist in the middle.

Adoree: Yes, you may omit the crust, but you cannot call it a pie anymore. You can make some apple filling by cooking sliced or diced apples with brown sugar, cornstarch, and sultanas. Cook this until the apples are tender. Pour this mixture into a baking dish. Cover the top with streusel (a combination of butter, brown sugar, flour, and nuts) and bake until golden. I call this "Heavenly Apple Crisp".

Jun Jun: Aba, of course! Just take a look at our recipe of the week. Thanks for all your interesting questions! Till the next Baking 101 column!

Version Recipe: APPLE PIE

Pie Dough:

Ingredients:1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tbsps sugar

⅓ cup shortening, cooled and cubed

⅓ cup butter, cooled and cubed

¼ cup cold water

Procedure:

Blend all purpose flour, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening and butter in to dry ingredients. When it reaches texture of cornmeal, add water until it binds together and form into a disk. Let rest for 30 minutes inside the chiller. Roll out dough into a 15 inch round to fit a 9 inch pie plate.

Filling:

Ingredients:5–6 pcs apples, peeled, cored and quartered

1 ½ tbsps lemon juice

½ cup brown sugar

2 tbsps all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

pinch all spice

2 tbsps grated cheddar cheese

2 tbsps heavy cream

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ cup butter, cubed

Procedure:

Toss apples in lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Set aside. Mix together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and walnuts. Stir this into the apples. Mix grated cheese and heavy cream. Pour this mixture into pie dough, arrange properly. Stir in leftover liquid. Cover top with streusel topping. Bake in a preheated oven set at 400 º F for 50 minutes to an hour or until golden brown.

Streusel Topping:

⅓ cup all purpose flour

1 ½ tbsps brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp butter

⅛ tsp cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

Procedure: Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut in butter. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of apples. Then bake as directed above.