Cherry Pie FAIL
In this monthly series, I commit to cooking whatever is on the cover of Bon Appetit, Saveur or maybe some other food magazine. Thereβs a reason these particular dishes are on the cover β theyβre usually (but not this month!) the best recipes in the magazine.
The cover of the June issue of Bon Appetit had a big ol’ cherry pie on the front. I am obsessed with fresh cherries – they usually don’t make it into any baked goods, because I’ve been known to demolish a 3 pound box of them in a few days, using only my mouth. I decided to give baking with cherries a whirl this month, and the results were disastrous. Basically, the filling was completely liquid, like a cherry soup surrounded by crust. Help me figure out what went wrong, won’t you?
Here are some deviations I made from the original recipe, as published in Bon Appetit:
- I used store-bought, refrigerated pie crust instead of making their homemade version, because I’m pie crust lazy.
- I used sweet cherries instead of the sour cherries that were called for, because that was what was available to me.
- I increased the amount of lime zest, because I was intrigued by adding lime flavor to a cherry pie, and figured that even more lime flavor would be even better.
Other variables:
- I don’t like baked fruit pies, and rarely make them or eat them. Usually, one slice of apple pie on Thanksgiving is my limit. So, I’m definitely not what you would call “well versed” in the pie making arena. Still, I had planned to give my Dad a few pieces of this pie for his 60th birthday, so I went for it anyway.
- This pie was not baked with love. I started way too late in the evening, the cherries took forever to pit, and I had to stay up far past my bedtime to wait for this sucker to bake.
- I used a Pi plate instead of a standard, boring pie dish. Maybe the mathematics gods were angry.
- Baking time: The Bon Appetit recipe called for a minimum of 80 minutes baking time, and a maximum of 90, or until “crust is deep golden brown.” My crust was what I would consider deep golden brown after 72 minutes, so I pulled it.
- Oven temperature: My oven is accurate to within 5 degrees, as I have an oven thermometer I place in there to test it with occasionally.
Of these factors, I believe that store-bought crust, increased lime zest, not liking pie, using a Pi plate and oven temperature were non-issues in the filling not thickening properly. Not being baked with love could have been a minor factor, as I know from experience that food made when you’re in a bad mood never turns out as well as food made when you’re happy to be in the kitchen.
I believe the biggest variable was that I used sweet cherries instead of sour cherries. Knowing that my cherries would be sweeter than what was called for, I *thought* about decreasing the sugar in the recipe, but decided to use the amount called for, even if that meant a too-sweet pie, for fear of the filling not thickening enough with decreased sugar. I’m wondering if sweet cherries are just much, much juicier than sweet?
I’m also wondering if I had baked this pie longer, would the filling have thickened? Perhaps, but I honestly can’t see an extra 8 or 18 minutes of baking time making that big of a difference. All fruit pies seem liquidy when you pull them out of the oven, but then they firm up as they cool. It seems impossible to know how much a pie will firm up.
Where do YOU think I went wrong here? Don’t be shy! I’d love to hear your thought as to why this pie was an epic failure.
Note: One of my biggest pet peeves is when people make a recipe they see online, but with changes and substitutions, and then leave a negative review on it, anyway. So this is NOT a negative review of Bon Appetit’s recipe. I flat-out didn’t follow the instructions, and used sweet cherries instead of sour. I have nobody to blame but myself.
Testing author comment
If it makes you feel better, I just tried making the pie. I made the crust as per the instructions and used sour cherries and it was also a watery mess.
Oh no, Jennie! I’m sorry to hear you have a watery pie, too π I think Bon Appetit needs to do a few more rounds of testing on this one…
And this is why I do not bake. There would be no love or patience in my baked goods. None. Kudos to you for the effort and I hope you saved the pie by eating it with ice cream! Either way, I’m diggin’ your photos and love the cherry napkins and pi plate!
Thanks, Amy. We’re not bakers. But I think we’re both still pretty cool π
I’ve found that tapioca works much better as a thickening agent for fruit pies. Don’t get the pearl tapioca. Follow the directions on the box. I mix it with the sugar before adding both to the fruit.
Thanks for the tip, Vivienne! I’ll definitely have to give tapioca a try!
Lori, I have nothing to add to everyone else’s comments here. This sounds exactly like something that could happen to me (baking late at night, crust browning too soon, frustration and therefore a decided LACK of love in the baking). All I can say is scoop the filling out and eat it with ice cream (yuuuummmmβ¦) I feel ya, girl – I’d hate to waste all that time, energy and money on ingredients.
Done and done! My Cherry Pie Ice Cream turned out quite well π
All of us have had kitchen fails. One even called hers food for the gods – “food for the dogs”, lol. So don’t worry too much about it. If it’s just the shape but taste is still great, then nothing was really put to waste π
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Haha, love that saying, Julie!
I absolutely LOVE you posted this- in fact you inspired me to post a fail too!!
So glad to hear that, Sophia! Let’s celebrate our occasional fails π
Yeah, I’m now remembering that whenever we made cherry pies in school, we brought the mixture to a boil on the stove first to activate the cornstarch, THEN baked. I think if Bon Appetit wants to publish a recipe where you just toss the cherries with cornstarch before baking, they should note that it needs to come to a boil in the oven. Because honestly, I had totally forgotten that whole “cornstarch needs to boil” thing until I was thinking about it the next morning. Oh well. I’ll try again when I get some sour cherries!
I agree, they shouldn’t assume people will just know (or remember :P) that. You got this.
Do you know my daughter, Stephie, from Eat Your Heart Out? She made a sweet cherry pie earlier this year. We have a technique that helps A LOT when it comes to making your pies non runny. Check out her site and search for sweet cherry pie. Also, when it comes to fruit pies, they can be tricky, because you just don’t know how juicy the fruit is. It’s all about the thickener and the sugar. The sugar will make the fruit juicier, and I’m betting that’s what it is. I don’t know what quantity you used, but that is probably what happened. As far as eating it? I would have poured it over ice cream and gone for it. We all have failures in the kitchen. π
I’ll definitely check out Stephie’s recipe, thanks so much Julie! I think fresh fruit pies are just finnicky, but I guess that’s part of the fun, right? π
I suppose so! haha! Sometimes, it’s just a guessing game as to how juicy the berries/fruit are. I will say that this technique has really, really helped a lot. And hey–it keeps us humble. π
I love this kind of stuff Lori! I would say I agree with the stuntman. A few more minutes would have probably helped. Cornstarch needs to come up to a boil to thicken. Did you see bubbles? Its possible the your store-bought crust browned faster than their home-made recipe. Also from the Bon Ap photo it looks like the juice is very loose as it is. If you were to try it again, and I doubt you would ha ha, I would go up to a quarter cup of cornstarch.
Yeah, I think when I pulled it, it might have *just* started to bubble slightly, so it never got to that full boil for the cornstarch to activate. I should have known better, but just wasn’t thinking that way at the time, you know? I also think you’re right about the store-bought crust browning more quickly than homemade. SO many variables when it comes to making pie, wow!