Fruit Pies

Fruit pies are dead easy, and to give any one recipe for a fruit pie is a bit of a fake, as there isn't really one recipe, there's just one set of general principles and 10,000 variations on those few general principles.

You can print out this page, cut out the table, and tape it to the side of your fridge. You can use these ingredients and proportions as is, to make fruit pies that have people hanging around the kitchen door.

Or, vary them however you wish -- add some nutmeg and allspice to the apple, and you have invented your own recipe.

Over time, as you commit these principles to memory, making a fruit pie becomes a doddle: you'll even be able to make one without cracking open a single recipe book.

Amount	Apple	Blueberry	Cherry	Frozen or Tinned
Fruit	6 cups (7 - 8 apples)	3 cups (3 1/2 pints or punnets)	3 cups (3 1/2 pints or punnets)	2 x 15 oz (425g) packages frozen OR 2 x 19 oz (550 ml) tins
Sugar	3/4 cup (6 oz / 180g)	1/2 cup (4 oz / 115g)	1 to 1 1/2 cups (8 to 12 oz / 230 to 345g)	no sugar unless the packaging says the fruit is unsweetened
Thickener	2 tbsp flour	2 tbsp tapioca	4 tbsp tapioca	drain juice from fruit; use 1 cup ( 8 oz / 240ml) of the juice with 1 1/2 tbsp flour mixed in.
Butter	1 tbsp	1 tbsp	1 tbsp	1 tbsp
Salt	sprinkle	sprinkle	sprinkle	sprinkle
Flavouring	1/2 tsp cinnamon	1/2 tsp cinnamon	1/4 tsp almond extract	depends on fruit

1. Prepare fruit as necessary (wash, peel, core, slice, pit, stem, etc) and place in large bowl.
2. Measure into a separate bowl sugar and thickener, combine with spices and salt.
3. Mix the sugar mixture into the fruit, distribute the sugar well.
4. Arrange fruit in an unbaked 9 inch pie shell, dot with butter.
5. Top with upper crust. Bake at 425 F (220 C) for the first 15 minutes, then lower to 350 F (175 C) and cook for an additional 35 minutes.

See entry on Baking Pans Conversions for alternate pie dishes / conversion charts. You don't have to do any of these following tips to make great pies, but they can raise a pie to visual glory.

• As you place each crust in the pie pan, brush any excess flour away;
• Pack apples or other fruit in as tightly as possible to prevent "valleys" from appearing in the top crust;
• Make an egg wash from one egg, beaten. Brush it on the edge of the bottom crust, so that when the top crust is put on, it will seal preventing leakage out the sides. Then when you put the top crust on, brush the entire top crust with the egg wash, but don't leave any puddles.

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