Fruit pies. StockSnap / Pixabay.com / 2017 / CC0 1.0
Fruit pies are very easy to make. There’s really just one set of general principles to learn, and then you can do thousands of 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.
Standard ratios for a few basic fruit pies
| Amount | Apple | Blueberry | Cherry | Frozen or Tinned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit | 6 cups (7 - 8 apples) | 3 cups (3 ½ pints or punnets) | 3 cups (3 ½ pints or punnets) | 2 x 15 oz (425 g) packages frozen OR 2 x 19 oz (550 ml) tins |
| Sugar | ¾ cup (6 oz / 175 g) | ½ cup (4 oz / 100 g) | 1 to 1 ½ cups (8 to 12 oz / 225 to 350 g) | No sugar unless the packaging says the fruit is unsweetened. If unsweetened, then as per guides to the left for fruit. |
| Thickener | 2 tablespoon flour | 2 tablespoon tapioca | 4 tablespoon tapioca | drain juice from fruit; use 1 cup ( 8 oz / 240ml) of the juice with 1 ½ tablespoon flour mixed in. |
| Butter | 1 tbsp | 1 tbsp | 1 tbsp | 1 tbsp |
| Salt | sprinkle | sprinkle | sprinkle | sprinkle |
| Flavouring | ½ teaspoon cinnamon | ½ teaspoon cinnamon | ¼ teaspoon almond extract | depends on fruit |
- Make the pie crust, set aside in refrigerator.
- Prepare fruit as necessary (wash, peel, core, slice, pit, stem, etc.) and place in large bowl.
- Measure into a separate bowl sugar and thickener, combine with spices and salt.
- Mix the sugar mixture into the fruit, distribute the sugar well.
- Line a 22 cm (9 inch) pie pan with half of the pie crust dough you made, rolled out;
- Arrange fruit in the pie pan, dot with butter.
- Top with the second half of the rolled out pie dough, to form an upper crust.
- Bake at 220 C (425 F ) for the first 15 minutes, then lower to 175 C (350 F) and cook for an additional 35 minutes.
See entry on Baking Pans Conversions for alternative pie dishes / conversion charts.