A Pie for a Pi [Day]

3.14159...  That's all of Pi (π) that sticks in my brain now (much more of the other kind sticks to my waistline, I imagine).  My dad used to recite the number for far more digits than that, often at the mention of pie, because his is a different type of brain with a similar pun-based humour.  He of course also had one of those shirts; you know the type.

Because today is Pi Day (3.14, get it?), here is a brief post in its honour.  I haven't baked an apple pie out of pie numbers like this clever fellow, but if you do please don't soak your apples in 7Up.  Apples are naturally sweet, sugar is often added to pie anyway, and 7Up, or indeed any soda, serve the same purpose (lowering the Ph of the apples to slow their reaction to oxygen) that lemon juice does, only less effectively and with the addition of unnecessary sugar.  If you wish to cut the tartness of the lemon try using soda water, which at least does not have the added sugar (or shouldn't anyway, though I've found myself accidentally drinking sweet water a few times...).  For more fun with science and apples, visit education.com.

I've remarked before, however, that I like the colour of browned apples in a pie, and I've read that some chefs believe brown apples give a pie more flavour, though unfortunately I've since lost that reference.  It's a good enough excuse to bake two pies though, one with browned apples and one with lemony apples, isn't it?  All in the name of science.

The apple pie recipe I initially used was one of Martha's, though as I wrote in my previous post on pie, I adapted it.  I left out the lemon zest, which may have been a nice touch, and tossed in a bit of lime juice instead of lemon, because that's what I had.  On subsequent occasions I omitted the acid entirely in favour of increased browning and less acidic apples.  I also began leaving out the butter in the filling, because my mom says she never adds any; I didn't notice any difference in doing so, and hey, less fat!  I also added cranberries when they started appearing in the market, another mom tip, and yummmmmm.  Finally, I began adding some corn starch (aka corn flour) to soak up some of the extra juices (mom says to use tapioca, which sounds like a better alternative, but I didn't have any), and put a thin layer of butter on top of the bottom crust before pouring the filling into it.  This butter layer creates a grease barrier between the juicy filling and the crust, allowing the crust to bake through without getting soggy.  Placing the pie dish directly on the bottom of the oven for the last few minutes of baking doesn't hurt either; no soggy bottoms here.

As regards the top of the pie, friend sent me this link to the innovative pie crust techniques of the 50's (funnily enough it doesn't include the numbers game from our Instructables friend).  I made a stab at number one.  It didn't pan out...

For my next trick, with the leftovers of pie number one, I made a cartoonishly tall pie: four and twenty blackbirds meets apple and cranberry.

It may not have been fit for a king, but it was certainly fit for me.

Happy Pi[e] Day!