The right way to Fight Soggy Pie Crusts With Epsom Salt

Completely the worst issue about baking a pie upfront is determining it should go soggy in an airtight container. Whether or not or not it’s just a few hours en path to Grandma’s dwelling or in a single day sooner than the holidays, there’s merely no means throughout the moisture of the filling slowly migrating in the direction of the crust. Nevertheless that doesn’t indicate we is not going to throw a wrench throughout the works.

Approach again, a buddy of mine taught me that magnesium sulfatelarger typically generally known as Epsom salt, is likely to be dried out throughout the oven to create a protected nonetheless extremely efficient desiccant. How extremely efficient? Properly, just some cups can shrivel up a pint of latest raspberries in a matter of days, or flip a handful of sage proper right into a pile of crispy chips in a single day.

It’s spectacular, to ensure, nonetheless the logistics of flooring house and circulation make it comparatively ineffective for drying any very important quantity of meals. Nevertheless for these of us a lot much less interested by dehydration than in merely combating humidity, it’s a surprisingly helpful software program. Even larger, it’s low-cost and easy to make at home. All you need is a quart of food-grade Epsom salt (no lavender or eucalyptus scents proper right here).

Merely pour it into an enormous brownie pan or rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment, and pop the whole factor proper right into a 400°F (200°C) oven, giving it a stir every quarter-hour or so, until the crystals are bone-dry, about 75 minutes full. Nevertheless waityou say. Shouldn’t be Epsom salt bone-dry to start out with? Positive and no. Epsom salt is the hydrous sort of magnesium sulfatewhich means it actually incorporates water inside its crystals.

As a result of it is warmed above 200°F, its sensible and semitranslucent crystals change into damp as that water is launched, then an increasing number of opaque as they effloresce proper right into a chalky white powder—anhydrous magnesium sulfate.

That complete course of can hypothetically be carried out on the vary, nonetheless the character of direct heat means the Epsom salt would require fastened consideration. Throughout the oven, it needs solely a quick stir now and again to keep up clumping to a minimal.

As quickly as it’s bone-dry, change the rocky objects to an airtight container, like a roomy pie supplier, and shut the lid tight. It’s possible you’ll nestle a cooled pie in its plate immediately on excessive, or cowl the anhydrous magnesium sulfate with a sheet of cheesecloth sooner than inserting small pastries on it—suppose croissants, turnovers, or maybe a freeform peach pie. Whereas the anhydrous magnesium sulfate shouldn’t be harmful to ingest, a cheesecloth barrier prevents it from getting onto whichever meals you’re drying out. Whatever the case, make sure the container is totally sealed, or else your DIY desiccant will in all probability be contending with ambient humidity as correctly.

I don’t indicate to advocate this system retains any pie or pastry as flaky and crisp as a result of the second it obtained right here out of the oven, nonetheless in side-by-side comparisons of cherry pies saved in containers with and with out this desiccant, it made a distinctive distinction throughout the texture of the crust. It’s the correct trick for shielding a make-ahead pie as modern as doable for picnics and potlucks, however it is moreover useful for lots additional. A thick layer of anhydrous magnesium sulfate throughout the bottom of an airtight container can also go a terrific distance in the direction of sustaining the crispness of candies equivalent to toffee and peanut brittle in summer time season months, and it does a bang-up job of drying small parts of latest flowers and herbs (for these of us inclined to utilize vibrant violets and mint as garnishes).

The perfect half is that anhydrous magnesium sulfate has no expiration date, so, whereas it’s a must to to bake it as soon as extra at occasions to drive out the moisture it absorbs, it could be saved for repeated use.

August 2016