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Chef on Call: Making Perfect Pies

Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of the landmark "Pie and Pastry Bible," gives District resident Sarah Fairbrother a lesson in making pies.

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Well, perhaps Fairbrother didn't think so right then, but she soon got the hang of it.

Onward to the fillings. Beranbaum had made a promise that her pecan pie would be distinctive, and she made good on it. She eschewed Karo corn syrup for Lyle's Golden Syrup, which is made from cane sugar. She baked the pie in a tart pan to equalize the ratio of nuts to filling to crust.

Instead of relying only on cornstarch to thicken the peach pie filling, Beranbaum collected the fruit's juices, reduced them to a near-caramelized syrup and added them back to the peaches. Once assembled with its filling and top crust, the pie had to rest in the refrigerator before baking, a notion that exasperated Fairbrother a bit. "This is very demanding pie!" she blurted.

So was the cherry pie, as it turned out. We had furnished bing cherries rather than the sour ones the recipe called for, so Beranbaum had to compensate for that variety's extra liquid by thickening the juice in a saucepan before baking the pie. Problem solved.

Throughout the afternoon, directives on handling dough, making fillings, crimping edges and baking oven-ready pies came in waves. Key among them:

· Use templates to cut out pre-measured sizes of top, bottom and lattice crusts. That will ensure a correct fit and avoid cumbersome trimming after the dough is in the pie pan.

· If using a tart pan with a removable bottom, push the dough thinner against the sides. That will make it rise up higher than the rim. When the crust shrinks during baking, it will still have a good height.

· For blind baking (baking a pastry shell before it is filled), use a large-urn coffee filter to hold rice as the weight that keeps the crust from rising. The filter absorbs butter from the crust, and the rice, which toasts slightly, can be used for pilaf.

· Try baking a pie on the oven floor for the first 20 minutes or so. Use a clear glass pie plate so you can monitor darkness. Once the bottom crust is nice and dark, bring it up to the lowest rack and finish baking.

· Baking a pie that starts out frozen is good; the bottom crust gets a chance to crisp before the filling has softened. Baking from frozen generally takes 20 extra minutes. (Freeze a pie only after it has rested in the refrigerator for an hour.)

By 3 p.m., Fairbrother's head was swimming, and Beranbaum had a train to catch. The start-to-finish pecan pie came out of the oven; the cherry and peach pies were ready to go in. Beranbaum eyed them with approval, saying she could tell from the evident swirls of butter in the crusts that they were going to be good.

Which reminded her of a story.

She was in Oakland, Calif., years ago, visiting her brother, who had bought a pie for dessert. Her then-6-year-old nephew led her to it and voiced his disappointment.

"He said, 'You can tell by looking at it that it's not going to be any good!' and I thought, 'I taught him something!' "

Him and countless grateful others.

David Hagedorn, chef and former restaurateur, can be reached at food@washpost.com. His Chef on Call column appears monthly.