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The Art of the Pie with Kate McDermott
Ready to make the holidays easy as pie? Kate McDermott, author of The Art of the Pie shares the secrets of making a successful and delicious pie. Recently, I interviewed this pie expert at Les Dames d’Escoffier Conference. McDermott’s first advice is to keep everything chill – including yourself. Butter actually starts melting at 59 degrees, and kitchens can become quite warm. She recommends holding ice cubes in your hands before handling the butter.
For making sweet pies, make sure you use “pie worthy fruit” which essentially means fruit that has flavor. You can use frozen fruit. Don’t defrost it.
Here are Kate McDermott’s three top tips for baking at home:
- Keep everything chilled, especially yourself
- Keep your boundaries in your pie so they don’t go over the edges because they can burn
- Vent
But most important, be happy and make pie.