Surely you have always wanted to make a pie with a sweet filling. But how to make jam thick enough? If you look up this information on the Internet, you will probably be offered several ways. For example, you can add starch, boil the jam, dilute everything with nuts or crushed breadcrumbs. But this will not bring much results. Just use the method that will be outlined below, it will definitely not let you down.
What needs to be done?
Are you already imagining yourself making a delicious blueberry pie? Then just get ready to do it right. Add a glass of jam to the pan and add a teaspoon of semolina to it. Wait about 15 minutes for everything to swell. Now leave everything to boil. This usually takes 15 minutes.
That's it, you have a thick pie filling. Don't worry, buckwheat won't affect the taste in any way. You will only feel pleasant fruits. If you want to enhance this flavor, you can add a little zest. And yet, there is no need to waste the most delicious jam. Usually the filling is something that the whole family doesn’t particularly like. The fact is that the difference after cooking is almost imperceptible.
In the midst of the ripening of berries and fruits, since ancient times, people have tried to preserve all the charm of nature's summer gifts. For the long winter days they made preserves and made jam. In order for the cooked product to be thick, aromatic, with a pleasant color and taste, our grandmothers had many of their own secrets for preparing these products.
Nowadays, various thickeners have become popular. They are added during cooking to give the jam a bright, appetizing color and the desired thickness. They are not difficult to use and are economical in terms of adding sugar. The jam is cooked using a thickener for only ten minutes. At the same time, vitamins are preserved in it, the berries do not disintegrate, and the jam turns out thick with a beautiful shade.
The main components of the thickener are pectin, gelatin, starch, and agar-agar. Jelly-like compositions are widely used both in production and in cooking. For quick preparation of preserves, jellies, jams, marmalade, pastilles, pectin, agar-agar, and gelatin are used to impart viscosity and density to the finished product.
Pectin jam thickener
Pectin means “connecting” in Greek. This ability to combine with acid and sugar and dissolve in cold and hot water has been used to create gelatinous products. Pectin, a plant chemical compound, is present in many fruits and vegetables. The largest amount of pectin is in apples and sugar beets. It is also present in citrus fruits, carrots, pumpkin, and sunflower.
Apple pectin is especially valued in cooking. It is obtained by squeezing and concentrating apples, followed by drying the resulting substance. This natural, plant-based hydrocarbon is a white powder with absolutely no odor.
Positive properties of pectin when making jam
- Has the property of preserving the aroma of the product. It takes 10 minutes to cook strawberry jam when adding pectin. The usual method requires a longer cooking time. The product is less aromatic and sweeter.
- Pectin keeps fruits and berries intact without boiling them. The jam has the bright color of fresh berries.
- Reduced cooking time allows you to get a larger amount of finished product.
- Pectin is a harmless substance, but you should not get carried away with it. An overdose of pectin can lead the human body to intestinal obstruction and allergic reactions. If this happens, drink more fluids.
Little secrets of making jam with added pectin
- The amount of pectin added to jam depends on the amount of sugar and liquid in it. For 1 kg of fruit add from 5 to 15 grams of pectin. If the ratio of sugar and jam liquid is 1:0.5, 5 grams of pectin are added accordingly. In a ratio of 1:0.25 – up to 10 grams. If the jam is prepared without sugar, then 15 grams of pectin should be added per 1 kg of the original product.
- Pectin is added to the boiled jam, mixed in advance with a small amount of granulated sugar, to prevent its grains from sticking to each other. After adding pectin, cooking continues for no more than five minutes, otherwise its jelly-like properties will be lost.
Starch as a thickener for jam: is it possible?
- Starch is a white, powdery product without taste or odor. Produced from potatoes, rice, wheat, corn.
- Starch does not dissolve in cold water, but in hot water it turns into a transparent gelatinous mass - a paste.
- It is used for cooking jelly, compotes, custards, sweet sauces and, occasionally, jam.
- Starch reduces the taste of the finished product, so you have to add more granulated sugar and citric acid to the jam to improve the taste of the jam.
- In liquid jam that cannot be boiled to the desired thickness, a few minutes before it is ready, you can add a little starch, which must be diluted in a small amount of water. After adding starch, cooking continues for no more than three minutes. In this case, the cooled jam will become thicker.
Making jam with gelatin
The human body constantly needs substances such as amino acids and minerals. They have a positive effect on the health and condition of human skin, nails, and hair. All these substances are contained in gelatin, which is obtained by heat treatment of bones, tendons, cartilage of animals and fish.
Gelatin suppresses hunger and is therefore considered a dietary product. 100 grams of gelatin contain 355 kcal. It is mainly used for preparing jellied products, creams, ice cream, and jam. It prevents the sugar from crystallizing.
Classic jam with gelatin for the winter is easy to prepare: for 1 kg of berries and 1 kg of sugar you will need 40 grams. gelatin, which is mixed in dry form with sugar, and then jam is prepared according to the recipe.
Use of agar-agar thickener when making jam
Food agar-agar is made from seaweed, which contains a lot of iodine, iron and calcium. It is a white powder, tasteless and odorless, and is a vegetable substitute for gelatin. Very widely used in the confectionery industry.
Useful properties of agar-agar
- Complete absence of fat, which makes the product dietary.
- Its high iodine content normalizes the functioning of the thyroid gland.
- Agar-agar does not contain calories and is an assistant in vegetarian nutrition.
- The agar-agar composition helps the body cleanse itself and strengthen the immune system.
- During cooking, it does not lose its thickening properties; on the contrary, it becomes dense and viscous and sets faster.
Agar-agar is associated with a sponge that absorbs useless substances and removes them from the body. But with all its beneficial properties, you need to adhere to the dosage and normalize the amount of its consumption. Otherwise, you are guaranteed to have intestinal upset. It must be remembered that agar-agar does not combine with such products as: wine and fruit vinegar, sorrel, chocolate, black tea.
When cooking jam with agar-agar, add 1 teaspoon of this thickener powder to 1 glass of liquid. First, fill it with water for 30 minutes and allow it to swell. Then the liquid is brought to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent the formation of lumps and sediment. The prepared solution can be poured into the cooked jam and mixed. And put it into clean jars. When the product cools, it becomes a clear gel.
Every skilled housewife has her own ways of making jam, but you shouldn’t neglect ready-made industrial thickeners to make the cooking process easier. Choose for yourself which jam thickener you like, and get creative, create new culinary masterpieces. Enjoy your preparations.
Many housewives have at least once encountered the problem of sweet filling “running away” and burning. It makes the bottom of the pies blur, and then the baking sheets are very difficult to wipe off. All this spoils the baking result and ruins all efforts. Some even refuse to use it altogether, so as not to waste their nerves and spoil their mood.
How to make baked goods delicious, with a generous amount of sweet filling that behaves perfectly? There are several tricks with which you can achieve the desired result.
Making the jam thicker
To prevent the filling from leaking out of the pies, you can specially thicken the jam or marmalade in several ways:
- cook a little, adding a small amount of semolina (1 teaspoon per glass);
- the filling will definitely thicken if you put powdered fruit or berry jelly in it (again, a teaspoon per glass);
- An old effective way is to add a little bit of any starch;
- Flour, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, and ground dry biscuits will serve well for the same purposes;
- You can make your own jam or confiture, specially thickening it with gelatin.
Tricks for making pies
To prevent the bottom of the pie from getting wet from the wet filling, you can sprinkle the berries on top with flour from ground oatmeal. Oatmeal will not affect the taste of baked goods and will absorb excess liquid.
Before laying out the filling, you can cover the rolled out dough with a thin layer of starch, ground crackers, and gelatin. Then place a layer of berries and repeat the sprinkling on top.
It is best to place the fruit skin side down and sprinkle sugar on top. This applies to peaches, apricots, small pears, apples, and plums.
As an option, raisins, dried apricots and prunes added to fruits also cope well with excess liquid. But there is one caveat: they must be washed, but not soaked, and not overdried.
You can juice fresh cherries by covering them with sugar and leaving them for a while. The resulting juice is drained, and the berry is ready to be placed in the product. It wouldn’t hurt to sprinkle it with starch at the end.
Pre-baked apples without skin make an excellent, non-moist filling and will cause absolutely no trouble.
All fruits will give up some of their moisture if you boil them a little first.
If buns designed with pieces of fruit end up without them at the end of baking, then to prevent this from happening, the fruit should be rolled in starch or flour before adding.
Maybe you shouldn’t chop rashly and give up sweet pastries with berries and fruits? Try it again and see that such fillings can bring aesthetic and taste pleasure!
How to thicken the filling so that it does not leak out of the pie or bun?
5 WAYS TO THICKEN THE FILLING:
1. For a glass of filling - 1-2 tbsp. flour
2. For a glass of filling - 1-2 tbsp. semolina
3. For a glass of filling - 1 tbsp. oatmeal
4. For a glass of filling - 1 tsp. starch
5. For a glass of filling - 1-2 tbsp. l. ground crackers or ground biscuits
Advice: If lingonberries are used for the filling (the most capricious filling), it needs to be thawed, rinsed and dried well with a paper towel.
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So that the filling does not leak out. Solution options
Wet fillings - jam, marmalade, fresh fruit - often create problems for beginners in the kitchen: the jam filling leaks out, and the fruit pie becomes wet from excess juice and looks unbaked.
The simplest solution is to put less filling. Not everyone will like it, it tastes better when there is a lot of filling. In addition, if the fruit is very juicy, the pie will become soggy even with a small amount of filling.
Another solution is to thicken the filling with a product that absorbs moisture. It is advisable that this product does not impose its taste.
There cannot be an exact recipe regarding the amount of filler, since the jam used for the filling can be of different thickness, and the quality of filler products today differs among different manufacturers.
Housewives usually find their own method through experience.
To prevent the jam, marmalade or jam filling from leaking out, do this:
Boil the jam in advance, add semolina to it. On average, 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon per glass of jam, the amount of semolina depends on the thickness of the jam or jam. Cool the mass, it will thicken and will not flow out;
Add berry or fruit jelly powder to the jam or marmalade - 1 tablespoon per glass of jam;
Add about 1 tablespoon of flour (wheat or corn) or oatmeal per glass of jam or jam;
Add corn or potato starch; you can boil the jam with starch in advance. The amount of starch is 1-2 teaspoons per glass of jam. This is approximate, because starch varies in strength.
Which starch is better? Many people believe that corn is less noticeable, but this depends on the manufacturer;
Add breadcrumbs to the jam, it is better if you make them yourself from a very good white bun;
Add ground cookies to the jam by crushing them with a rolling pin on a cutting board. A cracker with a neutral taste, without flavoring fillers and unsalted is better;
You can make the following filling: stir the jam well, beat with a fork, add egg whites whipped into a thick foam;
Especially for baking, prepare very thick jam using natural gelling agents: pectin, quittin, gelfix, marmalade. This is when you make preparations for the winter.
By the way, it is with this kind of jam or marmalade that you can very easily and quickly prepare a fruit sponge roll:
Bake a thin rectangular sponge cake, roll it up with baking paper, then when it has cooled, carefully unwrap it and spread it with jam or homemade marmalade, roll it up (without paper), put it in a plastic bag, and put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
To prevent a pie with fruit filling from being too wet due to excess juice, you can do this:
Place the fruit or berry filling on the rolled out dough, sprinkle the filling with oatmeal flour (grind the oats in advance with a blender), for example: 1-2 tablespoons for 4-5 medium-sized apples. You don't have to grind the flakes;
By the way, whole grain oatmeal copes well with the problem and does not affect the taste. I use German ones; they have been sold everywhere for a long time.
Sprinkle the rolled out dough with starch, gelatin or ground breadcrumbs, you can also use neutral cookies, and place the fruit filling on top. If the filling layer is high yay, sprinkle more on top;
I’m used to sprinkling Golden apple filling only on top; these apples are moderately juicy.
Cut apricots, plums, small apples and pears into halves, remove seeds and cores, place them in one layer, skin side down, sprinkle with sugar, almond petals, and ground breadcrumbs on top. To absorb moisture, you can add washed and dried raisins or dried apricots to the fruit, but not completely dry, like a stone;
Large apples and pears can be cut into slices and placed skin side down;
Prepare the filling from baked apples without skin;
Boil the fruit briefly beforehand;
If you add small pieces of fruit to the dough (instead of raisins): apricots, apples, pears, etc., they must first be rolled in flour;
Rinse fresh cherries, drain, defrost frozen ones, sprinkle with sugar, leave for half an hour or an hour to let them release juice, drain the juice. Place the cherries on the dough, sprinkle starch on top.
I do it differently, my cherry pie never gets soggy. We have a family method:
First coat the rolled out dough with a thin layer without gaps of thick jam or melted honey (not hot!), this protects against leakage. Then sprinkle the prepared cherries with starch - 1 tablespoon per 400-500 grams of cherries (more is possible, depending on the strength of the starch), mix, place on the dough, sprinkle sugar on top to taste. You can do it without sugar at all, because a layer of jam or honey adds sweetness. Then cover with strips of dough.
The photo shows the remains of the pie in a section after a day.
And also, in order not to remove burnt jam or dried fruit juice from the baking sheet, always use baking paper for baking with wet fillings.
I think everyone has encountered liquid jam intended for a pie.
Wherever I looked for advice on what to do, there were only 3 options:
1) boil until thick,
2) add starch,
3) add crushed crackers or nuts.
I only succeeded in the third option, but the result was not pleasing. I thought and thought, and finally came up with an idea!!!
Of course, there was a powerful stimulus for thought in the form of liquid currant jam. And I have a great desire to bake a grated pie with it.
So what to do?
Pour a glass of jam/jam/jelly into a saucepan, add 1 tsp. semolina, mix well and leave for 15 minutes for the semolina to swell.
Then bring to a boil and after 2 minutes you get a wonderful thick jam. Jam. Jam.
Semolina does not in any way affect the taste or appearance of the fruit filling of the pie.
Of course, depending on the consistency of the original semolina product, you may need a little less or a little more than a teaspoon.
And one more little piece of advice: As a rule, the most delicious jam is eaten outside of baking, and for pies, options that are not the family’s favorite are left. Adding the zest of just half an orange makes any fruit filling incredibly delicious, try it! Bon appetit everyone!
And I’m not worried about liquid jam. I lay out the dough on a baking sheet, making sides. I pour the jam mixed with lemon so that it is sour, distribute the jam, rub the dough from the freezer on top, which I put there for 15 minutes. Liquid jam only makes the pie softer. I bake it all the time, it’s always on my table. Now there is no thick jam anymore. And the grandchildren come, give them grated pie.
→ TamaraEasily! 500g margarine, 5 cups flour (unsifted), this will be 800g. 1 tsp soda, 3/4 tsp. Grind lemon juice into powder with a spoon (do not replace it with vinegar), 2-3g vanillin, 2 eggs. Grate cold margarine into flour, grind into crumbs, add soda, lemon, and vanillin. Mix. Beat in the eggs, knead the dough, divide into 2/3 and 1/3. Divide 1/3 into 3 pieces, make flat cakes and put in the freezer. Stretch 2/3 of the dough onto a baking sheet, making finger-high edges along the edges. Spread with sour jam. Plum, apricot, and apple are better suited. If the jam is sweet, I add lemon, it’s also better to grind it, at the rate of 0.5 tsp. per jar 0.6 l. This is approximately how much it takes for the filling, maybe more - 3 cups. You can make fresh apple jam - 1 kg of apples, 300-400 g of sugar, no more. You can arrange fruits from compotes. They make it with a sweet curd filling, but we don’t like it. Grate the dough from the freezer over the filling using a coarse grater, distributing the chips evenly. Bake over medium heat in the middle of the oven. I always put an empty baking sheet down, on which I put foil so that it does not burn. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top. I cut it hot. First I cut the edges and fold them separately, although the taste is the same. Then I cut it into small squares. I have been preparing the filling since the summer. Just now I bought carrots, I will use boiled carrots, pureed, and cook the filling with lemon. Last time (on Friday) I quietly added carrot puree to apple jam. Everyone was delighted. Then she confessed.
