The Salt Trick That Will Help Keep Your Pie Crust From Getting Soggy
The pie business in the United States is huge, doing almost $400 million annually (per Statista). There are a few secrets to creating the perfect pie crust, but even so, even the flakiest crust can get soggy in the fridge. Whether you're digging into a classic pumpkin or an eggnog-inspired sweet, munching on a soggy pie crust will quickly dampen anyone's spirit.
As Food Network reports, often pies come out of the oven less-than-crispy because their moist filling doesn't have enough absorbent power. However, if you're pre-baking your dessert for the next day, even if your pecan pie turned out perfectly flaky, it's at risk of not staying that way after sitting in the fridge. As the outlet notes, by leaving your dessert out until the morning you're leaving it to soak in its moist fruit center. This means your friends and family will be forced to munch on a slice of mushy cherry pie at your next shindig. However, there is a way to stop your delightful pie from turning less-than-tasty. And salt is the unlikely savior of your sweet dessert's crust.
Grab a bag off Epsom salt to keep your pie crust crisp
As a frequent baker, you know that salt is the secret to a delicious pie crust. As Live Well Bake Often reports, salt is the key to giving your crust its just-the-right-amount-of-sweet taste. However, the salt that Life Hacker states will save your pie's flaky texture is not your average cooking salt.
As Healthline reports, Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate, is a chemical that, although edible, is typically reserved for bath salts thanks to its unappetizing taste. However, Life Hacker doesn't want you to put this salt directly on your apple pie. The outlet reports that to keep your pie flaky, you should dry out a bag of food-grade Epsom salt, put it in a sealed container, and set your Christmas dessert's serving platter on top of it.
However, to properly prepare your Epsom salt to protect your treat-of-honor, you should first bake it in a lined pan at 400 degrees. After stirring your salts in 15-minute durations, you can take the salt out to put in your container of choice after 75 minutes (per Serious Eats). That way, your salts will be as dry as possible and effectively keep your pie crust's texture from joining the soggy side.
How Epsom salt keeps your pie high-and-dry
In theory, the idea of keeping a pie on top of a container to keep it dry seems like it wouldn't be effective. However, according to Life Hacker, Epsom salt doesn't need to be directly touching an object to dry it of all its moisture. This is because baked Epsom salt actually acts as a desiccant — which means Epsom salt is able to naturally draw moisture towards it (per ScienceDirect).
However, this hack isn't a miracle cure that will keep your pie oven-fresh and crispy. But it will ensure your dessert won't collapse in on itself before it can bring joy to the world. And the trick will also work with all means of baked goods like croissants (via Serious Eats). So with Epsom salt at home, you'll never have to serve up a soggy treat, pie or otherwise, again.