Completely the worst issue about baking a pie upfront is knowing it is going to go soggy in an airtight container. Whether or not or not it’s only some hours en path to Grandma’s dwelling or in a single day sooner than the holidays, there’s merely no technique throughout the moisture of the filling slowly migrating in direction of the crust. Nonetheless that doesn’t suggest we cannot throw a wrench inside the works.
Essential Eats / Vicky Wasik
Approach again, a buddy of mine taught me that magnesium sulfate, greater commonly known as Epsom salt, is perhaps dried out inside the oven to create a safe nevertheless extremely efficient desiccant. How extremely efficient? Correctly, a few 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 make sure, nevertheless the logistics of ground area and circulation make it considerably ineffective for drying any important quantity of meals. Nonetheless for these of us a lot much less concerned in dehydration than in merely combating humidity, it’s a surprisingly helpful software program. Even greater, it’s low value and easy to make at residence. All you need is a quart of food-grade Epsom salt (no lavender or eucalyptus scents proper right here).
Merely pour it into an unlimited brownie pan or rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment, and pop your complete 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 complete. Nonetheless wait, you say. Is just not Epsom salt bone-dry to start out with? Certain and no. Epsom salt is the hydrous kind of magnesium sulfate, which suggests it actually accommodates water inside its crystals.
As a result of it is warmed above 200°F, its vivid and semitranslucent crystals grow to be damp as that water is launched, then increasingly more opaque as they effloresce proper right into a chalky white powder—anhydrous magnesium sulfate.
That total course of can hypothetically be carried out on the vary, nevertheless the character of direct heat means the Epsom salt would require mounted consideration. Inside the oven, it needs solely a quick stir now and again to take care of clumping to a minimal.
As quickly as it’s bone-dry, swap the rocky objects to an airtight container, like a roomy pie supplier, and shut the lid tight. You probably can nestle a cooled pie in its plate instantly on prime, or cowl the anhydrous magnesium sulfate with a sheet of cheesecloth sooner than placing small pastries on it—assume croissants, turnovers, or maybe a freeform peach pie. Whereas the anhydrous magnesium sulfate isn’t 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 is perhaps contending with ambient humidity as properly.
I don’t suggest to counsel this system retains any pie or pastry as flaky and crisp as a result of the second it acquired right here out of the oven, nevertheless in side-by-side comparisons of cherry pies saved in containers with and with out this desiccant, it made a excellent distinction inside the texture of the crust. It’s the correct trick for retaining a make-ahead pie as up to date as attainable for picnics and potlucks, nevertheless it is moreover useful for lots additional. A thick layer of anhydrous magnesium sulfate inside the bottom of an airtight container will even go an incredible distance in direction of sustaining the crispness of candies corresponding to toffee and peanut brittle in summer season 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).
Among the finest half is that anhydrous magnesium sulfate has no expiration date, so, whereas you’ll have to bake it as soon as extra every so often to drive out the moisture it absorbs, it might be saved for repeated use.