Here are a few tips for pies
When baking a fruit pie be it apple, pear or any other a top crust is used with pie pastry. Normally 3 or 4 slits are made on the pie crust for steam to escape, while baking and cooking the fruits within. During this baking process, juices also escape from these slits and pour over in to the oven tray and gets burned, leaving a lot of cleaning up to be done afterwards.

Avoid all this mess by following this simple tip – After cutting slits on the top pie crust, insert 2-3 inch long pasta tubes, cannelloni will be ideal. During the cooking process juices will boil up along the tubes and back down again, avoiding any from boiling over in to the oven.

To minimize pies from boiling over – Normally, cut up fruit is placed at the bottom of the pie dish lined with pie pastry and then sugar and spices are sprinkled over. Reverse this process by placing fruit on top of sugar and sprinkling lime juice over fruit, to avoid pie from boiling over.

When rolling pie pastry /pie dough, try rolling it between two sheets of waxed paper/oil paper. This is easier to handle, is less messy and does not stick to the board or rolling pin. Once the required thickness and shape is roughly achieved, peel off the top layer of paper and drop it gently in to the pie pan and shape into place and then remove the remaining layer of paper which is now on top.

When you are busy kneading pastry dough with your hands, if the phone rings, how can you answer the call before the line gets cut? If you start washing your hands it will take quite awhile, if you don’t, sticky dough will be all over your phone’s receiver. Try this tip instead – Always keep some whole meal flour/Atta flour/semolina or at least extra all purpose flour that you are using. Rub a generous hand full of flour and quickly rub both palms together and the flour will remove the sticky dough in an instant. Wipe your hands on a serviette and your ready for that call!

Tips on Fruit
To wash fruits thoroughly – Fruits can’t be scrubbed and rubbed as they will get mashed. Therefore, use a bit of baking soda (soda bi carb) and water to rub the dirt and any chemical residue off the surface of the fruits, then rinse off.

To get extra juice from hard limes – place it in a container with water and put in the microwave for half a minute, then squeeze. Always, roll the citric fruit back and forth, while pressing down on it over the kitchen counter top or chopping board to generate more juice. If you have difficulty in squeezing limes, lemons, oranges etc., due to stiffening of your fingers, try this method – cut the fruit in half and then jab a fork in to the pips and press the fruit towards the fork while turning the fork clockwise and anti clockwise.

Sour grapefruit is made somewhat sweeter when sprinkled with salt.

Pour lime/lemon juice over cut up fruit such as apple, pear and banana to avoid discolouration.

The chemical known as ‘Serotonin’ which gives people a dose of ‘feel good’, each time they eat a banana/plantain is ideal if it can be stored for later use. Unfortunately plantains ripen only too fast. However the good news is that it can be stored in the refrigerator for later use. The skin of the plantain/banana will discolour and turn black, but the plantain inside will be fresh and unspoilt. Thaw it and it can be used in your favourite fruit pie, dessert or cake.

Many say that ‘Belli’ fruit is tasty but becomes bitter when made into a healthy refreshing drink unlike wood apple. True, wood apple can be juiced with the seeds and then strained, or even drunk without straining if you like the thickness better. Follow this simple tip to make Belli fruit taste even better and never bitter - After breaking the hard shell remove the seeds with the sacks of gel and discard them and blender the remaining pulp with water, salt and sugar. It will be sweet without a trace of bitterness! However it is known that the gel in the fruit cures many stomach ailments including diarrhea, constipation and ulcers. Therefore, scrape the pulp carefully in to a container and using your fingers gently liquidize the rich yellow pulp and the gel without so much as damaging the seeds. The moment the seeds get damaged, it turns bitter, so be gentle on the seeds!

Jack fruit / Waraka as ‘afters’ – We all love to eat ripe Jack fruit, better known as ‘Waraka’ after lunch. When it is in season, we don’t crave for it that much as when it is out of season. How can you taste ripe Jack fruit when it’s out of season?

Here is a tip – When the Jack fruit is half ripe and still firm and turning a dark yellow, clean it and remove the seeds and cut the flesh into strips. Now spread them on sheets of news paper and dry them in the open sun for a couple of days. When dry, store in air tight containers. When you crave for ‘Waraka’, take some, deep fry them and pour some melted sugar syrup over. It’s so yummy, you’ll always want to have some, after lunch, as Tiffin, at any time and it is nutritious too!

Left over cookie dough – Roll left over cookie dough in to a log/cylinder shape. Cover well with cling film and place in a sealable bag and store in the freezer. Whenever you like to have fresh baked cookies, take it out, slice it and bake!

To flatten cookies in to circles – Make small balls and place them 2 inches apart on a prepared baking tray, now using the bottom of a drinking glass, press each cookie ball gently to flatten it.

To cut fudge neatly into desired sizes – Use a pizza cutter to cut fudge faster and with ease in to neat pieces with less crumbling and mess. Make sure the baking has been cooled and set well, prior to cutting. A pizza cutter is ideal for cutting coconut rocks, ‘kesari’, ‘aluwa’, and other sweet treats too.

Custard tip – Custard turns out better when stirred using a wooden spoon or a heat proof plastic spatula/spoon instead of a metal spoon.

Melting Honey – Most bottles of honey brought from abroad, crystallizes after some days, unlike the local bees’ honey. When this happens, stand the bottle of honey in a bowl of hot water for half an hour. Now stir the honey and the crystals will disappear.

Tip to melt ghee - Ghee which has set in a bottle like butter, can be dissolved by standing the bottle close to the fire while cooking, or by placing it in the sun or by standing it in a bowl of hot water, then shake the bottle with the lid on.

To whiten merings / ‘kisses’/Royal icing - When making ‘kisses/merings or decorating with Royal icing always add a dash of strained lime juice to the beaten egg white mixture, and mix again, to make the mixture a glossy white. The discolouration will be removed and the result is shiny white ‘kisses’/icing. You may add colouring at this stage.

For perfect Merings – Always add sugar only after the beaten egg whites form soft peaks. Adding sugar at the beginning will double the time period required in beating the merings to the desired consistency. Eggs should be fresh and at room temperature. Use only glass or steel bowls for beating egg whites. Never take a break when beating egg whites for merings, beat it all the way, gradually increasing the speed of the beater (never start at a high speed and reduce to medium) until the end. Bake in a very slow oven. Wet a knife in cold water or apply a bit of butter on both sides of the knife, when cutting a dessert topped with mering. Mering pies/desserts should be covered with an inverted bowl at room temperature.

Milk toffee – Here is a tip to get a better, smoother finish for milk toffees - use a dab of butter/margarine and smooth the top surface with the butter wrapping foil or oil paper while spreading it. Work fast before mixture sets.

Store butter wrappers and margarine top paper sealers in a container and store it in the refrigerator. It will come in handy for buttering cake pans and to smooth the top of many sweet treats

Use these handy hints and enjoy making your favourite sweet treats, with less fuss and more professionalism!