Prue Leith's Pro Tips For Avoiding The Dreaded Soggy Bottom

Preheat the baking sheet for a quick and easy fix

Prue Leith's cookbook aims to offer quick and straightforward solutions to various challenges faced in the kitchen. For fans of the "Baking Show," the infamous soggy bottom is often a significant concern.

In a sidebar labeled "Prue's Handy Hack," Leith recommends preheating the baking sheet. Simply place it in the oven while it warms up to ensure it reaches the same temperature. "When you place the pastry on the hot tray, it begins to cook from the bottom right away, resulting in a crisp, golden crust," she notes. This method is particularly effective for individual salmon parcels.

However, if you're working with a whole salmon fillet, a different approach is needed due to the increased juices and surface area. In this scenario, Leith advises adding a layer of semolina meal or fine breadcrumbs on the bottom (inside) layer of the pastry, between the fish and the pastry. "This will help absorb some of the juices and keep the pastry from becoming soggy," she clarifies.

Other tips for avoiding the soggy bottom

Prue Leith isn't the only former contestant from the Baking Show who offers advice on how to prevent soggy bottoms. Paul Hollywood, who has co-hosted the series from the beginning, recommends blind baking for pie crusts. This technique involves pre-baking an empty bottom crust with dried beans to keep it flat. Once that's done, you can fill it, add a top crust if you like, and bake the entire pie, ensuring that the apple or cherry filling is encased in a perfectly flaky crust. If using beans feels unusual, you might opt for a non-food alternative, such as these ceramic pie weights from FurRain, which come with their own storage container.

When preparing to bake, there are several factors to consider. Are you making a pie or puff pastry? Is the filling sweet or savory? Are you working with juices that might seep through the crust, or are you adding a custard or filling to a pre-baked pastry? Each tip may be tailored to a specific scenario (like using semolina in a salmon parcel). For pie crusts and other pastries, another technique is to brush the inside bottom with egg white during the final stages of blind baking. Additionally, Mary Berry, the original expert on soggy bottoms, recommends using leftover rolled pastry dough around the edge of a pie dish, which raises the pie's base slightly above the dish and helps ensure the bottom bakes properly.