A: Fruit produces its own juices. Therefore, there is never a need to add water for the most part (depending on what you’re making). I never add water to my fruit pies. So with that said, it is a must that we allow the fruits natural juices to cook down and reduce into a lovely sweet silky thick fruit gravy(syrup)…as like to call it! Fresh fruit Rule of Thumb – “bubble, bubbling and dripping”! Cook your pie at higher temp (375 degrees) for about 30 minutes then bring it down to about 340 degrees about an hour until you see the juices bubbling through the crust. A great test is let it drip until it barely falls and just hangs there off the crust! Delicious!!! If it’s not dripping and the juices are on top of crust take the back of spoon and if clings to spoon…it’s ready!
Fruits in general when baking need to render the water in them so that the juices can thicken, berries in particular should cook until they burst open with all the their goodness (this holds true for stove top cooking as well). All you need to remember is to toss your fruit with sugar, cornstarch/flour and spices first then prepare your pie crust. This will draw some of the water from the fruit and allow you to mix the sugar and flour together better.
Just remember Rule of Thumb – “bubble, bubbling and dripping” : /)
cynt cake sense 