- Hi, I'm Beth from the Wilton Test Kitchen,
and I love pie.
We are getting into pie season,
and I want to show you
a really awesome way to decorate
the top of a pie.
You've definitely never seen this before.
We'e done a little bit of a fringe pie here.
This is brand new.
I'm really excited to show you how easy it is
to make your own pie dough,
and how to make your pie look
as awesome as this.
A lot of people are intimated by
making their own pie dough, but don't be.
It's really easy when you have the right recipe,
and it tastes way better than
the store-bought stuff.
So let me show you how to make it.
I have three cups of all-purpose four,
and to that I'm going to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Don't skip the salt, it's great flavor.
You just want to mix this together,
so that the salt isn't all in one place in the flour.
Now I also have two sticks of butter
cut into cubes like so.
After I cut them in cubes
I put them in the freezer so that
they would be super, super cold.
Cold butter is essential
to making flaky pie dough.
I also have one-third of a cup
of vegetable shortening that I've also cubed,
and I put that in the freezer as well,
so this is also super cold.
Why do we need to work with
cold shortening and cold butter?
If you want a flaky pie crust, and we all do,
it's essential that these two ingredients be cold,
so that when your crust
goes into the heat of the oven,
the two fats will release water,
and the water creates steam,
and the steam pushes the crust apart
which actually makes it flaky.
I'm going to use a tool called
a pastry cutter, or a pastry blender
to blend my fats
into my flour mixture.
You just do this by pushing down,
and pulling up all through the mixture.
The wires at the end of it cut the butter,
and the shortening into the flour.
You just want to do this until the butter,
and the shortening are about the size of peas.
It will start to look a little bit crumbly,
and that's when you know you're done.
When you have your pea size lumps
it's time to add some water.
Do not overdo the water,
so you're going to add something
between eight and 10 tablespoons
depending on how the dough looks.
I'm gonna start with eight,
and you want to add water that is very cold,
so I have ice-cubes in here
because that's going to help keep
our fat cold as well.
I'm gonna start with eight,
the low end of my range.
We're just gonna mix it all together.
I know I'm gonna need
a little bit more water,
so I'm gonna go ahead and add
my last two tablespoons,
but it's important to not put too much water,
to overdo the water because that
will make your dough not as flaky.
It's more moisture that has to evaporate
out of the crust as it cooks,
so it can be tough,
and just not as flaky, overall,
so what you're really looking for,
this is much better,
is for the dough to really when you squeeze it
hold together like that, that's perfect.
That means when you roll it out
it's going to roll in a sheet.
It looks crumbly in the bowl,
but if you force it together
it holds up very nicely,
so this is good to go.
You're going to divide this in two,
and you're gonna form each of
the pieces into a disk.
Let me show you how easy it is to do that.
We're going to wrap it in plastic
so that we can chill it in the refrigerator.
Sometimes it can get messy.
Just eyeball it into two,
so this will give you a top crust,
and a bottom crust.
Use your hands to form it into a dough,
and you can use the sides
of the plastic as well.
I like to do that.
Press it down.
The size of your disk is not as important
as that you get about
half and half of the dough together,
but what I like to think about is
the higher my disk is
the more I'm gonna have to roll it
with my rolling pin,
so I flatten mine out a good amount.
When you see cracks like this one here
try and force them together.
It's easier to force them together now
then it will be if they're cracked
when we're rolling later.
So there's one disk.
We'll do the exact same thing with
the second half of the dough,
and then you want to refrigerate these
for at least an hour before you bake.
So our dough has been in the refrigerator
for an hour and now we can roll it out.
To do that we're going to dust our surface
lightly with all-purpose flour.
The same thing that we put into the crust.
We're gonna do this just to ensure that
our dough doesn't stick to our counter top.
If you've refrigerated your dough
for longer than an hour,
and it's really, really hard
leave it out for a few minutes,
maybe 15 minutes before you start to roll it.
If you try and roll the dough
when it's rock hard
it's really just gonna tear and rip on you.
It's not very easy.
Put a little flour onto the top of the dough.
Also, again, just want to try,
and avoid any sticking,
and just a little bit onto the pin,
and then we're just going to roll
one piece of this dough.
I like to rotate the dough
a quarter of a turn in between.
That also helps to ensure that
it's not sticking anywhere.
We need for this to end up as
a 12 inch circle,
and this will be the bottom of our pie.
I don't stress if it's not perfectly circular,
It doesn't matter.
It just needs to be big enough
to go all the way up the side of our pie pan.
See how easily it's rolling.
Pie dough is not to be feared.
It's not a problem.
So I'm ready for my pan.
The easiest way to pick up pie dough
is to put the pin straight in the center,
fold the one side over.
Then you can get it up just like that.
Slide your pan in, and then you will
just gently unroll your dough.
Tuck it in so that it comes all the way
to the bottom and up the sides of the pan,
like so,
so that it's nice and snug.
Actually, I'm gonna just use some kitchen shears
to cut away the excess.
For this pie I'm going to cut
straight flush to the side of the pan.
I'm not gonna crimp an edge, or anything,
so I don't need any extra.
My bottom crust is ready,
and I'm going to fill it with
a couple of cans of apple pie filling.
Perfect, I just want to spread this out,
so it's nice and flush with the sides of the pan,
so that there's not a huge amount in the center.
We want our pie to be pretty flat.
Then I can set this aside
while I roll my second crust.
Okay, so what I have is a rough rectangle.
First I'm gonna trim my edges.
I want everything to be pretty clean.
So trimming away just as much as you need
to make it a perfect rectangle.
I'm going to cut my dough
into two-inch strips,
so I'm actually going to use
a ruler to measure that.
It's okay if they're a little bit off.
We can adjust, not a problem.
It does not have to be exact.
So now I've got my two-inch strips,
and what I'm going to do is use my cutter
to make slits that are about
an eighth of an inch wide
going through two of the slits.
I'm leaving about a quarter-inch
on this side here,
and a quarter-inch
on this side here connected.
So don't cut all the way through.
This is gonna make our fringe.
Don't worry about cutting them
to the exact same widths.
You can eyeball this.
It makes it a little bit more fun,
and free-flowing if they are all
a little bit different
plus it will go a lot faster.
So once you've done this on all your strips
there we go.
We're going to start to apply them to our pie.
To make them adhere I'm going to brush
the edge of my pie with
a little bit of egg wash.
What's egg wash?
Egg wash is very simple.
It's one egg beaten together with
a couple of tablespoons of water.
You just beat it until it's like a fluid consistency,
and it acts kind of as glue for pie.
So we're going to brush
the edge of our pie with our egg wash.
We'll use a pastry brush to get
the edges of the pie all the way around.
Tear off small sections of the fringe,
and add them around
the outside edge of the pie.
You really want the edge of the fringe
to line up with the edge of the pie.
Once you're finished with your ring
on the outer edge of the pie
we're going to start moving inwards
creating smaller rings inside.
So these will overlap each other
by about a third.
The reason I'm tearing pieces off
as opposed to trying to put
the whole long piece on is
it's really difficult to handle pie dough.
It is very delicate,
and light, so if we tried to pick up
the whole long strip
it's just gonna tear on us anyways,
and because these are almost perforated
it's just easier to do it this way.
I'm going into the third ring now.
Again, overlapping by about one-third.
So now I'm done with my fourth row,
and I'm gonna gather my scraps up,
and roll them out,
so that I can cut a small circle.
Again, about one-eighth of an inch thickness
is what you're looking for.
Perfect, I'm gonna cut it using a 2-1/2 inch cutter.
Then use the kitchen scissors
to make small slits
going all the way around the circle.
So once you've got all of your cuts made
we're going to brush the center of the pie
with a bit of egg wash.
Place it right over the top,
and let the little fringe fan out.
Now we're gonna cover
the entire top of the pie with egg wash.
This is not only going to act as glue,
it's actually gonna give our pie
a really, really beautiful brown golden finish.
Throw this on a sheet pan to put into the oven.
You're gonna bake at 400 degrees.
Preheat your oven first.
For between 45 and 55 minutes,
or until the crust is a nice
golden brown all the way around.
There we go,
and what you have is a pie
that is really ready to party.
This is one of my favorite tops
that I've ever seen.
I'm really excited to show you
how easy it is to do,
and hope you try it for your next party.
For more tips, tricks, and inspiration
visit us at Wilton.com.
Let us know what you'd like to see next
in the comments below.
I'm Beth, thanks for watching.
(cheerful music)