- This is possibly one of the least safest appliances
I think I have ever used.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
Oh dear.
What the heck?
Oh no.
Is this a bad time to say my plan is to give this away?
(upbeat music)
Hello, everyone, it's Barry here.
Hope you're well.
Today we're looking at this.
Oh my gosh.
This is a pie maker.
This is an electronic pie maker by a brand called Progress.
Now, this machine I have seen before
branded by some well known cooks in the UK
called the Berry Hikers,
but this one was 20 pounds, and the Berry Hikers' one is 35.
(cash register sound effect)
I genuinely spent 20 quid on this yesterday.
Them cheeky little...
Meh.
Anyhow, the reason this became a video today
was because somebody posted this question,
can you use for anything other than pies
that is genuinely on the website?
And I read it there, I was like, (dramatic music)
oh, a video idea has begun.
Because the answer by somebody called Becky,
wasn't Mrs. Barry.
Hello, I can confirm that the Taste The World
Double Deep Pie Maker is designed to only make pies.
Thank you for using Q and A, answered by Becky.
And she is a staff member of Argos.
Now, Becky, my sole purpose for doing this video
is to prove you wrong.
We are gonna start by making some pies, of course,
but then I've got a little pie chart.
This is my pie chart that I drew out
in the supermarket last night.
The circles represent the pies that we're making
with one potentially disastrous one at the end,
which could ruin the whole thing.
So we will save that to last and open this thing up.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
Blimey.
Polystyrene, the pie maker.
This, right?
Apparently, I'm just double checking it,
because it doesn't look right,
this is a crimper for the pies
to actually give you this stamp shape for your pastry.
We're gonna use this a lot.
We can open it up here with a little latch.
And there are some fairly deep areas for the pie.
And another question that was on the website was,
do you need to like egg wash it to bond it together?
But it does look like it self crimps, okay?
So you've got those sort of indents there
and the corresponding ones there
to press the pastry together.
Step one of using the pie maker
is position the pie maker on a flat, stable surface, right?
Look at this.
That should be sat down.
Look.
(laughing)
That's not level.
All right.
So there's not really much else to say
about it on the instructions.
The main thing is that in 10 minutes
it doesn't have a timer,
you have to judge it by yourself.
But 10 minutes-ish,
I love that, they're putting the blame on the user,
the pie should cook,
and it's just cooking the pastry,
which might make some of my crazier ideas not work,
because you need to use a pre-cooked filling.
And the other thing,
you have to warm this up for five minutes
before you even put any of the pastry in there.
So you know how hot these things can get, right,
from previous videos.
We have got to put the pastry in there
whilst it's preheated, which is gonna be quite dangerous.
There is a review by someone called Alley Cat,
whose pies have turned out like that.
So I'm a bit like, oh my gosh, they burnt the tops.
Right, let's pie.
All right then, folks.
So I've got myself a sheet here of ready made puff pastry.
We're gonna take the larger part first of all,
and press down.
Oh my gosh.
And I think those lines, to be fair to them...
Oh, this is quite fun, actually.
(laughing)
I made like a little flower.
Yeah, look, we've got our little petals here like that.
We made a pastry daisy,
but I don't want to push those too much.
But that apparently should be perfect to fit in there.
But whilst we've got it here,
let's use the smaller side to do the lid.
There we are. Look at that.
Okay, cool.
Now, my problem is,
and this is why I really hate the theory of this machine,
is like I said, we've got to do that step
once it's preheated and basically hot.
(laughing)
It's like, this is insane.
Why can't I do it like that now?
Just for my sanity
I am gonna just see if I can just...
I think this would be a really good idea to do anyway,
kind of just shape it.
I think this is way too big for it, actually.
Yeah, that is way too big.
Look at that. (laughing)
What?
I think we'll get it in and then score it, which is gonna...
I don't really want to be using metal knives on it
when it's hot though.
That's really one flaw about this.
I really don't think there's a difference
in letting it preheat though, to be honest.
Ah.
Da-da-da-da-da-da.
Well, to be honest, folks,
I think we have got to stay true to the instructions
and take this out and preheat it.
Place the pastry base, taking extreme care
not to touch the preheated non-stick plates.
Spoon the filling in, taking care not to overfill.
Close the lid.
All right, we're gonna go for it.
All right.
I don't like this.
This is just a generic gravy steak pie filling.
I don't mind that because there's
a steak and kidney pie in the UK, very popular.
Can't stand kidney.
Although I quite like my own.
But this is...
Yeah, I mean, can you see a little bit of
the factory smoke coming off?
That is getting hot.
I don't like this, guys.
Just like this wobbling doesn't feel right at all.
But the minute I place it in there,
it's gonna start cooking, that's what I don't like.
I personally see no reason
why we can't preheat it from a scratch
and I think that is what
I'm personally gonna do from this moment on.
Depending on how much this fails,
I don't feel comfortable.
Do you know what I mean?
Oh my gosh.
That is roast hot.
Can you hear that?
That is cooking the pastry already.
I am not gonna preheat it.
Sorry.
We're gonna load it.
This looks like dog food, and smells like it.
Boston, no wonder you're keen, mate.
The lid goes down.
This bit I feel safe with.
But is it the bit here where we crimp it?
Because it tells me not to reopen it.
I know, I've got excess pastry on there.
Oh, yes, see?
Look at that, already.
What do I do? What do I do?
(dramatic music)
That's what I do.
I trim off the excess.
This is possibly one of the least safest appliances
I think I have ever used.
Oh no.
Look.
What's going on?
It's definitely blooming hot in there, folks.
You can hear it and like the cooking time is all up to you.
Remember that, folks.
Well, this is a first one, okay?
This is an experiment.
(sizzling sound)
Ooh.
(indistinct), it is browning it.
It is browning it one side more than anything else.
It's just like, it's like a really biassed oven.
It's like, yeah, top left, you're looking great, mate.
The rest, yeah.
This does not bode well for some of my other ideas later on.
This is just trying to make a point.
The other thing is how we get it out.
It says to turn it off at the mains, great,
but then to remove it with a wooden spoon.
Did you see how much gap we had there?
There's no way you're gonna rod a wooden spoon down there.
I really want to turn it upside down.
Hello, gravy.
Hello, gravy, my old friend.
Oh no.
You look for me.
Oh, oh my gosh.
I love that some of the gravy's
cooked into that excess crust.
We will take that.
Now, how the heck do we get it out?
Even try and get my spatula down there.
There ain't no way that is gonna fit in that gap.
I spent a solid five minutes
and that is still really, really hot, folks,
which is why I am not gonna preheat this again.
I disagree fully with the instructions.
Is this a bad time to say my plan is to give this away?
It is not coming out at all.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
It's popped out like that.
Here we go.
Let's see if it's got...
Oh, look at that.
And as I flipped it,
I did see we don't really have a soggy bottom.
Can you see that there?
Yeah, that's good.
That was a really strange feeling of mine.
It tasted really good at first and all of a sudden,
yeah, sure you didn't put one of your tins in there, mate?
But I've had to wait until
it's just about just slightly warm
so that I feel that I could actually turn it out of there.
That's actually so far the biggest flaw.
So let's try again, a sweet and savoury pie,
one with short crust pastry.
This was puffed, by the way.
Look at the lid, how it got compressed.
It didn't have a chance to explore it's puffishness
because it's compressed,
but you can see it trying to be puff pastry here.
So the lamination has kind of gone like,
I can't laminate, I'm stuck.
So we'll do both the pastries.
I don't think it will make any difference,
but one with a sweet filling too.
Now, the puff pastry and the short crust,
I bought that to say, yeah, a massive difference,
but as we saw with the first one,
it's just gonna weigh it down.
So we'll go with the steak filling in this one again,
but the lid goes on.
I strongly believe that you should be able
to just do it on a preheat and slowly build it up.
I don't think, in my opinion,
that's gonna make a massive difference.
It's a darn sight safer.
Oh, that smells good.
This is some cherry pie filling
and I'm gonna pour in some custard as well on top of that.
So I'll push that down.
My gut feeling, there will be some spillage,
but we didn't have a massive spillage.
You know, nobody died, so it's all good.
And now it's got to preheat, but then we'll cook it.
All right?
I'm really confident about this.
It's just the getting out stage.
But how much safer was that?
Like, seriously.
Please put your hands on the red hot plates.
(upbeat music)
There you are.
Someone's gonna get this now.
All right, I've got good and bad news.
The good news is that has cooked a lot safer.
There is bubbling very gently,
but the bad news is it has expanded beyond the crimpage,
joined together and starting to burn.
So I'm gonna stop that.
The other downside is, I don't know if you can see that,
there is a puddle of where it's not actually touched
the top of the pie maker there.
It's not actually...
I mean, that pastry is passable, just about cooked,
but there's no like golden cut on it.
It's like kind of like shrunk down.
Oh, you're hot.
Get away from you.
The other thing is it has created
these big like wings on it, which are quite solid.
So that might help me lift them out.
Oh, because we've got that big lip on it here,
oh no, it's snapped off,
it was starting to come out then.
Ow, ooh, crikey.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
Look, look, look, look.
Because I over pastried it,
it's created corners that we can now just snap off.
Okay.
Yeah, we don't need that.
But they've become, oh, look at that,
critical in making this pop out.
(laughing)
It doesn't tell you that in the instructions.
Oh, there we go.
It's a bit unorthodox.
Yes, that is cooked custard on the...
It's like a custard tart.
Oh yeah, that is a gravy.
That's a pie all right, look at that.
I don't want to eat anymore of that.
Break through that. Oh my gosh.
Oh, that is bearable.
That is warm.
But almost on the point of scolding my tongue.
It's okay.
So I think we've just about proved
it does work with a few tweaks, like over pastrying it,
if that's even a word, pastrying.
Let's have some fun with it.
I really don't think these ideas
are all gonna work but let's go for it.
First up, pizza.
This is some pizza dough.
We'll start with a little bit of mozzarella,
pepperoni and pizza sauce to settle that all in.
So some more cheese, some more pepperoni, and again, sauce.
Now, this goes against exactly what Becky said
and I am 100% all for that.
Actual pizza pie.
Come on.
Let's see if pizza works.
Ooh, ooh, something sizzling.
We have to remember that rather
than it being pastry this time,
this is actually more like a bread dough, it's dough.
But that, as I, hang on a sec, it wants to lift out anyway.
If I just tilt it slightly, what?
(laughing)
That's probably the best one.
Do you hear that crust?
I mean, it tastes really good.
It's the crust that is giving it the heat,
but the filling that was closest to the edges is warm too.
But right in the middle, it's almost cold.
Look, got some string cheese.
That's a sort of win, right?
This does not bode well for the next one.
Let's try and cook a muffin in there.
Yes, this is some Cretty Bocker
blueberry, low fat muffin mix.
(upbeat music)
All right.
Now, I really don't think this is gonna work.
I've just got a feeling it's gonna cook the outsides.
It might rise hence my leaving it a little bit there.
This is the blueberry mixture
that you tend to normally snip off.
Oh, there we go. (laughing)
So my gut feeling is we will possibly spill a lot out.
I think it will hold it's shape and cook something,
but I think the inside will not cook.
That is my guess.
If there's someone with you right now,
what do you think is gonna happen?
All right, cool.
Let's go.
If it works, we're geniuses.
Oh gosh, I don't know what to do.
It does not smell good.
Oh my gosh. (laughing)
Look, that has baked a cake.
It's risen as well and hit that surface.
Oh my gosh.
Any much longer than that
and it would've completely incinerated.
That was in there though for literally three minutes.
This was my prediction.
There is no way that middle will be cooked.
If it is, that is amazing.
And this does not bode well for my next idea.
Oh no, oh my gosh, look at this.
Look, it is not done.
Something has decided to escape.
That would be the filling, wouldn't it?
Oh my gosh, look at that.
Oh dear.
No, this hasn't worked.
Oh, that hasn't worked at all, look at that.
Oh no.
What I will say is this bit of crust here,
look at that, that is cake.
But literally the other side of it
is batter that didn't get touched.
So conclusion, don't put your muffin mix in a pie maker.
So I had two more ideas and one of them
I'm just gonna write off now because I know it won't work.
I was gonna do a frittata, okay?
So kind of like pour an omelette mix into this
and I can see that that would just not cook it.
It would char the sides and cook it so fast
and then there'd be loads of raw egg in the middle.
So I don't want to go down that route.
We'll make an omelette for dinner tonight.
But there was one more thing.
So we'll do this as a bonus scene.
If you enjoy this video,
don't forget to give it a subscribe
and a thumbs up if you enjoyed it too.
We're gonna try making some more cookie pie.
See you next time.
(upbeat music)
Here I have some chocolate chip cookie dough.
Here I have a pie maker.
Now, I think this has a slightly better chance of working
than the muffin because I'm gonna keep this layer thin.
Now, I was gonna fill it.
We're doing s'mores, right?
I was gonna fill it with marshmallows
but as they warm up or in the case they don't warm up,
they might stay like whole
and the volume will kind of weigh it down and it might sink.
So we're gonna use already melted marshmallows, fluff.
And oh my goodness, that is sitting in there like a charm.
So let's press that on there like so.
Oh wow.
So for one last time, let's (indistinct),
something that I've never, ever used in my adult life.
And I literally told Phoebe that the other day,
don't worry about it.
Honestly, just stay off school,
keep playing Grand theft Auto, Phoebe, it's fine.
No one's gonna...
Oh no.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh, folks, look, it's cooking,
but it's expanding and spilling out extra cookie,
and I see marshmallow traces here.
It's just coming out quite fast.
Oh dear, oh dear.
What the heck?
(laughing)
I think it needs another minute.
Dammit.
Maybe Becky was right,
although we did make a good pizza pie.
Probably the best sort of all of it.
Ooh, I tell you what, now that it's calmed down,
that is actually a bit of cookie and that is cooked.
Forget about that bit up there.
How the heck are we gonna get that out?
Oh no, it's not coming out.
Oh yes it is.
Oh no.
Oh no. Oh no.
Oh no.
There we are, folks, the 20 pound pie maker makes pies,
but Becky, it also makes pizza pies.
See you later, Frank Sinatra.