Let's talk about my favorite subject, the dough.
Just putting all my butter into my flour here,
to mix by hand.
It needs to be nice and cold,
I usually just keep it in the fridge
til' right before I'm about to mix
and for those people who have hot hands,
I do have instructions in my book
on how to use a pastry blender
which is you know, a common kitchen tool,
Or you can use a food processor as well.
So I like to mix it by hand
'cause not only do you get (laughs)
To get your hand in to the flour
and get a little, you know, throw a little flour around
which is so much fun.
You also can have a better feel
for when the dough is ready,
and for me that's really really important.
So you just kind of squish it
right between your thumb and your finger like this.
Schoop.
And kind of flatten it out.
What we're trying to do is when that cold fat
hits the heat of the oven,
the super hot oven, the moisture in the fat
is going to release and make this little puff of steam,
it's like boop.
And that little puff of steam
is what gives us those flaky layers,
that thing that we're all going for,
a really tender flaky pie.
And I go ahead and mix the butter in until
the largest pieces are about the size of walnut halves,
and I'll hold those up.
So, it's a little bit bigger than some people think,
and it's really important to leave it that big
so we get that nice flakiness going on.
Let me show you really quick what the dough
kind of looks like when it's done, I'm gonna lift it out.
Because, it should come together,
but it shouldn't be totally smooth.
And when I put my hand on it, and take it away,
there's no stickiness.
So I'm gonna start melting,
I got in my pot here, I've got 2 tbsp of butter,
and I was just swirling it around a tiny bit.
We're making my caramel apple pie dough,
I replaced the brown sugar I would normally
put in my classic apple pie, with prepared caramel sauce.
And it just is like a great way
to give everybody that flavor that they love,
here's that caramel sauce.
Precooking the apple filling is a great way
to prevent that really common problem people have,
where the apple filling separates from the top crust.
So if you precook the filling
you remove some of the moisture that's in the,
inside the apple. Of course.
I like seeing cold at every stage,
so you can't use that hot filling
with an ice cold dough.
So I've got some that's already ready
and I'm just gonna go ahead and top it.
I love to talk about rolling out the dough
because I think sometimes people struggle
with getting it, staying in a round shape.
And one of the things that's really important
is just keep moving it, keep rotating the dough.
That also means you can use less flour as you're rolling.
So, it's just a really nice way
to help keep the shape, even keep your rolling even.
I'm gonna use the rolling pin as my transfer,
I like to roll it up onto the rolling pin like that,
and then unfurl it which is another one
of my favorite words, unfurl.
(laughs)
Squishing the top and bottom together,
to kind of, help adhere the two.
And really being a little bit aggressive with it,
'cause we're also trying to thin out
that dough a little at the edge.
Then I'm just gonna cut away the excess,
and I'm gonna, I like to use scissors for that
'cause I can do it one handed a little easier,
goes a lot faster.
Now, if you were gonna make this ahead and freeze it,
is this the point you would freeze the pie?
Actually, I'm really glad you asked that
because I just had really really good luck,
freezing it after baking.
And I have reheating instructions inside the book on pie.
I find that it's a little bit more full proof,
and it's another way that you can
make kind of things ahead.
And it really refreshes so beautifully,
I actually froze an apple pie,
and mailed it to my parents in Kansas last week.
Because, I'm not gonna be able to see them,
and I just thought,
I wanted to see if I could get a pie
and see if it would work
and it did and so I really recommend
trying freezing it after baking.
If you freeze before baking,
it can be sometimes problematic for the dough,
but also it can be problematic for some pie plates,
you know a ceramic pie plate, if you freeze it solid,
and then you go right into the oven,
it cannot contract the pie plate
because it bakes so hot, yeah. That, that, it will burst.
I reheat it in a 375 degree oven,
it re-crisps that crust, it's really kind of amazing
how quickly it all comes together.
Everyone needs to know
how to cut a pie successfully,
and I want you to bring the world
to another one of your brilliant terms, the...
Sacrifice slice.
Sacrislice! Sacrifice slice! Amazing.
(both laughing)
The sacrislice, it's incredible,
and the idea of the sacrislice,
is you just take a little bit out of your pie.
And there's always someone at the party
that wants only a little piece, right?
So you save that piece for them, off to the side.
And then it's much easier to cut any other slice
from your pie because you got a little wiggle room.
(bells jiggling)