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(dramatic music)
- Hmm.
I pronounce this batch delicious.
- [Babish] Hey, what's up, guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish
where this week we're taking a look
at Jack Horner's plum pies
from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Now, stone fruit is in season in the summer
which makes plum pies an excellent use for underripe
or under delicious plumbs that are not yet in season
but first things first, we gotta make pie dough.
For a double crust,
we're combining 375 grams of all-purpose flour
plus one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt
in a relatively medium bowl.
Toss it around a little bit
to make sure that the salt is evenly distributed
then we're adding 275 grams or two and a half sticks
of refrigerator cold unsalted butter.
Now, for every pie episode of this show,
I've put to work a shredder, machine or gadget of some sort
but I wanted to see how much harder it was
to just break up the butter between your fingertips
and as it turns out, it was really easy
to just rub and crush the butter into
let's call them larger than average blueberry sized pieces.
Then the only thing that's left to do
is to hydrate the dough.
Now, you wanna keep everything as cold as possible
to maintain a state of matter separation
between your butter and your flour
so I'm starting by adding a quarter cup of ice water,
mixing everything together and then continuing
one roughly tablespoon size splash at a time
until the dough just barely starts to hold itself together
then we're turning it out onto a work surface
and gently kneading until all the flour's hydrated
and the dough stops being so crumbly all the time
then this being a double pie crust,
we must now subdivide it in two equally sized pieces,
patting each piece into a big old puck,
wrapping in plastic wrap
and refrigerating for at least an hour or up to three days
during which time we can make our plum filling.
Now, as it turns out, plums can be deceiving
and once you've run your knife pole to pole around its pit
and twisted it open like a purple red avocado,
you may discover that it's the wrong color because silly me,
I forgot that not all plums are cartoon purple throughout.
For that, we're gonna need
some of the more fantastically named plum varieties,
Dapple Dandys, Elephant Hearts
or these guys, Dinosaur Egg plums
which once cracked open weren't exactly the violent shade
of violet that I was hoping for
but they're the best I'm gonna do this time of year.
So we're splitting and pitting three pounds
or 1.4 kilograms,
cutting each half into three or four apple slice like slices
which we're gonna dump into a wide high walled saute pan
which is then headed for the stove top
where we're gonna place it over medium low heat
adding 145 grams of light brown sugar,
the juice of one small orange
less the amount that squirts all over your person
and a present but restrained pinch of kosher salt
then we're bringing this guy up to a simmer
and maintaining over low heat for 10 to 12 minutes
until the plums are soft and tender
and becoming more liquid than plum.
As such much like blueberry pie,
our filling needs to be thickened.
So stage right, we're combining a quarter cup of cornstarch
with six tablespoons of water tiny whisking into a slurry,
pouring over our plums and stirring immediately
to make sure that things don't clump up,
continuing to cook for another one to three minutes
or until nice and super duper thick.
Giving a taste for seasoning.
Mine was pretty tart
so I'm gonna add two tablespoons of plain old sugar.
Give it another taste, make sure it's got enough salt
and allow to cool completely to room temperature,
at least two hours.
Now it's time to generously flour our worktop
and get ready to start rolling out some dough
starting with whichever piece is slightly bigger
for the bottom shell.
First, I'm gonna generously flour it on both sides
and then start to press it out
sort of like croissant or puff pastry
which should help prevent the edges from cracking
as we roll it out to an even thickness
of one sixth of an inch or about half a centimeter
then we're gonna give both sides
a well and good brushing off.
Gently pick up the round
and drape it over our intended pie plate
and then you wanna sort of lift and drop the dough down
into the corners of the plate, not press or stretch
which can cause problems later on in the oven.
Once it's evenly all up in there,
we're gonna wrap it in plastic wrap
and refrigerate until ready to use or at least an hour.
Next, rinse and repeat
the rollout process with the top crust.
It can be a little thicker but you want it to be wide enough
to generously cover the pie and to prevent making a mess,
I'm gonna precut the X shaped vent
in the center of the round.
Fill up the bottom crust
with our electric colored fully cooled plum filling
and then I discovered that pre-cutting the vent
almost caused the top layer to rip
prompting me to deliver it by virtue of a pizza peel
which by proxy makes this a pizza pie.
Sorry, I had to and you know it.
Once we've slid the lid on there
trying to keep the vent dead in the center,
that's when we're gonna remember
that we forgot to brush the excess flour
from our adjoining pie surfaces.
So now's a good time to lift the lip and give it a brush
to make sure that this guy doesn't explode in the oven.
Next up, we're trimming off the excess
to the edge of the pie plate
reserving the scraps to toss in butter and cinnamon sugar
and baked as a delicious treat all their own.
Then as one final safeguard,
we're gonna work our way around the perimeter of the pie
pinching, almost smearing shut
which will hopefully stop the crust
from springing any leaks.
Then it's time to crimp
so that our pie has that signature cartoon pie shape.
Basically just press one finger in between two other fingers
and that's really all there is to it.
You can also pinch the edges
to give the pie a more starlike look than wavy.
Now, this guy's headed back into the fridge one more time
before going into the oven.
Then after a final 20 minute chill,
we're brushing it down with a mixture of one egg yolk
tiny whisked together with a tablespoon of heavy cream.
Brush down every single square inch.
Leave no patch of pie unpainted.
Place the pie on a large rimmed baking sheet
to catch any potential drips
and then we're gonna very carefully
open the flaps of the vents
so that we can insert a pie chimney
in the form of a cinnamon stick.
This is gonna give bubbling steam
a means by which to escape the crust
which will hopefully prevent
any dreaded crust ruining pie overflow,
something that most of my pies have.
This guy's headed directly onto a preheated pizza stone
in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven
where it's going to bake with the occasional rotation
for 45 to 55 minutes until the crust is deeply golden brown.
Now, I sprung some leaks on the side
but it appears as though the pie chimney did its job
keeping gummy fruit pools
from forming on my hard won pie crust.
Now, once this guy has cooled completely,
at least four hours on the tray or three on a windowsill,
it's time to test it like little Jack Dorsey
mercilessly thumbing the center of the pie
in what would be a very unsanitary taste testing measure
in a commercial pie making environment
and the filling tasted great before.
Tastes great now.
I'm not sure what lesson was to be learned
from that nursery rhyme.
Maybe cut yourself a slice
and eat your pie like an adult, Jack.
Now, as you can see, the filling was still pretty runny
and I didn't cut through it very well so I lost some.
If your pie ends up too runny,
you can always fridge it and serve once chilled
and I gotta say this was a pretty top-notch pie.
All my past pie dough tricks might save you five minutes
but by hand seems like the way to go.
The bottom of the crust was crispy
in spite of the wet filling and the top and edges
were a veritable catacomb of buttery layers.
Maybe use a little bit more cornstarch next time
but apart from that, I pronounce this batch delicious.
Maybe just don't shove your thumb in it.
Thanks again to Cash App.
That's money, that's Cash App.
Download Cash App from the App Store or Google Play Store
to add your $Cashtag to the 80 million and counting.
(calm music)