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Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking 3 Holiday Pies
Hi Bold Bakers! Thanksgiving is almost here so I'm really excited to team up with other
great YouTube channels to bring you the Ultimate Thanksgiving Guide. My contribution to this
collaboration is a BIG & BOLD twist on holiday pies: Pecan Fudge, Apple & Cranberry &
Maple Pumpkin. So let's get baking!
The pastry that I'm using for my holiday pies is a sweet pastry that I've made before in
a previous video for Lemon Meringue Pie. It makes a beautiful pastry. It's lovely and
crumbly and it freezes really well. So make sure you check out that video.
We're going to kick off our holiday pies with our Fudge Pie.
To make the fudge filling, we're going to gently melt the chocolate and butter in a
heatproof bowl. You can do this gently in the microwave, at 30 second intervals. Or
you can do it over a bain-marie. Just make sure you do it nice and slow.
Now to our melted chocolate and butter, we're going to add in our brown sugar. Then mix
these all together. To this we're going to add in our flour, salt and vanilla extract.
And then gently mix together. Now add in your room temperature eggs and whisk them in well.
As you're mixing it, you'll start to see this fudge mix is actually just like a gorgeous
brownie and it smells like one too.
To prepare your pie shell, I have lined a 9 inch tin and as you can see mine is nice
and deep because I like all of that filling. With your pastry, you want it to hang over
the lip because sometimes pastry has the tendency to shrink. And if it does, you won't notice
it if you have a little bit of extra pastry to work with. To create a fancy rim for your
pecan pie, we are going to put our fingers on either side of the pastry, finger-width
apart, and then pull a little bit of pastry. Keep going the whole way around the pie dish.
Once you get the hang of it, it's really quick and easy and you can do it on any pie. There
you have it, an easy and beautiful way to decorate the crust of a pie so yours will
stand out on Thanksgiving Day. I also like to dock the base of my pie with a fork just
so no air bubbles form. You get the best results from your pastry when it's nice and cold,
so put this guy in the fridge until you're ready to fill it.
Now pour in your lovely fudge filling into your prepared pie crust. I feel like during
Thanksgiving, sometimes chocolate gets overlooked so I wanted to make sure I got a nice chocolate
pie in there.
For the pecan part of this pie, you're simply going to lay toasted pecans all around the
surface of the fudge giving lovely flavor and texture. And this pie is a really lovely
twist on a traditional pecan pie. Before your pie goes in the oven, we're going to brush
it with egg wash to give the pastry a lovely golden brown color.
We're going to bake this pie off at 350 degrees. Now I don't put it on a baking tray because
I want to get that direct heat from the bottom to give it a beautiful golden brown underneath.
Our fudge pie is done. It smells rich and chocolatey. But we have to let this cool and
then at the end of the video I'll show you what is inside.
Now let's get started on our Apple & Cranberry.
To make the Apple & Cranberry filling, you're going to start out by peeling and chopping
your apples. I like to chop the apples really small so it cooks down well. To our chopped
apples, we're going to add in our cranberries. You can use fresh or frozen; they're both
really good. And if you don't like cranberries, or you can't get ahold of them you can just
use all apples or you can add in a different fruit.
To this we're going to add in our brown sugar. Brown sugar pairs really well with apples
because it kind of makes them taste a little caramelly. Add in some vanilla extract. Lastly,
we're going to add in some corn starch. And then mix all these lovely flavors together.
The corn starch thickens the juices in your pie and it actually creates a really lovely
thick sauce. To fill your Apple & Cranberry pie, simply put your lovely filling into your
prepared pie dish. For our Apple pie, we're actually going to put another layer of pastry
on top so make sure to egg wash the rim of your pie shell just so the other layer will
stick to it. To create a BIG & BOLD crust for our Apple & Cranberry Pie, use seasonal cutters
to create shapes from your dough. It just adds a really nice extra effect to the top
of your pie and makes it really unique. Then take the lovely pastry layer you created and
place it gently on top. Then go around the rim and pierce the edges together with your
fingers. Take a knife and trim away any excess pastry around the edges to give you a nice
round finished pie. To make sure your pastry is sealed together, I like to take a butter
knife and then just press the two layers together. It seals them well and creates a really nice
shape and finish.
This pie is gorgeous. Now we have to egg wash it to give it a lovely golden brown color
when it's baked. Now just in case you have any little rips in your pastry or it doesn't
look totally round, don't worry about it. You're going to take the little apples that
we cut out from our pastry and then just put them on any little funny spots. Just make
sure you egg wash before you put them down so they stick. We're going to bake this pie
off at 350 degrees until it's lovely golden brown and bubbling. Our apple pie is done and
it looks gorgeous. But we can't stop here.
I'm going BIG & BOLD for the holiday season, so if you like this recipe and want to see
more then don't forget to subscribe to my channel.
Ok so let's get started on making our maple and pumpkin pie. In a large bowl, we're going
to add our eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
And then just whisk all these together. It is that simple.
Just like the other pies, we're going to pour our filling into our prepared pie tin.
This pie combines two of my favorite flavors for the holidays: pumpkin and maple. Now just
like the others, we're going to give this pie a BIG & BOLD crust. Egg wash the edges
of your pastry shell. Now similar to the apple, I cut out some maple leaves, some acorns,
some holly: just really seasonal things. And we're going to lay them around the edge of
this pie. I love adding decorations to the crust because not only does it make your pie
look great it just covers up any imperfections.
We're going to bake this pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then you're going to turn
down the oven to 350 and continue cooking. And then you'll have a beautiful homemade Pumpkin Pie.
Now, of course, the proof is in the pudding so let's cut open one of these pies.
Oh, man. That is gorgeous! This is perfectly cooked. Still really moist. Kind of like a brownie.
You've got really great texture.
And, of course, I'm going to recommend serving these pies with my No Machine Homemade Ice Cream.
Just look at how fudgie this is: it's like the best brownie ever but it's a holiday pie.
Now you have a pie to satisfy anyone's taste this holiday season.
I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. And make sure you watch all the other great
videos in this playlist. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you back here again
next Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.