- I got some cakes for us. To prepare us for this episode, I got a delightful strawberry cake, yeah!
- Whoa, look at that! - Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about. - Wow!
- Mmm, today, we're doin' pie. Today on Worth It, we're
gonna try three pies at three drastically
different price points to find out which one is the
most worth it at its price! Which one do you like
better, pie or cake, and why? Create your three paragraph essay, you can submit it to my Dropbox. - Okay, here's why I like pie better. I like pie better because
it is usually less sweet, and I like pie better because
there is more contrast in texture available,
period, end of paragraph. - My turn, food is about
sharing experiences, and what food is better at
sharing experiences than cake? - I'm just saying, more of the time, I'm more down to have pie. - I wanna end the debate without having to get all up in arms. - Okay, all I wanna do
is share some pie today. - Wanna shake on it?
(upbeat music) - My name's Michael Osborn, I'm the owner here at Pie 'N Burger. We are gonna be trying
several of our classic fruit pies today, and we'll
feature apple and boysenberry. - [Andrew] Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Pie 'N Burger? - [Michael] Pie 'N Burger
started in the fall of 1963. The recipes are the same
recipes that started, and they actually predated the restaurant. I've been here 45 years and we do things exactly the same way that
we did when we opened with a lotta the same ingredients. - So when you joined, what was your role with the restaurant? - I was 18 years old
and I was a night cook, so, uh, yeah.
- [Andrew] Really? - Yeah, so I was in college at the University of Southern California. I started working here with the idea that I would be here a couple
years to make a little money, and then I was gonna
go on and be a dentist. - Wow, and now you're sending
people to the dentist. - Yes, exactly.
- How are the pies made? - [Michael] First of all,
it's all about ingredients. We only use Gold Medal flour, we only use C&H sugar,
and we never use lard, we use a really high grade
vegetable shortening. So, we knead the dough by hand. When we make the dough, we
like to let the dough sit for several days and sort of seize up. All of our pies is almost a
full concentration of fruit. There's no fruit flavors
really added to 'em, no machine, you know, all hand done. - [Andrew] You only have
that one mixer in the back? - [Michael] We only use it
to make a few light toppings, whipped cream and things like
that, we don't use any of it in our regular pie-making
process whatsoever. - Everything else about
the pie is handmade? - Everything is handmade,
we measure out each pie, we'll put in the exact
amount of fruit every time, and then we'll layer a top crust on it. The oven that we use
here at Pie 'N Burger, we use a pizza deck oven. We cook right on the deck surface and we cook at a little
bit slower temperature. It allows the pie to come in contact directly with the cooking
surface of the oven, and it cooks the bottom of the shell so you don't get that doughy texture, you actually notice a
little bit of brownness on the bottom of the pie shell itself. - [Andrew] Are you ever asked about your preference of pie versus cake? - Depends on the day I guess a little bit. I have a preference to pie overall. - Wow, we're gonna go do the pie, we'll do the burger, that's it,
Pie 'N Burger, end of story. (laughing)
- Yes! (cash register dinging)
- Apple pie at Pie 'N Burger. If we're goin' pie, we're goin' shake. - That actually looks really good. - Do you want some?
- I'm just gonna, yeah, I'm gonna take a little sample. (Steven groaning) I'm ready to get into this pie. - Okay.
(upbeat music) - Oooh, look at that, a
clean cut by yours truly! - And look how it holds
up, it's not falling apart. I could really do some
gymnastics with this thing. - Do some gymnastics.
(Andrew gasps) (laughing)
(upbeat music) - [Andrew] Mmmm.
- Oh, that tasted real! (laughing)
- Yeah! - How apples actually taste!
- The thing that makes pie, pie,
is the delicious crust. - Is the end, yes, yep.
- A lot of the times when there's too much
crust, it's just dried out. This is still a delicious, tender, baked treat just at the end. I mean, is there anything
more wholesome than apple pie? - Maybe like, goin' to
your grandma's house. - What if she had an apple
pie when you got there? - Oh my god, that's a movie right there! And the sequel is boysenberry pie. - [Michael] We heat some
boysenberries on the stove to melt 'em down a little bit. To get consistency, we use
individually quick frozen fruit. That way we're able to get
boysenberries in the wintertime when it's not necessarily
a growing season. And right now we're getting
boysenberries from Chile. (cash register dinging)
- Visually, ya hafta love a pie with a red filling. This could be a lighthouse.
- Cheers. Oh, mmm, gimme another bite, wow, just the right amount of crust. Pie taco?
- Pie taco? Go ahead, pie taco it. Oh yeah, I can't understate how perfect the amount of crust is on this pie. - Oookay, alright, we did not
do this the wrong way, yep. Pie 'N Burger.
- Thank you. I am literally in heaven.
(lettuce crunching) Oh my god. - Alright, let's finish up these burgers, and we're headin' to the
road, we're goin' to Houston! (Steven inhales audibly)
You see that bite? Yo, Andrew!
- Yeah. - Pie fact! Here's a pie fact for
you, we're in Houston. - And as a little dessert, we got some sesame balls, ooo!
- Whoa! - Mmm, mmm, mmm, Adam's havin'
a good time on the swing set. - Pie fact, historians
believe that early pie doughs, which mostly consisted of water and flour, and could be quite thick,
were primarily meant to protect the food inside,
and weren't always eaten. - So pies used to just be
semi-edible boxes for other foods. - That's right.
- I'm glad they figured out how to eat the crust.
- Next up, we're headed to a restaurant
called Underbelly. - Underbelly!
- Under my belly. - We're just gonna have some
pie, but not just some pie, because it is going to be--
- Carrot cake pie! It's cake pie.
- It's a pie with cake in it. - That's right, we stuck
some cake in this episode. Cake or pie? Okay, you're off the show! (funky music) - My name's Chris Shepherd, Chef/Owner here at Underbelly in Houston. Today we're doin' the
carrot cake fried pie. - Is that a cake or a pie?
- Technically both, but it's a pie, fried pie is just a southern staple around here. - [Steven] Can you tell us
about what pie is in Houston? - Proverbial question is cake or pie, right, but here we're pie. So Underbelly is focused on
the story of Houston food. It's also the most
culturally diverse city, basically the gateway drug to
people coming into Houston. You know, they'll come in and
taste something and be like, "I really like this flavor," and I'll say, "Well this is Korean, you
need to go up on Long Point." Now, at this point, let's
let Victoria kind of show you and walk you through the
fried pie aspect of things. - I'm Victoria Dearmond,
I am the Pastry Director. I've worked here since Underbelly opened, almost six years now. Underbelly's entire
premise is about locality. So, right now it is carrot season. We've got the carrots, we shred 'em all and make a very traditional carrot cake. Then we make the pie
crust, unrendered pork fat, it's basically the fat around the kidneys. It's much firmer than the outside fat, so it's kind of, like, protected by meat. That's the main part of
the dough's, the flour, the unrendered pork fat,
some salt, baking powder, and cold water, just get
everything in the mixer. I try to let it sit overnight, or at least for a couple
hours before I use it. We'll roll 'em into small
balls and roll those out. So we have our circles, then we put our cake
and cream cheese icing, fold it up, pinch it around the sides like a little empanada,
and then we fry it. You always want them to come out GBD, golden, brown, delicious. After the pie comes outta the fryer, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top, then goes on a plate with candied pecans and kumquat sour cream ice cream. (cash register dinging)
- So we asked the chef for the recommended drink pairing. Victoria gave us this lovely Topo Chico, but then Chef Chris is
goin' with the whiskey. - I love it.
- I love it too, cheers. - I don't know how we should do this, since it's a hand pie but I'm
not gonna hold hands with you, so I'm just gonna take off
kind of like the center chunk. Oooh, seeing the inside of
this makes me go, (slurping). Here, you have top crusts on both sides, that's like a win-win.
- Ready to eat the pie? - Yeah.
(Steven clicks his tongue) - That's ridiculously good. Kind of like a Frankenstein
dessert experiment, but it's not a monster after all. I don't think there's ever
been a real answer to the pie versus cake debate.
- The answer is cake pie. - Oh.
- Oh, there you go! Mmm, throw in the ice cream with the pie and you get, like, that citrus-y flavor. - Having that zing of
that orangey kumquat, it's delightful, what's this? - [Victoria] Just in
case you need more pie. - What, oh, oh yeah!
- This is vinegar pie, and this is a chocolate citrus pie. - Oh yeah.
(Victoria laughs) - Oh, this is the best part of any ice cream accompanied dessert. My dad will spend 25
minutes goin' like this with a bowl of ice cream. Ice cream is like, the most delicious
creamsicle I've ever had. - Pie break, Chris Shepherd
actually advised that we, while we're here in Houston,
try some Viet-Cajun food because it's the thing to do in Houston! (energetic music) - Too busy eating, so
here's a fact for you. - [Voiceover] According to
the American Pie Council, over 180 million pies are bought at US grocery stores every year. That's enough pies to circle
the globe, with leftovers! - So now, we're goin' to a place that serves pumpecapple piecake. That's right, we had cake pie
and now we're goin' piecake. Pumpecapple piecake.
- Pumpecapple. - Boom, let's go eat some piecake! It is 8:00 PM right now and I am up! - Let's get that pie.
(singing Twilight Zone theme) (fast-paced music) - Welcome to Three Brothers
Bakery, my name's Robert Jucker. Today we're gonna be tryin'
the pumpecapple piecake. We got voted by Country Living Magazine for our pecan pie as the best pecan pie mail order has to offer. One of the writers for the
Houston Chronicle, Greg Morago, wanted to write an article about that. Started talkin' to my wife about having me do somethin' unusual. I made the pumpecapple piecake,
we really did it as a joke. The Food Network found out about it, and then it just really went viral. - Is it a pie or is it a cake? - Well that's really the question. (laughing) - If this is the liger of piecake? - More like the turducken of desserts. - That's exactly what it is. - What are the flavors
inside of this thing? - [Robert] Apple pie
with an apple spice cake, pecan pie with a chocolate cake, and pumpkin pie with a pumpkin spice cake. - [Andrew] So there are also three different kinds of cake, I see. - [Robert] Yes, first you gotta
start with makin' the pie. So, we make the dough for the pie shells, put the filling in, put the
lattice work on, bake 'em off. Then after we get the pies
ready and we cool 'em off, we get the batter ready
for the cake batter, and then we pour 'em in the pans, dump the pies into the pans, cover them up with batter, bake 'em off. We let those cool when
they come outta the oven, and then we start to build
it, apple on the bottom, pecan in the middle, pumpkin on top, put the cream cheese icing in between, nuts around the side, and then
we drizzle caramel on top. - [Andrew] Generally
speaking across all desserts, are you more of a pie guy or a cake guy? - [Robert] I think I'm more of a cake guy. - Yessss!
- Really, wow! - So you hafta understand that
I work here everyday, right, and I'm trying to lose some weight. I just like 'em without
icing, just the cake. (cash register dinging)
- We're going to have three pies in three cakes in one cake. - Pumpkin, pecan, apple.
- Pum-pec-apple. - Oh, pumpecap, pumpecanple. - Adam was telling me before this, there's a rule to not eat something that's bigger than the size of your head? Too late, we're breaking the rule today! 'Cause that thing is bigger than my head. - You got that? I'll take the other. - This is what they actually
use to cut the piecake. - [Andrew] Oh yeah. First a bit of pumpkin,
then a little bit of apple. - Pumpecapple.
- Pumpkinapp, pump. - Pumpecapple!
- Cheers, Steven. - Cheers.
(elegant music) - It's really good!
- When you eat a smoothie, you're putting together, like, bananas and apples and
other flavors together. This is just like the non-blended
version of a smoothie. It's funny though, because
it started as a joke. That's when true creativity comes out. - I knew going in that we
were having three pies, three cakes, but I forgot
about the icing component. - Yes.
- So not only is this the greatest hits of pie flavors, but the greatest frosting, arguably, is the cream cheese frosting. - I wanna try the pecan pie by itself. (elegant music) - Wonderful, yes, you're never
bored eating this piecake. There's always another
flavor to come back to. But just like 3.14, there is no ground
conclusion to this piecake. (Steven laughing)
That's how pi works, right, it's been a while. Adam, would you like to try
the pumpca-papple, pump. - Pumpecapple!
- Pumpecapple. (laughing)
What are you doing? - Gotta admit, you may have
won me over with this episode. Pie takes the cake for me,
nah I'm just, but yeah, pie. Which pie was the most worth
it to you at its price? - For me, the most worth it pie was Pie 'N Burger's slice of pie. It's the last chapter on a delicious book called "I Just Ate a Burger." - My worth it winner, Underbelly. We got both cake and pie in a pie. - Hot, crispy, delicious filling, and if you went back there, regardless of the filling,
that's gonna be a great pie. - But shoutout to the pumpecapple pie. Bobby, you figured it out!
- You did. - It's like landing on the moon. - Special Worth It props
to the pumpecapple pie. Adam, who's your worth it winner? - Ooh, we're at the hotel,
it is time to sleep. Next week comin' up?
- We're vampires. - No, we're eating pho, actually
we're doin' it right now but you'll see that
next week, teaser alert! You guys have been asking for it. - They've been askin' pho it? - We're gonna take a nap, get rid of the bad puns,
you'll see us next week. (laughing) - [Voiceover] Oh, yes!
It wouldve been cool to include it and some other places around town. Did you know that House of Pies was a national chain back in the 60s-80s? When the franchise network went out of business, locations in Houston and Los Angeles stayed open. Wonder if they share pie recipes. It pops up in movies and TV filmed in LA sometimes.
Because buzzfeed is fucking terrible.
Why didnt they go to flying saucer??
lol... Buzzfeed.
House of pies isn’t that good and is a chain isn’t it?
I'd like to see Dot over house of pies tbh
I had no idea that Pumpecapple piecake was a Houston invention. It looks...just awful.
I'm disappointed that the "pies" they sampled at the two places in Houston were not really pies but cake/pie hybrids. I wanted reviews of pies, dammit.
Buzzfeed sucks