How to Make Incredible Fruit Desserts Like Plum-Ginger Pie and Pear Crisp

[Music] mm-hmm [Music] today on america's test kitchen julia makes bridgette a show-stopping plum ginger pie adam reviews small stand mixers and l makes julia the ultimate pear crisp it's all coming up right here on america's test kitchen in the lineup of summer fruit desserts blueberry cherry and peach get all the fun and all the attention but why not plums i mean they're out there why aren't we baking them into a pie julie's here and she's going to tell us what we're doing wrong plum pie it's a thing i actually make a lot of plum pies yeah i wonder why we don't think of plums you should they actually have more acidity so it's not as sweet a pie and the plums hold together perfectly oh you're gonna love it there's always room in my belly for more pie so it all comes down to the crust and the crust we're making here is something else here we have two and a half sticks of unsalted butter and now i'm gonna take this stick of butter and this is the one i'm gonna grate is you want to score the wrapper right around the four tablespoon mark a little bit over to the other side so it's four plus and that gives you a handle with which you can use to grate the butter and i'm just going to use the large holes on a box grater and you only want to grate four tablespoons so when you hit the paper it's time to stop that's it better the paper than the knuckles exactly i cut the paper just over that four tablespoon line so that should be perfect now we're gonna put this in the freezer keeping these shreds of butter frozen until you add them to the dough is crucial so that leaves two sticks of butter that we have left to prep so using the bench scraper i'm just gonna cut the stick in half in one direction and then the other direction and so then i can just cut it down into half inch pieces all right so setting this butter aside it's time to move over to the food processor and start making the dough so i love this pie dough because it's a whole wheat pie dough so it has way more flavor than a traditional dough which works really well with the plums which are a bit more acidic okay we're not going to use all whole wheat we're going to cut it with some all-purpose flour but as i told you this dough is very special because it's two doughs in one we're going to take half the dough and waterproof the flour and that stays nice and flaky this is one and a half cups of whole wheat flour this is two tablespoons of granulated sugar and just a teaspoon of table salt i'm just gonna pulse this together for a second or two just to combine them all right all right now it's time to add the butter all this butter all 16 tablespoons is going in at once so we're going to combine this all together it's going to take about two minutes we'll see that this dough will almost look like cookie dough all right you can see i've made a mess of this pie dough by traditional standards uh yeah this is something that we would always try to avoid over processing the flour with the butter this is just a very smooth you want to fill it it's almost like cookie dough it needs chocolate chips so the next step is to take this dough and make sure it's broken up in the food processor into biggish clumps so this is the waterproof dough this is going to make unwaterproof dough so this is a cup of all-purpose flour and we're just going to lightly pulse that in four or five pulses just to coat that waterproof dough and it's that combination of the two nose that makes an easy to roll out pie dough all right i gotta go in for the dough i gotta pinch a little bit of it yeah no it definitely clumps together it looks sandier than it feels all right so now i'm going to go fetch that butter from the freezer frozen yep it doesn't take long and we're just going to toss this into the dough so some of the butter is fully incorporated into that dough and surrounding the wheat flour and then these butter shreds are going to remain mostly whole in the dough so you'll actually see when we roll that out little shreds of butter and that's how you get good flakes time to add the ice water a total of a half a cup of water but we're going to add it in two stages okay so here's a quarter cup of water i'm gonna sprinkle this around i'm gonna work it in with a spatula make sure everything is nice and evenly coated all right so we're gonna add another quarter cup of water for a total of half a cup and now i'm really going to start to press this dough together using the spatula and it comes together so easily because it's wet which is awesome because that means we can use a lot of flour to roll it out it's going to roll out like a dream so i'm just going to divide this dough into two one for the top one for the bottom we're going to form one of these into a disk we're going to form the other one into a square here i have some plastic wrap put one there and put one up here i'm going to put the dough mass right on top of the plastic wrap and so what i like to do because the dough is so wet is you take the plastic wrap and you use it to help you shape the dough into what you want if you go for a five inch round i'm gonna go for the five inch square that will then become the lattice top all right so now we're going to put these in the fridge and they need to stay there for at least two hours to chill up and become firm or you could do this up to two days in advance okay so this dough has rested for at least two hours and it's time to roll it out and you're gonna help me good i pulled these out a few minutes ago so they're a little bit soft because our dough is so wet it's easy to roll out and you can use all the bench flower you want and this is just regular all-purpose flour that's it all right so again you're going for a 12-inch circle to fit into the pie pan bottom i'm going to roll mine out into a rectangle that's 10 and a half by 14 inches that i will then cut into strips a little later all right now i'm kind of digging this marbled appearance it has here with the chilled butter you can really see it there and if you kind of brush away the flower you can see that the dough itself is mottled looking it has some darker spots and some lighter spots again that's the waterproof dough and that all-purpose dough coming together transfer this to a parchment-lined rim baking sheet one last measure here that this is 14 yup by 10 and a half and yours is 12 inches if you could transfer that to the pie pan all right i'm going to need my rolling pin just loosely roll it up oh look at those gorgeous spots of butter on the underside there you go so what about an inch over the sides yeah so we'll just tuck it into this pan here by lifting the edge and pressing it down into the corner and then you press the edge flat over the rim of the pie plate and then you just go back with a pair of scissors you want it to be about half inch over the rim and your pie dough is so evenly rolled out i don't really even need to trim this it feels like a half an inch all the way around perfect so we're going to cover this with plastic wrap this pie dough bottom we're going to chill for 30 minutes before we make the pie the top we're just going to chill for 10 minutes then we're going to pull it back out and cut the lattice strips okay all right so this dough has rested for 10 minutes now it's time to cut the lattice strips now i'm just going to cut off the edges of these we have nice straight edges about a quarter inch on each side all right so i'm just going to take a paring knife we're going to make nice big lattice strips about an inch and a quarter all right so we have one two three four five six seven eight strips perfect for a lattice all right so there's one it's good that you're using a straight edge because if you try to freehand lattice you'll start with nice even strips and you'll end up with triangles the other thing is you can then go back and trim the edge pieces you might want to go back and just make sure the ends are separated sometimes the pizza wheel gets caught on the edge of the baking sheet all right this is going to go back in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up before we assemble the pie all right with the dough nicely resting in the fridge it's time to work on the filling and here i have plums two and a half pounds of plums total so we're using red plums here but you could also use blue black plums and it comes out with a nice dark filling to pit a plum you cut it in half right around the equator and then i just go in there with my thumb and i peel the pit out so now i'm just going to cut the plums into quarter inch wedges also skins help the fruit hang together so without the skins it just made a mushy filling so definitely leave the skins on the skins also give the juice a beautiful color the thing about plums is they're very acidic more acidic than peaches by far so we're going to need a lot of sugar to help sweeten them up this is three quarters of a cup of granulated sugar to this we're going to add three tablespoons of corn starch we tried flour but we prefer the corn starch because after it thickens it stays nice and clear so now we're going to add two teaspoons of lemon zest this is my special ingredient ready oh ginger yeah so this is a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger now we're also going to offset this with a quarter of a teaspoon of dried ginger last but not least is a quarter teaspoon of salt we're going to whisk this together make sure that grated fresh ginger and that lemon zest gets nice and evenly mixed throughout in go the plums and also in goes a little bit of lemon juice this is a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice we're going to toss this together we're going to let this sit on the counter for 15 minutes that sugar and salt will start to pull the juices out of the plums get things going and that will help dissolve the cornstarch all right so the dough has rested and these plums are ready to be made into pie i don't know i think i could just eat them right on the bowl they look good don't they in go the plums to that beautiful dough bottom and look at all that juice that has come out which is perfect because that juice is going to thicken up into a gorgeous sauce i'm just going to pack them in there a little bit all right now it's time to lettuce so taking these nice chilled strips you can see how easy these are to work with i'm just going to take four strips i'm going to lay them in the same direction nicely across the pie so to make a lattice you simply pull back two of the strips and then you fold them back over i know it looks way harder than it is and it really isn't pull back the other two strips and lay another one right down about the same distance apart each time you lay them back over the lattice actually plays a big role in the pie because it's a lot of air vents and so for something this juicy that's a lot of steam coming out of the pie and that's a good thing now it's time to trim and crimp so i'm going to go through and trim off the excess of these lattice strips you just want to trim them off so they're nice and flush even with the pie dough underneath i'm just going to really press these edges together start to get them to marry all right so now i'm going to fold this edge under so that it is flush with the edge of the pan so i'm just mushing the dough together and making a nice lip around the outside like so and now i'm just going to go through and i'm going to crimp so i'm just using my two fingers i do a sharp crimp i know a lot of people that use knuckles and they have these beautiful crimps some people twist it i got one crimp up my sleeve and this is it it's a sharp crimper i'm a sharp crimper all right there we go now i'm just gonna brush it with an egg wash this is one beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water we're just going to brush this over the top it just gives a nice glossy sheen to the dough all right last but not least i'm going to get the outside you can see i'm really taking my time to be gentle and make sure everything gets coated with a little bit of this egg wash and it is time for the oven now we're going to put this on a rimmed baking sheet that's lined with foil just in case any of those juices escape and this will just help keep the oven clean we're going to start high at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes and then we're going to drop that temperature to 350 and let the pie bake for 35 to 50 minutes longer until the juices are bubbling and the crust is a nice dark golden oh that smells good juices are bubbling a little bit and that crust is a gorgeous golden brown we actually need to let this cool for four hours because that is volcano hot you want the juices to get reabsorbed by the plums you want everything to cool and set up before you dig in time to taste is what it is oh that cuts really well this pie dough i'm telling you is a whole new world wow that's set up beautifully isn't that something all right i tell you the flavor of the wheat crust and the plum is perfection you said whole wheat and i'm thinking oh here we go right what you're gonna do next she's gonna roll it out in quinoa or something i don't know no it tastes like toasted wheat doesn't even really taste like whole wheat it just tastes like toasted wheat this is very fresh and i'm aware that there's a little bit of tartness in there but it is not overpoweringly dark right with all that sugar it's a nice balance a little bit of lemon the ginger not overpowering beautiful flavors and another fruit pie to add to the lineup there you go well if you want to make this beautiful plum pie at home it starts by making a crust with whole wheat flour then roll out into a circle and rectangle and cut into lattice strips stir plums into a cornstarch lemon and ginger mixture and place the lattice on top bake it until it's bubbly cool and serve so from america's test kitchen a beautiful fresh plum and ginger pie with a whole wheat lattice top crust move over peaches that's your nickname i wasn't talking about the fruit [Music] a stand mixer is an expensive countertop appliance and we use it for all manner of mixing whisking and kneading nowadays they can be found in a smaller lighter style and adam's here to tell us if they're up to the task okay julie i'm serving you my line that i practiced for this episode small is big right now yours that did you i did lots of countertop appliances are shrinking stand mixers are among them kitchenaid which makes our favorite full-size mixers is now making this three and a half quart artisan series tilt headstand mixer they promise that it's about 25 smaller 20 lighter but it can handle the same jobs as a full-size model that's pretty cool we were curious so we decided to test this one versus two other mixers that are both three and a half quarts or less the price range on the three was a low of about forty dollars to a high of two hundred and fifty dollars big range big range the tests included whipping egg whites for half a batch of meringues creaming butter and sugar for both cookie dough and cake batter making a full batch of frosting to frost the cake and making dough for whole wheat pitas and along the lines testers also paid attention to the usability the design and how easy they were to clean now in terms of how efficient they were for mixing it all had to do with the kind of mixing action okay this one down here that little light green number and cute that one was fairly stationary the beaters stayed put they just mixed and mixed and mixed in one spot you had to manually move the bowl to the left and the right to try and cover more ground and you do that by pressing down this lever in front and sliding it give that a try and see what you think oh while it's on while it's off oh man no this feels like a toy this does not feel like a true kitchen appliance suffice it to say that the system was not very good you know only what was right underneath the beaters got mixed everything else had to be finished by hand these two operated by planetary action which means that the mixers and the beaters rotate around the bowl like the earth rotates around the sun and that was a lot more efficient there was no flour that didn't get mixed into the cake batter all the chocolate chips got well distributed throughout the cookie dough so this was way better now these guys are obviously a lot lighter than full size mixers that one's three and a half pounds this one's nine pounds that's great news when you have to move them not great news when you turn your back and turn it back around and find it sort of shimmy and shaking across the work circle towards the edge of the counter yes not a good moment that these two seek to combat the shimmying and shaking with suction cups to ground them and they work but testers didn't like them here why don't you pick this one up just so you can move it out of the way yep that would be a problem it works but it's sort of a nuisance it works very well this one the kitchenaid artisan weighs 16 pounds okay that's a lot lighter than the 27 pound full-sized guy but it's still heavy enough to stay put while it's working makes sense you know of the three smaller ones of the minis here the kitchenaid is the one to go for this is the three and a half quart kitchenaid artisan tilt headstand mixer it's 250 bucks which is actually 50 more than our favorite inexpensive full-size stand mixer from kitchenaid yeah so you're really paying for it to be lighter but you know our theory is you get what you pay for it kept pace with the full size and all of the tests but one and if you really are space limited this will take care of almost everything you need so if you're in the market for a smaller and lighter stand mixer check out the kitchenaid artisan mini three and a half quart tilt head stand mixer at 250 dollars [Music] the world of baked fruit desserts is vast and many of the variations have cool names like sonker that covers the fruit with a batter or a slump that uses biscuits or a pandori that uses pie dough but today elle is going to make a pear crisp which means the topping has little crumbles often with nuts to start we took our favorite apple crisp and subbed in pears but we quickly realized that it doesn't work like that you can't really just swap apples and pears and call it a day okay so we're gonna start with our topping we have three quarter cups of almonds okay and so we're going to put these in the food processor you can use any unsalted nuts so i'm just going to add half a cup of flour a quarter cup of light brown packed sugar two tablespoons of granulated sugar a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and eight teaspoon of nutmeg and just add a little salty sweet and eight teaspoon of salt okay so we're just going to send this through the food processor until it's finely chopped that's about nine one second pulses all right that looks good there's only one way to go from here and that's butter we have five tablespoons of melted and cooled butter obviously it makes it taste delicious but it also helps the flour to bind with the other ingredients that are in the topping so this is going to go for five one second pulses and i might need to scrape down in between this is perfect this is exactly the consistency i was looking for crumbly wet sand but with nice large pieces of nut looks good all right so let's start working on our filling great what's really important to know is that apples and pears have the same amount of moisture except pears have weaker cell walls so this crisp is going to be more juicy which is actually a good thing than it would be if it had apples with that in mind we need to create a binder to make sure that it just doesn't get out of control we found just using a little bit of cornstarch did the trick so we have here two tablespoons of sugar one teaspoon of corn starch so it doesn't take a lot of corn starch to thicken up those juices it never does two teaspoons of lemon juice from one lemon and a little pinch of salt always does do and i'm just going to whisk this together all right that's pretty well blended now we're going to work on the pears we have three pounds of bosque pears that's about six to seven medium pairs all you have to do is peel the pear these pears should be ripe but firm you can use bartlett pears andrew pears are no good though because they're rather soft and they just get mushy when you bake it so stick with bosque or bartlett that's right so from here i'm just going to half the pair and core it of course it's important to get that interior stem and this blossom end off so we're just going to cut these into quarters now that we have them quartered we're just going to cut them to one and a half inch pieces all right and i'm going to add this to our already prepped pairs so what we need to do is toss these pairs into our slurry would you mind giving them a little touch sure all right those look pretty well coated they do good job good job all right so we have an eight inch baking dish and all the pears we're gonna go inside to the rim and now it's time to bring back my favorite part the topping so i'm going to sprinkle this on making sure that i break up any large lumps all right it's time to get this pear crisp in the oven it's going to go on the lower middle rack 425 degrees for 27 to 32 minutes because that's gonna help the topping get very brown oh wow that smells good oh my goodness and it looks beautiful well that is a good looking crust you can tell that it's ready because the fruit is bubbling around the edges it looks a lot hot we have to wait for about 15 minutes so we can cool okay so that was like the longest 15 minutes of my life i'm ready to go you tell me when oh that looks good yeah yeah oh it's so juicy but not too much you can smell the pears i have something for you oh a little vanilla ice cream i know just a little on the side all right mmm not too sweet not too spiced and the topping is still crisp and i love those big chunks of almonds elle thank you this is amazing you're welcome and there you have it if you want to make a fabulous pear crisp make a quick topping using almonds some brown sugar and melted butter after peeling and dicing the pears toss them with a mixture of cornstarch sugar and lemon juice once the fruit and topping are assembled in the dish bake until golden and bubbling from america's desk kitchen to your kitchen a fabulous recipe for pear crisp you can get this recipe and all the recipes from the season along with our tastings testings and select episodes at our website americastestkitchen.com thanks for watching america's test kitchen what'd you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 57,085

Keywords: americas test kitchen, cooks illustrated, cooks country, baking, pies, pie crust, plum pie, fruit crisp, pear crisp

Id: QiL1L0bZu-U

Length: 23min 29sec (1409 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021