How to Make World's Best Pie Crust | Cooking Italian with Joe

the good life full of fun seems to be the I hey guys welcome to my kitchen big day today today is pie crust day so when you talk about pie crust it's the biggest debate in any family isn't it who makes the best pie crust does grandma make a great grandma mom dad chefs where'd you ever have it what country Japan - what city of been - what restaurant makes the best pie crust well i'ma tell you right now who makes it best pie crust I get any talking so excited we make the best bite Russ here but I'm going to share with you a phenomenal recipe on how to make pie crust and I'm going to explain a little bit of the real briefly but a little bit of the chemistry a little bit of the logic behind what makes a crust because what makes a great crust everybody talks about it flaky but you don't want to make it so delicate that it crumbles apart and you want to have some really good flavor to a pie crust - it should enhance or add to the flavor of a pie rather than just offer texture okay so that being said I want to share with you how to make a great pie crust not only recipe wise but we're going old-school Italian here so it's going to be really cool okay all right so that being said I've got essentially the three things you want at any pie crust you're going to want to flour you're going to want to fat which I got to grab by the refrigerator and I didn't want it to get warm right and then you're going to add a liquid you're going to add some type of liquid to it okay so what I've got here is three cups of flour now what kind of flour do you want you want pastry flour why well if use bread flour the protein content of bread flour is very high so it's going to make a too much food it's going to give you too much depth too much texture it's going to be like a chewy like think of like a pizza crust you don't want that type of a crust for a pie right if you use a cake flour that's going to create too much of a delicate crust it's going to crumble apart it's going to fall apart like sand so you don't want that so you want pastry flour which it which is going to be almost like an all-purpose flour that will work certainly but that's going to give you the perfect texture of flour number one number two when you're dealing with flour the best flour you can get is unbleached and non fortified okay so unenriched so the best flower you want is in non bleached on enriched you don't want to add anything to it it's going to be certainly healthier and it's going to give you that beautiful flavor that you want in a beautiful pie crust okay now we're going to add an egg hold it don't get flipped out of freaked out we're going to add an egg okay now an egg is going to add a little bit of fat to it which is phenomenal there's a lot of fat and a yolk of an egg but it's also going to add a lot of flavor to it it's going to give it a little bit extra texture a little bit extra depth egg always adds flavor now we're going to add 1 tablespoon 1 tablespoon of sugar now why do you get sugar 1 it's going to have just a hint of sweetness because remember in most cases you're making a pie crust all for a dessert not always but you're going to add a pie crust for most desserts secondly what sugar does is it actually inhibits gluten formation so it's always going to make sure that the flour and the crust if you will in the end is always going to be more delicate so it's going to be fantastic ok you're going to add a little salt now we're going to add one teaspoon of salt to this recipe the salt is going to enhance remember salt brings out flavor so it's going to enhance the flavor of the pie crust last we're going to add milk now if anybody watches our videos one of the things I do not like us I never like getting water than anything water always dilutes the flavor of something the other problem here with water is most waters are very mineral we're going to add a mineral content to it many waters are fluorinated so it's going to add which fluoride so I put four anyways but it's going to add a fluoride flavor that you can maybe catch in the background so it's not not what you want to add to a pie crust last and a very important ingredient is going to be our fat so hold on one second magic your TV ok there's a thick so now I've got 2 sticks of butter now one of the reasons I left my knife out here okay is I left a piece here for us the cut I just wanted to show you when I cut the butter I cube it see so I take the butter okay and I take it down the long end and I cut it down and then I flip the stick around and I cut it the other way and then I cut it in cubes so you're going to get nice little cubes why because you don't want to work the butter you want to stay cold that's why I left it in the refrigerator okay so I left a piece just this for you just to show you pay nice and perfect see that and then it just comes apart nice little cubes like that okay and that's going to work right in the flower and the goal here is to not work you do not want to need pie crust because it will build gluten you do not want glue you want it to stay light and flaky right but you still want to have some body to it so the egg and the way I make it the way I show you will absolutely be delicious it will be the best pie crust I'm so excited the best pie crust your library right so hold on one second alright k so we're going to go old-school Italian so if anybody's ever watched somebody make a pasta dough right you're going to start with some flour so that's what I'm going to do I'm gonna start with some flour okay I'm going to put it right on a cold stone or cold marble this is ideal now why am i doing it this way if you put it in a mixer it needs remember I don't care how you do it no matter what you use is a hook it'll start to knead the flour will start to build gluten so that'll start to toughen it up if you use a food processor the problem of food processors or builds up heat very quickly and the other problem is it incorporates the butter too much is weird as that sounds you want to have lumps of fat between the flour and that's what makes it really flaky and that's what gives a lot of flavor okay all right so that being said I'm going to add my salt and sugar so I'm just going to add a race of my pilot right so here we go alright and so I've got to bottom off I said that earlier I apologize about 3/4 of a cup of milk and then we're going to add one egg as we beat it into the milk okay so it'll give us about a cup a little bit more than a cup okay if I didn't say that before I apologize so now what I'm going to do also is excited I get so excited when I make pie crust I forget things so all right so here we go we're going to just mix our dry ingredients how easy is that right then just simply put you're going to space it out now one of the best things you can do is have bakers nice if you have two of them that's perfect okay if not don't worry about it then why you're going to do is you're going to take your butter which is already cubed up right it's already these beautiful little choose and it's nice and cold okay not frozen so it's nice and cold okay now I look like I look like a samurai guy here like we're going to do a hibachi right okay now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take my flower and I'm going to put it and mix it and fold it within the fat within the butter okay now some recipes have used like a lard okay and the problem we have a lard is it gets too silky too mushy and I'm not a fan of shortening I'll tell you right two reasons one hydrogenated fat is really really bad for you okay trans fats number two the problem is shortening is it also creates a really a nice flaky crust but it doesn't add any flavor to it has no flavor in fact what it does is it takes away flavor from what you're trying to make so shortening to me is not a good choice okay if you look at any of the greatest bakeries or anybody that's always making the best a lot of French cooking and so forth a lot of Italian cooking and baking they're always going to use butter this butter always adds flavor to the to the dish to whatever you're making so let me let me pull this now this is going to take just a couple of minutes so let me pull this in for a couple of minutes and you're just going to go one knife I use if you don't have a baker's knife you can use a knife or a couple of knives don't worry about it okay and you're just going to keep breaking it off to where you get as much of the butter incorporated and folded right within the flour okay so give me a minute I'll turn right back on you guys alright guys welcome back so what I've done here is a pretty much chopped it and I've been like two minutes okay and I'm chopping it now let me tell you what the game plan is here to make a nice crust what you're trying to do is you're trying to get butter which is about 80% fat 20% water okay you're trying to get the butter in between the flour so when the butter gets hot if you get layers here right so here's a layer of flour here's another layer of flour and you got a chunk of butter in there right that will actually create steam between the fat and the steam it'll actually create a gap it'll actually create a little bit of a layer on top of a layer on top of a layer and that's what gives it that flaky beautiful feel again the advantage of with the butter is it always adds a flavor to it so okay I don't make it too complicated I sound like a chemist but it's just so important to end it that fat that's why you let the croissant for example or of a dill they'll have like a pastry dough it will have that beautiful flake and that's from butter and the moisture so you need the moisture and you need the fat okay so here we go so now we're done so now I'm going to do like a well okay like you would do when you're making a pasta dough okay now I'm going to take my egg remember always crack grating over a clear dish if you can then we check for any shells I'm going to mix that egg up real quick and this fun it's like grandma's kitchen area don't tell my grandmother used to have just up a table that you would use with a piece of plywood on there and she had a a board like a stone board that you would do a lot of her cooking so she'd put that right over the top alright so I'm taking the a after I've already beat it and I'm going to put it in some milk now remember some recipes not the end of the world but some recipes will will tell you to put water in there and I'm not saying that's wrong but again we're always trying to add flavor to something we're not trying to dilute it milk will add flavor water dilutes so all right so there we go overnight we're mixed really well and now just like you're doing a pasta you're going to pour this in the middle and you're not going to do all of it do a little bit maybe half okay just give it a minute and then with the fork you're just taking the tongues of the fork right and you're just incorporating a little bit of the flour and that's just so it doesn't spill all over that's all you're doing okay pick with a little Tony Bennett plan which is always fun and don't worry about the mess because it will actually take care of itself open it up a little bit more I'm not going to hold any back here I'm going to just put it right in there so you know if it comes out a little bit wet you just add a little extra flour most of the time what will happen here is you want it to you want it to be a little bit on the dry side because then what we're going to do is we're going to wrap it in saran wrap and we're going to actually put it in the refrigerator and then when you put it in refrigerator what happens is that our that goes by the the dough relaxes beautifully and what also happens is the moisture within the dough will hydrate the flour so it gives it a beautiful crusty feel okay alright so that's pretty good right there right so you're thinking oh my gosh Joe that is just a mess what do you teaching me here I'm cooking it telling what Joe okay now again I'm going to pull my Ginsu knives out here okay and just like you would just think you would my pasta dough right or my gnocchi dough you're just going to start mixing it up now see I'm not kneading it at all right I'm cutting it up you're not needing it you're not pushing it you're not putting your warm hands on it the table's nice and cold so you don't have to worry about your temperature you don't have to worry about your butter you're just going to take your Baker's knife and just keep working it okay just for a minute now I don't know how long this has been it's a real time right we're not editing anything out here and you're going to see it's just kind of crumbly right and it'll start to come together here in about another moment and if it ever comes dry just add a little bit more egg okay and now I'm just going to see how it's starting to stay right there it's beautiful the mixture is perfect I got a little bit more flour so don't worry about it keep mixing it for another minute and again you don't want to knead it okay now without even using my hands it's kind of perfect okay and I got a little bit of a flower in there see that just to touch and that's almost done there it is right there perfect okay just keep working it and again I didn't want to add it any time here just so you could see exactly how easy this is you know and if you got to see that look at that same together perfect right so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to make it sit what I lost the peach it's so fresh and flying right off the counter right now I'm going to just mush it together with my hands okay and then I'm going to fold it I'm going to fold it in once okay look at that perfect it's absolutely perfect see it's kind of on the dry side which is great it's beautiful and I'm going to fold it one time over and that's it guys that's it do not miss your tendency is going to be to want to push on it and knead it don't do anything it's beautiful now I'm going to grab a piece of ceramic hold on one second all right guys here you go right so I've got my saran wrap right and then I'm just going to take it again the less you touch it at this point the better now we're going to let time and chemistry take over right so you got moisture in there you got your butter in there you're going to have nice little lumps of butter in there that's perfect that's what you want you don't want to have it all cornmeal you want to have lumps of butter that's what's going to add that plate to it I'm done I'm going to put it in refrigerator for about an hour what will happen is like I said time and chemistry will take over the water will hydrate the flour it's going to be even more incorporated it'll be a beautiful dough we're going to roll it out put it in the pie crust to look beautiful right guys look at that okay so it's been about an hour right and I just want to show you hopefully we can do it on a camera which is beautifully see you can see it in here you see those hunks of water in there it's exactly what you want now this went in kind of dry but you'll notice after it's sat in there a little bit right for the hour all the moisture between the egg and the butter right and the milk everything it gets incorporated and now the flour is really well hydrated right so what I'm going to do guys is I want to roll this out I'll show you exactly how easy it is to work with just with little flour and then I'm going to pop it in a pie crust now today we're going to make a blueberry pie it'll be another video that we're putting together it's going to be absolutely unbelievable so make sure you guys take a peek at that other than that I'm going to show you how to set it up I'll show you exactly at a profit for any type of like a fruit pie or what have you to give you a couple tips on that to my faculty guys alright guys so I just got some loose flour here right and I'm going to get my surface and then I'm going to take this now remember same rules apply the less likely you are to handle it the better it'll be you don't want to melt things you don't want it to get it hot okay so you don't want to undo all that nice work we didn't rate so that I'm going to put this across now I only want a half because this is going to make two pies right I'm going to take this piece right I'm going to put this off to the side all right and then I've got this beautiful piece right here and I'm just going to make a nice little ball and I've seen some people do it they do it between wax paper and and some other techniques they've got that new silicone now which is great so you can use any of those okay this is one of my favorite rolling could see how the middle is it's a French rolling pin but it's it's thicker in the middle right so one of the rules is all look at the health at see those nice chunks of butter right in there how they said is so the general rule is always turn your dough and you get this across always turn your dough when you're doing the oh look at that see how nice marble that is can you get in there and check that out so perfect that is it's exactly what you want you know you don't want that cornmeal right look at that huh so if you want to if you want to turn the flower rather than getting a habit of doing this all the time make sure you turn your Joe periodically because if not a lot of times what happens is you don't realize but it's getting stuck and it'll stick to the bottom so see how that it's just getting logged up a little bit there you go perfect right so we're going to just keep bringing it across all right look at that Oh beautiful okay keep bringing it across we're almost done I'm gonna grab my other rolling pin here I'm getting really close to the site and I like to do this some of the stuff in real time I don't mean to make my video long but I just want to show you guys how easy it is to do a lot of this stuff right a lot of times something will happen right there just spun up a bit it's beautiful I got a little bit closer for the camera I was trying to move it beautiful alright and what's our goal here we want to be just bigger than that okay so you don't want to go too thin well you don't wanna go too thin because then it'll be too fragile right and this is so cold it's still nice and cold and we're basically there so I'm going to do this and then now we're going to make a blueberry pie today so I'll show you how to do that it's going to be a great video you bring this across pop that in there lay it across just like that look at that you're plenty and if you run across something like that you just fold it over don't you worry about it right trust me that person gets lucky they get a little extra alright now here's a little tip we know that we're in this case that we're going to do a blueberry and blueberries or any type of fruit pies they give off a little bit of moisture so one of the things you don't want to poke a lot of holes on the bottom of this because then the moisture will penetrate the dough makes the bottom soggy you don't want to do that so what you want to do in this case is refrigerate it first I'm going to cut the edge off just a bit I'm going to refrigerate this in this type of case okay and the blueberry pie and that what I'm going to do is when I bring it out I want to give it a little bit of an egg wash and what that'll do is the egg and the protein will actually seal the bottom so that it heats up it gets nice and crispy on the bottom and it doesn't and prevents the absorption of moisture in the dough makes its I get so nice just a little tip although my grandmother used to do I just want to show you guys and that's it it's this dough is actually going to come out absolutely perfect what I want to share with you guys is a blueberry pie video that we're going to do in a minute so if you want to see the end result of this just click on one of our blueberry pies you can click right to the end and see exactly how the crust comes out it's gonna be absolutely delicious guys thanks so much for joining me thanks for joining me to a trip to old-school Italy on how to make a old-fashioned pie crust it's going to be flaky and with a lot of flavor a lot of depth something that hopefully will make a family tradition for the holidays and hopefully it's a nice simple pie crust that you and your family can make for generations to come in the meantime guys have a great week Bon Appetit talk to you guys next week good life

Channel: Cooking Italian with Joe

Views: 877,148

Rating: 4.8511786 out of 5

Keywords: www.cookingitalianwithjoe.com, vito and joe's italian extra virgin olive oil, Joe Borio, Pie (Type Of Dish), Crust, Italian Food (Industry), Best, Cooking (Interest), pie crust, flaky, Apple Pie (Food), Blueberry Pie (Dish), Quiche (Dish), pastries, lemon tart, Croissant, Cake (Type Of Dish), Cookie (Type Of Dish), Italian Dressing (Food), Kitchen, Giada De Laurentiis (Chef), Mario Batali (Chef), Rachael Ray (Chef), italian food, italian recipe, baking, joy of baking, pumpkin pie

Id: QUg0WpFNvI4

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 23 2015