[water burbling]
[percussive music]
- Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a level one chef.
- Hi, I'm Beth, and I'm a level two chef.
- Hi, I'm Penny.
I'm with the Institute
of Culinary Education,
and I've been a chef for 15 years.
[percussive music]
- This is my easy enough
apple crumble pie recipe.
That's a trademarked name.
- The best time to eat this
apple pie is every day.
Every single day, because an apple a day
will keep the doctor away.
- There's so many things
that makes this special.
First of all, there's spices in it.
Tons of delicious chai spices
that I toast first before I grind fresh.
Then, there's rum, right?
Rum makes everything better.
[intense music]
- The first thing I'm gonna be doing
is pulling out my pre-made pie crust.
I'm gonna just put a little flour down
just to make sure that when I roll it
it doesn't become a pie table, you know?
- I'm going to start adding my
dry ingredients to my mixer.
I have some all purpose--
- [Both] Flour, sugar, salt.
- Cake flour.
I'm just gonna combine them.
- This crust is so delicious,
because there are two sticks of--
- Butter which is really cold.
- Something nice about
rolling it out a little
is it also makes it look
slightly more homemade.
Level one chef, level three trickster.
- I don't want too much
water in the crust.
I want it to just come together.
See how it sticks together?
This is perfect.
- And I'm gonna start to
add my water and my vodka.
Most of the alcohol is
gonna evaporate out,
and I end up with a drier, flakier crust.
- So I wanna make a two crust pie,
I'm just gonna divide it.
Get some plastic wrap.
You want it to be round.
You try to make it as smooth as possible.
It's real easy, crust is done.
- I'm just gonna work
it by hand for a second.
Gonna give it a little
bit more love by hand.
By wrapping it tight, I'm
helping the flour fully hydrate.
A minimum of one hour in the refrigerator,
or it can sit overnight.
- 30 minutes.
Some flour on my board.
I actually want the sides of the crust
to drape over the pie pan.
- I'm mostly just gonna
try to get this bit out,
'cause it's a little bit weird looking.
- So this is half of my
dough that's been chilled
and rested in the refrigerator.
First I start by beating this down,
and now I'm gonna roll.
I wanna roll the dough out pretty thin.
- Flour on the rolling pin.
- Rookie mistake, not flouring things.
- [Beth] Big enough?
- I'm gonna spray with just a
light coating of pan release,
and then to transfer it,
I like to fold it in half,
line up the half right in the middle,
and open it up in the pan.
- I love moving doughs, and
definitely not breaking them.
- You always see people do this,
because it just makes it easier.
Make sure you have some
hanging over this end,
roll it back over the pan.
- So just pushing it into the pie plate
to make sure that it's
up against the edges.
- Lift it up, let it fall
back down into the pan.
This is gonna go back in the
refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Let it sit for about 20 minutes or so
to let that gluten rest.
- Now I'm gonna be crimping
my outer edge of my pie crust.
- We're gonna make our--
- Egg wash.
- The egg wash is gonna be--
- Glue.
- [Beth] So start with an egg.
A little milk.
- A little bit of water to loosen it up.
The way that I'm gonna decorate this top
is to kind of make it look
like a blooming flower.
And I'm gonna start cutting
out my petal shapes.
Okay, so these have had a few minutes
to chill out in the fridge.
The egg wash here is gonna allow them
to stick to each other, and stay in place.
There's naturally little small air pockets
between the pieces,
so you don't have to cut
any air vents in the pie.
Layer up three together to
look like the bud of a flower.
A little more standing up,
and that's the top crust of my pie.
Ready to chill and firm up.
- All right, so my next step
is I'm gonna make the
mixture for my crumble
that'll go on top of my pie.
I'm just gonna mix together
flour, brown sugar,
cinnamon, and butter.
I do not believe that this
is something you can overmix.
- Black pepper, all
spice, clove, star anise,
green cardamom, and cinnamon sticks.
So I really just wanna start
to bring out the aromas,
transfer them into the spice grinder.
Ginger is what makes chai tea spicy.
We're gonna use clean water, and sugar.
A little pinch of salt.
After it comes to a boil,
we're gonna turn it off
and let it sit for about two hours or so.
- I use Fuji apples
because they're very tasty,
and they work well for pies.
- The Golden Delicious
are sweet, and soft,
and the Honeycrisp are very crunchy.
- What I like to use are Granny Smiths
and Gala apples, and Jonagold.
I'm gonna use this awesome
contraption to peel them,
and slice them, and
core them all in one go.
- This is tough, because I'm
really slow and bad at peeling.
I'm gonna try to core this now,
because if I don't know
how to use this corer
I need to find out immediately.
[Emily laughs]
I can use kitchen tools.
- [Beth] I like to peel them all first,
then I cut them in quarters.
Then I just use a paring
knife to get the core out.
Each segment I'll cut in thirds.
- Into my pan goes some butter.
My vanilla bean has already
split, scrape the seeds out.
Six grams of that spice mix.
Couple of extra cinnamon sticks.
All my apples are gonna go in.
Raw--
- Sugar.
- Vanilla.
- Cinnamon.
- Nutmeg, and cloves.
- Flour, salt.
- Two tablespoons of lemon juice.
- So I like to put the zest of a lemon in,
as well as the juice.
Just make sure all the apples are coated.
- The last ingredient is rum.
So I'm gonna chill this down,
and then chill it overnight.
- I am just going not prepare
my toppings for my pie.
I've done it, they're prepared.
- Today we'll stick with whipped cream.
Cream is nice and frothy.
- [Penny] Some heavy cream.
And some milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt.
- [Beth] Put in some vanilla.
Gotta have some sugar.
- And we're gonna bring that up to a boil.
- Cream, skim milk, cane sugar,
egg yolks, vanilla extract.
That's it, that's all that's in here!
[mixer whirring]
- You just whip it until
it's as stiff as you like it.
- The secret ingredient in this recipe
is the caramelized white chocolate.
Turn it off, and I'm just
gonna use the residual heat
from the cream
to melt all that chocolate.
And while I do that,
I'm gonna add this rum.
- What goes better on
a pie than ice cream?
Nothing!
Nothing!
- Pour it out.
We're gonna chill this overnight,
so we're able to whip it later.
- The next step is I'm
gonna put my filling
into my pie crust.
I do arrange them.
Think a little more uniform distribution
is probably good for cooking.
No slice is like the best slice,
and no slice is the worst slice.
We're all just different slices
who look different, you know?
- Make sure that you pack the apples in.
You don't want space.
- I'm not gonna make it too tall,
'cause I think it'll explode.
- I like to put some butter
right into the filling.
Cold butter.
- [Emily] I really want it to be kind of
extra crumbly in the middle.
- [Penny] There's that candied
ginger that I made earlier.
Even with all that boiling,
it's still very spicy.
Just wanna make sure that
it's evenly distributed.
- I wanna use my--
- Egg wash.
- [Penny] It holds the top to the bottom.
Lots of filling in this beautiful pie.
- [Beth] Parchment paper
makes it really easy
to just peel it off.
Just gonna roll the top under the bottom.
- My beautiful top.
Now I wanna secure it to the edges.
- Make sure that you have
slits in the pie for the steam.
- A little more--
- Egg wash.
- And I'm gonna sprinkle it
with more of that Demerara sugar.
- I'm going to bake this pie
at 400 degrees for 20 minutes,
and then I'm gonna turn it down to 375.
- After the pie is in the
fridge for 30 minutes,
you're gonna bake it on
the lowest rack in the oven
for 20 to 25 minutes at 425.
After 25 minutes, you're gonna
reduce the temperature to 350
for another 35 minutes.
- It's gonna go into a 375 degree oven
from anywhere between 45 and 60 minutes.
After it comes out of the oven,
I'm gonna let it sit at room temperature
for about an hour or so.
- So my pie's all done, look at that!
Said it couldn't be done,
but here I am with a pie.
[camera clicks]
- Take a look at this beautiful pie.
[camera clicks]
- And here it is, this is my finished pie.
[camera clicks]
[gentle music]
- It is time for me to
taste it, here we go.
[gentle music]
It's great, it's good!
You get the cinnamon and the butter
in the crumble bit on top.
It was nice, it's a little crunchy.
The apples are nice and soft,
and they taste like apple pie apples.
- I think the flavor makes it special.
I think the ease of
preparation makes it special.
As long as you follow the steps,
the easy steps, you get a perfect pie.
- It fires on every note.
It hits the spicing and
the warming and the sweet.
It's got a little savory
kick, it's got a boozy kick,
which is super fun too.
If you're gonna eat dessert,
it better be worth it.
This is worth it.
- Let's see how each of our chefs
made this classic American dessert.
[intense music]
Emily used a convenient store bought crust
that only requires rolling.
Pre-made crusts contain preservatives
like butylated hydroxyanisole.
A synthetic antioxidant
that prevents fats from going rancid.
Her crust also contains
butylated hydroxytoluene,
which helps to retain color in foods
as well as hydrogenated shortening.
Hydrogenation is a process
where liquid oils are made solid
by adding hydrogen atoms to
double bond carbon systems
in liquid oils, making them really stable
with a very long shelf life.
You'll also find flour, sugar, salt,
and some preservatives
like calcium propionate,
which is an anti-molding ingredient.
They're also pre-hydrated
so you don't need to rest the dough
as both Beth and Penny did.
Beth made a tender and flaky
pie crust in a food processor.
The flakiness of pie crust
happens because the flour coated
solid fat particles
form layers when the dough is rolled.
And when it's baked,
the water that was added
plus water from the butter,
as both Beth and Penny
used, turns to steam
and lifts the sheets of
fat and flour mixture
that was created.
- Everything needs to be really cold.
The water, the butter.
- Penny used some vodka in
place of additional water.
The more water you add, the
more gluten is developed,
which will decrease flakiness,
and make a tough pie crust.
The vodka will keep the dough supple
without participating in gluten formation.
Penny also used a combination
of all purpose and pastry flour.
Pastry flour is lower
in glutenin and gliadin,
so she minimized gluten development
with this combination.
- We wanna limit how
much glutenin we create.
- Both Beth and Penny rested their dough
in the refrigerator.
Pie crust is very stable,
and can be made ahead of time
and refrigerated for a few days,
or even frozen for a few months.
When rolling out the dough,
you need a little flour on your bench
to ensure the crust doesn't stick.
But be careful not to add too much,
because if you do, the dough
will become stretchy
and shrink when baked.
That's because you're working
the gluten proteins too much.
[intense music]
Apples are called pome fruits,
which means the edible portion
is the enlarged tip of a flower stem,
and the seeds are protected
in the inner core.
Most of the flavoring compounds
come from fruity esters.
Ethyl alcohol and acetic acid
combine to form ethyl acetate
which is a common ester
in most apple varieties.
Emily used only Fuji apples,
which are very sweet
with a honey-like flavor,
so she doesn't need to add as
much sugar to her apple pie.
- I used Fuji apples,
because that's what the
internet told me to do.
- She sliced her apples on the thin side,
so they'll cook more quickly.
The addition of cinnamon,
nutmeg, and cloves
added complementary
warmth to her pie filling.
A splash of citric acid
in the form of store bought lemon juice
added a bright, slightly
tart note to her pie.
- This apple's got it goin' on, baby.
- Beth used a combination of Honeycrisp,
which are bred to be very
sweet, and Braeburn apples,
which have a sweet, tart flavor
and a slightly golden flesh
from the presence of carotenoids.
- So that combination of textures,
with the crust, is gonna make this
a really delicious, delicious pie.
- This combination alters
the sweetness and texture
and uses the same traditional
flavor profile as Emily's pie.
Like Beth, Penny used
a combination of apples
including Granny Smith.
- The Granny Smiths add a
lot of sourness and tang,
which is balanced so the pie
doesn't get overly sweet.
- Jonagolds, which also have carotenoids
lending a golden color to
the flesh of the apple,
and Gala apples, which are sweet
and have a pear-like quality.
- So when you mix them all together,
it's a more interesting
and unique flavor profile.
- Penny added star anise, allspice,
cardamom, cloves, and black pepper,
all which were toasted whole,
and then ground together,
which is a combination of
warm, toasty spiciness.
She made candied ginger, which also adds
some sweet spiciness to her pie.
And also added cinnamon and rum
for an additional punch to her flavor.
- It's really good, high quality rum.
I add it at the end.
- In place of white sugar,
Penny used Demerara,
a partially refined cane sugar
which is brown in color,
and has a larger crystal
size than white sugar.
White sugar is just sweet.
Demerara is coated with molasses,
which adds a caramel, mineral flavor
making your flavor profile more complex.
Penny partially cooked her apple mixture,
blooming her spices along with the apples,
and then refrigerated it overnight.
This allows for quicker baking
when she assembles her pie,
and it ensured her apples
will be fully cooked.
All of our chefs rolled
their bottom crust,
and added their apple mixtures.
Instead of a top crust,
Emily made a crumble,
which is sweet, crunchy, and delicious.
- This could turn out really great.
What if it does?
Oh my god, wouldn't we all be surprised?
- It has similar ingredients to a crust,
but more sugar, then is cut
together with solid butter.
Beth topped her pie with
a rolled crust crimped,
and brushed with egg wash to
ensure the edges were sealed.
- What makes this pie
spectacular is the egg wash.
- She sprinkled sugar on
top, which adds a crunch,
and visual appeal.
Penny also sealed her crust
edge with an egg wash,
and then added beautiful
petal design on top,
creating a visual experience,
along with a wonderfully tasty pie.
[intense music]
Emily started baking at 425 degrees,
and then lowered it to 375.
This works because initially
you need a very high heat
to create steam, and form the flaky crust.
Emily's crust is not gonna
be very flaky, though.
And it's on the thin side,
so turning the oven down cooks the apples
and doesn't burn the crust.
She also covered her crust
in order to help prevent over browning.
Beth baked at 425 degrees for 50 minutes,
while Penny baked hers at 375 degrees.
Again, you need that hot oven
to create steam in the crust
to promote the all important flakiness.
[intense music]
All three chefs served
their warm apple pie
with a cold accompaniment.
Emily went classic with smooth
and silky vanilla ice cream.
- I'm not gonna make my own ice cream,
because let's be honest,
you wouldn't wanna eat it.
- And Beth served hers with
a homemade whipped cream
flavored with sugar and vanilla.
Penny made a creme parisienne,
which is made by boiling
cream, milk, and sugar,
and then adding caramelized
white chocolate and rum,
which itself has a high sugar content.
It's almost like a whipped ganache,
and it's delicious.
All three of our chefs
took their own paths
to creating this quintessential
American dessert,
and all three of these pies
are absolutely delicious,
no matter how you slice them.
