Vish's Pie Crust

I Am From Here

I am not a fan of making my own pie crust, as I have said several times. (Probably every time I've made it on the channel, to be honest.) Most recipes don't have enough liquid in them, in my experience, and I feel like the question of whether to add more or not, or how much to add, is not something that I get right most of the time. But this recipe was perfect! It became a dough without adding more liquid, it baked up flaky and brown, and it cut nicely. What more do you need?

I think a food processor is the perfect tool for this, though I am sure you could get by without it. Just try not to over-work the dough!

I used lard in this, but you can definitely use a vegetable shortening instead if you are vegetarian, or just don't like lard.

The full recipe is available here, along with the tomato pie included in the book: https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2022/11/green-tomato-pie-recipe.html

Captions

[00:00]: foreign
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today if you can't tell I
[00:09]: am once again making
[00:12]: pie crust so we are working from I am
[00:14]: from here by vishweshbot and we're
[00:17]: making vicious pie crust we're doing
[00:20]: this for a different recipe in this book
[00:22]: so this and this goes with a tomato pie
[00:26]: recipe which we might have to try later
[00:28]: on this
[00:31]: this uh this season but
[00:34]: interestingly it's served with ice cream
[00:37]: so it seems like it's a sweet
[00:42]: pie
[00:44]: which is kind of odd for me for tomatoes
[00:46]: but anyway that's not what we're making
[00:48]: today
[00:49]: uh but we are making the pie crust which
[00:52]: makes two
[00:54]: nine inch pie crusts which we'll only
[00:56]: need one of
[00:58]: immediately I think this is pie wheat
[01:01]: this is this week is Pi Day so in the
[01:04]: U.S the way we
[01:06]: uh date things we put the month first so
[01:09]: it's 3 14. Pi Day that's this week so I
[01:15]: may be making another one if it turns
[01:16]: out really well for
[01:19]: a gathering we're having it work on Pi
[01:21]: Day so
[01:23]: we'll see so I might use both of them I
[01:25]: might not because the other recipe only
[01:27]: makes one pie so I only need one crust
[01:30]: I could use store-bought crust for that
[01:32]: but I'm not gonna because might as well
[01:35]: make it right
[01:37]: anyway have all my ingredients all
[01:39]: measured out ready to go and the rest of
[01:42]: it is in the refrigerator because
[01:44]: everything else has to be really cold
[01:46]: uh but we're going to start with
[01:50]: um this stuff because that's what we
[01:52]: start with so I have
[01:54]: some I think this was the all-purpose
[01:58]: flour
[01:59]: so I have some all-purpose flour that's
[02:01]: going into my food processor which he
[02:04]: says is the best tool for the job and I
[02:07]: tend to agree he says that um a stand
[02:10]: mixer is not as effective so anyway
[02:13]: there was
[02:14]: all-purpose flour and now we've got some
[02:17]: cake flour so I don't think I've ever
[02:19]: made
[02:21]: um
[02:23]: pie crust using cake flour it's it's a
[02:25]: different protein content and whatever
[02:29]: I don't know what the difference is
[02:31]: going to be in here but you know
[02:33]: we're following the recipe and all that
[02:36]: goes in here right now is some salt so
[02:39]: we have some flour and some salt and
[02:42]: we're just gonna pulse it together
[02:46]: um just to mix it
[02:51]: all right good enough
[02:54]: um so now
[02:56]: I need
[02:57]: so this is unsalted butter
[03:02]: and I'm using lard you could also use
[03:05]: vegetable shortening but it they both
[03:08]: are supposed to be very cold he says to
[03:10]: dice the butter he doesn't necessarily
[03:12]: say to dice the shortening or lard but I
[03:15]: went ahead and did that because why not
[03:17]: I was dicing the butter anyway and
[03:19]: that'll just give it a
[03:21]: a place to start
[03:24]: where it won't be just one big block
[03:27]: and
[03:28]: we're going to pulse it until it
[03:31]: resembles coarsely ground cornmeal and
[03:33]: no large pieces of butter or lard are
[03:36]: visible so
[03:46]: I think that's good enough I have no
[03:49]: large pieces as far as I can tell I
[03:51]: didn't see any coming up to the top
[03:53]: and now let me go get the last
[03:55]: ingredient that had to be in the
[03:57]: refrigerator
[03:58]: so this is whole milk
[04:00]: approximately anyway and this is white
[04:04]: vinegar so we're supposed to mix these
[04:06]: he says in a small bowl I'm just going
[04:08]: to use
[04:09]: um
[04:10]: my measuring cup because why not
[04:13]: and I put more in the bowl than I needed
[04:16]: but now we are supposed to
[04:19]: um
[04:21]: so this is basically making sort of
[04:23]: Buttermilk so I guess you could probably
[04:24]: use buttermilk instead anyway
[04:27]: um
[04:28]: and now I'm supposed to
[04:31]: sprinkle it evenly over the top
[04:35]: so instead of pouring I'm just going to
[04:37]: use my spoon
[04:39]: which is
[04:43]: not really
[04:44]: but
[04:46]: it's not really doing what I want
[04:50]: pour it all around
[04:57]: here we go and once again we're going to
[04:60]: pulse it until it begins to form a ball
[05:02]: and hopefully it will
[05:10]: that's gonna be good enough
[05:13]: so we are done with this stuff I'm gonna
[05:17]: make some room
[05:19]: I need my all-purpose flour oh he says
[05:22]: if you if your dough doesn't come
[05:24]: together in a bowl kind of like that to
[05:26]: use a little bit more milk
[05:28]: um
[05:29]: shockingly I didn't need it
[05:31]: rather often when I'm making these
[05:34]: things it I do end up needing it but I
[05:36]: don't need it today so anyway I'm going
[05:38]: to
[05:39]: um
[05:39]: sprinkle some all-purpose flour on my
[05:41]: work surface
[05:44]: and put this here so I have an easy
[05:47]: reach
[05:50]: I'm going to turn this out onto my work
[05:53]: surface
[05:59]: and it hasn't fully come together yet
[06:02]: but it will I can definitely tell that
[06:04]: there is enough
[06:06]: moisture in there
[06:10]: okay now the goal is to sort of
[06:16]: um combine it into a ball and then
[06:17]: divide it into half into
[06:20]: two pieces because we're making
[06:22]: two separate
[06:25]: uh
[06:28]: crusts
[06:33]: all right
[06:35]: so I'm going to
[06:39]: divide it roughly into half we don't
[06:42]: want to overwork this
[06:45]: um sure
[06:47]: put all the rest of these bits in here
[06:51]: and the goal is to make this sort of a
[06:56]: six inch disc which we will then
[07:01]: wrap in plastic wrap
[07:05]: and
[07:08]: um
[07:11]: rest for at least an hour until it is
[07:15]: fully solid before we work with it for
[07:18]: our recipe
[07:19]: so and if we end up not making another
[07:24]: one then we can freeze these for
[07:28]: he says a few months so
[07:31]: here we go all right so I'm going to
[07:35]: wrap these up
[07:37]: and put them in the refrigerator and
[07:40]: come back in a little over an hour to
[07:42]: roll it out and make a pie dough well
[07:44]: make a pie
[07:46]: so the rest of my pie took quite a long
[07:48]: time to come together so it's been in
[07:50]: the refrigerator for about three hours
[07:52]: my crust
[07:55]: um so
[07:56]: for my recipe I'm supposed to roll this
[07:58]: out to make a nine inch pie crust
[08:00]: between two pieces of parchment paper so
[08:05]: I'm doing this as per
[08:07]: the recipe I'm not worried about I have
[08:09]: more flour if I needed it but this will
[08:11]: keep it from sticking so going for a 10
[08:15]: inch
[08:17]: disc
[08:20]: [Applause]
[08:22]: it won't stay
[08:24]: it's hard to roll because it won't stay
[08:27]: I don't know
[08:35]: [Applause]
[08:37]: I think once I get started I'll be okay
[08:42]: the good thing about using the parchment
[08:44]: though is that I have like a
[08:48]: a measurement
[08:50]: because these are about 11 inches I
[08:52]: think wide so
[08:59]: okay
[09:06]: all right I think that is
[09:09]: the best we're gonna get right now
[09:12]: um
[09:13]: and then
[09:16]: the good thing about this is it's pretty
[09:18]: easy
[09:20]: now to transfer
[09:22]: to my pie plate
[09:30]: [Applause]
[09:35]: it seems to be
[09:38]: about as good as I'm gonna get pretty
[09:40]: good
[09:44]: [Applause]
[09:46]: all right
[09:53]: uh all right
[09:56]: there are no instructions as to how to
[09:59]: deal with sort of the excess or
[10:03]: to dock it or to crimp it or anything so
[10:07]: I'm just going to do kind of my usual I
[10:10]: guess
[10:12]: I'm gonna cut a little bit
[10:17]: later
[10:24]: that's probably pretty good and I used
[10:27]: almost all of it
[10:28]: great I'm trying to make sure it's
[10:31]: pressed into the edges and then I
[10:34]: usually just sort of
[10:37]: pinch it a little bit like that
[10:41]: not super professional but it gives it a
[10:44]: little bit of a fluted Edge
[10:51]: so that is it for the crust recipe I'm
[10:54]: actually super impressed with the the
[10:58]: fact that the amount of
[11:01]: liquid called for was almost exactly I
[11:05]: mean was not too little so I almost
[11:06]: always end up needing to add or feeling
[11:10]: like I need to add more liquid and I
[11:11]: didn't hear but
[11:14]: this is what you're going to see for the
[11:17]: pie crust I will come back and tell you
[11:18]: what we think of the crust part
[11:20]: after we make the pie so uh
[11:23]: stay tuned and we'll let you know what
[11:25]: we think on this episode of cooking the
[11:27]: books with Heather you watched me make
[11:29]: vicious pie crust from vishwesh Bots uh
[11:33]: I am from here cookbook and this was
[11:36]: included with
[11:38]: uh a green tomato pie recipe which we
[11:42]: did not make but
[11:44]: when we make that we'll be able to link
[11:46]: this there
[11:48]: um
[11:49]: so this made two pie crusts and I think
[11:52]: it was sized very well I think it was
[11:55]: actually one of the
[11:56]: easiest pie crusts
[11:59]: that I've made myself and it was one of
[12:02]: the few that I've made where the amount
[12:06]: of liquid seemed correct for me in my
[12:10]: location and my flower so often I feel
[12:14]: like I end up having to add like way way
[12:16]: way more water or whatever liquid it
[12:20]: calls for just to get it to be not
[12:24]: really powdery and I didn't need to do
[12:27]: that here
[12:28]: um
[12:29]: it came together pretty quickly I really
[12:31]: like using the the food processor for
[12:34]: this it used both lard and butter
[12:39]: which I like for flavor it was really
[12:42]: flaky
[12:44]: um it baked up pretty nice my husband
[12:47]: said he did not like it I think my lard
[12:49]: was particularly
[12:54]: um
[12:55]: flavorful it
[12:58]: sometimes lard tastes a little bit more
[13:01]: like pork than others and this is not a
[13:03]: large it's a different lard than I've
[13:05]: had before a different brand and I felt
[13:08]: like I could smell that it had lard in
[13:11]: it
[13:12]: um which was interesting because often
[13:15]: you just can't tell I mean it just I
[13:17]: mean it ends up with the different
[13:20]: look it's usually sort of extra flaky it
[13:23]: makes really good pie crust but usually
[13:25]: you can't taste that I think maybe that
[13:28]: was what he didn't like about it
[13:30]: um but we do quite often use lard
[13:34]: in pie crust so
[13:36]: we just hadn't used this particular
[13:38]: brand before so maybe that's the problem
[13:41]: um but I thought it was I thought it
[13:43]: turned out pretty well and I
[13:45]: don't like making pie crust and this one
[13:47]: was fine for me so I'm good with that
[13:51]: um yeah and it came together just like
[13:53]: it should it rolled out pretty nicely
[13:55]: and I'm happy with it so
[13:57]: uh I will link any of the pie recipes
[13:60]: that we make at the end of this video
[14:02]: using this crust and I hope
[14:06]: you try it out let me know what you
[14:08]: think if you enjoyed watching me make
[14:10]: this please give me a thumbs up hit the
[14:12]: Subscribe button uh share with your
[14:14]: friends and come back and watch me make
[14:16]: something else next week
[14:18]: foreign