♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today, on "America's Test Kitchen," Julia makes Bridget a show-stopping plum ginger pie, Adam reviews small stand mixers, and Elle makes Julia the ultimate pear crisp.

It's all coming up right here on "American's Test Kitchen."

♪♪ -In the line-up 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?

Julia's here, and she is gonna tell us what we're doing wrong.

-[ Chuckles ] Plum pie, it's a thing.

I actually make a lot of plum pies.

-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 is always room in my belly for more pie.

-[ Chuckles ] So, it all comes down to the crust, and the crust we're making here is something else.

Here we have 2 1/2 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 4 tablespoon mark -- a little bit over to the other side so it's 4-plus -- and that gives you a handle with which you can use to grate the butter.

And I'm just gonna use the large holes on a box grater.

And you only want to grate 4 tablespoons.

-So, when you hit the paper it's time to stop.

-That's it.

-Better the paper than the knuckles.

-[ Chuckling ] Exactly.

I cut the paper just over that 4 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 1/2 inch pieces.

Alright, 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 gonna use all whole wheat.

We're gonna 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 gonna take half the dough and waterproof the flour, and that stays nice and flaky.

This is 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour.

This is 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and just 1 teaspoon of table salt.

I'm just gonna pulse this together for a second or two just to combine them.

-Alright.

-Alright.

Now, it's time to add the butter.

All this butter, all 16 tablespoons is going in at once.

So, we're gonna combine this all together.

It's gonna take about 2 minutes, and we'll see that this dough will almost look like cookie dough.

Alright, you can see.

I have made a mess of this pie dough by traditional standards.

-Yeah, this is something that we would always try to avoid.

Over-processing the flour with the butter.

-This is just very smooth -- You want to feel it?

It's almost like cookie dough.

-It needs chocolate chips.

-[ Chuckling ] Yeah.

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 gonna make un-waterproof dough.

So, this is a cup of all-purpose flour, and we're just gonna lightly pulse that in, four of five pulses, just to coat that waterproof dough.

And it's that combination of the two doughs that makes an easy-to-roll-out pie dough.

-Alright.

I got to go in for the dough.

I got to pinch a little bit of it.

Yeah, no it definitely clumps together.

It looks sandier than it feels.

-Alright, so now I'm gonna go fetch that butter from the freezer.

-Frozen.

-Yep.

It doesn't take long.

And we're just gonna 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 gonna remain mostly whole in the dough.

So, you'll actually see when we roll it out, little shreds of butter, and that's how you get good flakes.

Time to add the ice water.

A total of 1/2 cup of water, but we're gonna add it in two stages.

-Okay.

-So, here is 1/4 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.

Alright, so we're gonna add another 1/4 cup of water for a total of 1/2 cup.

And now, I'm really gonna start to press this dough together using the spatula, and it comes together so easily 'cause it's wet, which is awesome.

'Cause that means we can use a lot of flour to roll it out, and it's gonna roll out like a dream.

So, I'm just gonna divide this dough into two -- one for the top, one for the bottom.

We're gonna form one of these into a disc.

We're gonna form the other one into a square.

Here I have some plastic wrap.

Put one there, and put one up here.

I'm gonna 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 5-inch round.

I'm gonna go for the 5-inch square that will then become the lattice top.

-Alright.

-So, now we're gonna put these in the fridge, and they need to stay there for at least 2 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 2 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 flour you want.

-And this is just regular, all-purpose flour.

-That's it.

-Alright.

-So, again, you are going for a 12-inch circle to fit into the pie pan bottom.

I'm gonna roll mine out into a rectangle that's 10 1/2 by 14 inches that I will then cut into strips a little later.

-Alright.

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 flour, 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 -- yep -- by 10 1/2, and yours is 12 inches.

If you could transfer that to the pie pan.

-Alright.

I'm gonna need my rolling pin, just loosely roll it up.

-Oh, look at those gorgeous spots of butter on the underside.

-Oh, yeah, there we 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 a 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 1/2 inch all the way around.

Perfect.

So, we're gonna cover this with plastic wrap.

This pie dough bottom we're gonna chill for 30 minutes before we make the pie.

The top we're just going to chill for 10 minutes, then we're gonna pull it back out and cut the lattice strips.

-Okay.

-Alright, so this dough has rested for 10 minutes.

Now it's time to cut the lattice strips.

Now, I'm just gonna cut off the edges of this, so we have nice, straight edges -- about 1/4 inch on each side.

Alright, so I'm just going to take a paring knife -- We're gonna make nice, big lattice strips, about an 1 1/4 inch.

Alright, so we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight strips.

Perfect for a lattice.

Alright, so there's one.

-That'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.

-[ Laughs ] 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, 'cause sometimes the pizza wheel gets caught on the edge of the baking sheet.

Alright, this is gonna go back in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up before we assemble the pie.

Alright, with the dough nicely resting in the fridge, it's time to work on the filling, and here I have plums!

-[ Chuckles ] -2 1/2 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 gonna cut the plums into 1/4-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 gonna need a lot of sugar to help sweeten them up.

This is 3/4 cup of granulated sugar.

To this, we're gonna add 3 tablespoons of cornstarch.

We tried flour, but we prefer the cornstarch because after it thickens, it stays nice and clear.

So now we're gonna add 2 teaspoons of lemon zest.

This is my special ingredient.

Ready?

-Ooh!

Ginger.

-Yeah.

So this is 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger.

Now, we're also gonna offset this with 1/4 teaspoon of dried ginger.

Last but not least is a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

We're gonna whisk this together and 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 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and we're gonna toss this together.

We're gonna 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.

Alright, 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 out of 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 gonna thicken up into a gorgeous sauce.

I'm just gonna pack them in there a little bit.

Alright, now it's time to lattice.

So, taking these nice chilled strips -- You can see how easy these are to work with.

I'm just gonna take four strips.

I'm gonna 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, yeah.

-Pull back the other two strips.

I'm gonna 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 gonna go through and trim off the excess of these lattice strips.

I just want to trim them off so they're nice and flush even with the pie dough underneath.

I'm just gonna really press these edges together, start to get them to marry.

Alright, so now I'm gonna 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 gonna to through and I'm gonna 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.

-You're the sharp crimper.

-I'm a sharp crimper.

Alright, 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.

-Okay.

-We're just gonna brush this over the top.

It just gives a nice glossy sheen to the dough.

Alright, last but not least, I'm gonna 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 gonna put this on a rimmed baking sheet that's lined with foil, just in case any of those juices escape, and this'll just help keep the oven clean.

We're gonna start high at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, and then we're gonna drop that temperature to 350 degrees and let the pie back for 35 to 50 minutes longer till the juices are bubbling and the crust is a nice dark golden.

-[Sniffs] Oooh.

-Ohhh, that smells good.

Mmm.

Juices are bubbling a little bit, and that crust is a gorgeous golden-brown.

We actually need to let this cool for 4 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.

-Oh-ho-ho.

Yep.

-Wow... -That set up beautifully.

-Isn't that something?

-Alright.

Mmm!

Mmm!

-Mm-hmm.

I tell you, the flavor of the wheat crust and the plum is perfection.

-You said whole wheat, I'm thinking, "Oh... here we go," right?

-[ Chuckling ] -"What's she gonna do next?"

Just gonna roll it out in quinoa or something.

-[ Laughs ] -I don't know.

No, it tastes like toasted wheat.

It 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 tart.

-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.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's your nickname.

I wasn't talking about the fruit.

[ Both chuckle ] ♪♪ -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, Julia, I'm serving you my line that I practiced for this episode.

Small is big right now.

-[ Laughs ] You rehearsed that, did you?

-I did.

Lots of countertop appliances are shrinking.

Stand mixers are among them.

-Mm-hmm.

-KitchenAid, which makes our favorite full-size mixers, is now making this 3 1/2 quart Artisan Series Tilt-Head Stand 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 3 1/2 quarts or less.

The price range on the three was a low of about $40 to a high of $250 or so.

-Big range.

-Big range.

The tests included whipping egg whites for half a batch of meringues.

-Okay.

-Creaming butter and sugar for both cookie dough and cake batter.

-Okay.

-Making a full batch of frosting to frost the cake... -Mm-hmm.

-...and making dough for whole wheat pitas.

-Ah-ha.

-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 in front of you... -Yeah, 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... -What?

-...and see what you think.

-Oh, while it's on?

-While it's on.

-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 3 1/2 pounds.

This one's 9 pounds.

That's great news when you have to move them, not great news when you turn your back and turn back around and find it sort of shimmying and shaking across the work surface.

-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?

[ Both laugh ] -Yeah, 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-size 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 3.5 Quart KitchenAid Artisan Tilt-Head Stand 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 in 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 3.5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer at $250.

♪♪ The world of baked fruit desserts is vast, and many of the variations have cool names like sonker, that covers their fruit with a batter, or slump that uses biscuits, or our pandowdy that uses pie dough.

But today, Elle's going to make a pear crisp, which means the topping has little crumbles, often with nuts.

-To start, we took our favorite apple crisps 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 3/4 cups of almonds.

-Okay.

-And so, we're gonna put these in the food processor.

You can use any unsalted nuts.

So, I'm just gonna add 1/2 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of light-brown packed sugar, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of nutmeg.

And just to add a little salty-sweet, 1/8 teaspoon of salt.

Okay, so we're just gonna send this through the food processor until it's finely chopped.

That's about nine 1-second pulses.

Alright, that looks good.

There's only one way to go from here and that's butter.

We have 5 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 gonna go for five 1-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.

-Alright, 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 gonna 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 2 tablespoons of sugar.

1 teaspoon of cornstarch.

-So, it doesn't take a lot of cornstarch to thicken up those juices?

-It never does.

2 teaspoons of lemon juice from one lemon.

And a little pinch of salt always does the deal.

And I'm just gonna whisk this together.

Alright, that's pretty well blended.

Now we're gonna work on the pears.

We have 3 pounds of Bosc pears, that's about 6 to 7 medium pears.

All you have to do is peel the pear.

These pairs should be ripe but firm.

You can use Bartlett pears.

Anjou pears are no good, though, because they are rather soft, and they just get mushy when you bake it.

-So stick with Bosc or Bartlett.

-That's right.

So, from here, I'm just gonna half the pear and core it, of course.

It's important to get that interior stem and this blossom end off.

So, we're just gonna cut these into quarters.

Now that we have them quartered, we're just gonna cut them to 1 1/2 inch pieces.

Alright, and I'm gonna add this to our already prepped pears.

So, what we need to do is toss these pears into our slurry.

Would you mind giving them a little toss?

-Sure.

Alright, those look pretty well-coated, I think.

-They do.

Good job, good job.

Alright, so we have an 8-inch baking dish and all the pears are gonna go inside.

-To the rim.

-And now, it's time to bring back my favorite part -- the topping.

So, I'm gonna sprinkle this on, making sure that I break up any large lumps.

Alright, it's time to get this pear crisp into the oven.

It's gonna 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.

-Ooh, that smells good!

-Oh, my goodness, and it looks beautiful.

-Elle that is a good-looking crisp.

-You can tell that it's ready because the fruit is bubbling around the edges.

-It looks lava hot.

-We have to wait for about 15 minutes so it can cool.

Okay, so that was, like, the longest 15 minutes of my life.

I'm ready to go.

You tell me when.

-Ooh... Oh, that looks good.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Ohh... -It's so juicy but not too much.

-You can smell the pears.

-I have something for you.

-[ Singsong voice ] Ooh, a little vanilla ice cream!

-I know.

-Just a little, on the side.

-Alright.

-Mmm.

Mmm!

-Not too sweet, not too spiced.

And the topping -- 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 Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a fabulous recipe for pear crisp.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our tastings, testings, and select episodes at our website, americastestkitchen.com.

-Let us help you with dinner tonight.

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