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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie







Hello!

I apologize to my readers (*giggle* I have readers :) for the long delay between posts. Sadly, I had several family emergencies in the past few weeks, which kept me away from posting. But now, Thank God, life has returned to a more normal pace. The end of June brings the height of strawberry season. Entire flats of strawberries appear in grocery stores and farmer's markets, and recipes for jams, pies, cakes and shortcakes flood the local papers and seasonal cooking magazines. I, for one, could not be happier about this. If Strawberry Shortcake is the most popular "baked" dessert during Strawberry Season, then Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is a very close second place. Although all the women in my family make strawberry rhubarb pies, I have no distinct memory of tasting one until today, and WOW. It's like eating springtime. Enclosed is the recipe for Strawbery Rhubarb Pie that graced our table today for Father's Day. It originally came from a wonderful old cookbook called The Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook and was made today by my wonderfully talented Mommy.



My mother's method for making pie crust is as follows: for a two crust pie, use 2/3 cup shortening, 2 cups of flour, and 1 tsp salt, mix together with fork or pastry cutter. Add a small amount of COLD water and continue to stir with fork until dough begins to form a ball, roll out to desired size, etc. If you have your own method, or you'd rather just buy a ready-made crust at the store, that's obviously fine too. My personal preference is to make pie-crust from scratch, because then I get to eat the pie-dough scraps, small pleasures in life and all that :)


Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
-Pastry for 2-crust pie

-1 1/3 cups sugar
-1/3 cup flour

-1/2 tsp. grated orange peel

-1/8 tsp. salt

-2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

-2 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (ish)

-2 tbsp. butter



-Preheat oven to 425oF

- Combine strawberries and rhubarb in mixing bowl

-Add sugar, flour, orange peel and salt to strawberry mixture, mix to combine
- Pour mixture into pastry-lined 9" pie pan and dot with butter (a deep-dish pie pan will work best here)

-Adjust top crust over filling, seal edges by pressing with the tines of a fork or by crimping/fluting the edges with your fingers. Cut vents in top crust.

-Bake at 425oF for 40-50 minutes, or until juice begins to bubble through vents and crust is golden brown

-Allow to cool, at least partially, can be eaten alone, or with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream on top.

WARNING: This pie has a tendency to boil over. Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet when it goes in the oven, so that any drips will end up on the sheet pan, and not baked or burned onto the floor of your oven.


Okay, this is my first attempt at uploading pictures of my culinary endeavors, any and all pointers on how to improve my food photography are most welcome!
Happy Summer Solstice!
Lynn






3 comments:

J. Thompson said...

I LOVED strawberry rhubard pie as a kid. I haven't had it in ages. My grandfather used to grow his own strawberries and rhubarb so whenever we had it it was often made with fruit picked that same morning.

Thanks for bringing up a fond memory of my Grandpa.

Unknown said...

First, that pie looks amazing! Second I thought I might share my piecrust receipt with you. It’s basically the same as yours, but with a sight twist at the end. I use the kitchen aid mixer. Take a stick of butter and cut it up into chunks. Keep adding flour until mixture gets dry and lumpy, add a little cold water and watch it come to life. Then if it is going to be a sweet pie, instead of say, a quiche crust, I will also add some powdered sugar, which really seams to make a subtle but big difference in the taste.

I like to make a strawberry pie with a thin layer of poured chocolate eat the bottom, top with home made whipped cream… I am making myself very hungry…

LynnieBee said...

mmmmmm, that sounds great! (the pie and your pie-crust method:)