Memorial Weekend came and went in the soggy Seattle area. We
slogged through it anyway, and spent some quality time with friends at their
beach house, played golf in some partially drizzly weather and got way less
done in the garden than we intended. We hardly saw the sun at all, but
sometimes that’s what we get around here. Arghh!
I did make a pie to take to the beach, and thought I would
share the recipe and process with you. I know that lots of you have pie fear –
because of the scary scary dreaded crust. I’m here to tell you - settle down – it’s fine - don’t believe all the hype – pie is
super easy, you just have to relax about it and go!
I made rhubarb pie – which is so good – from a recipe that
we’ve been using in my family for years and years. I have no idea who to give
the recipe credit to since it's such an old recipe and I have never known who's responsible for its goodness, but this one is super easy and always turns out well. Oh,
and it tastes great too. I’m kind of a purist, so there won’t be any strawberry
business going on here – this is straight rhubarb. Trust me people - it’s the best.
Creamy Rhubarb Pie
Filling:
Beat 2 eggs until light and fluffy
Stir in mixture of:
¾ cup sugar
2 T flour
½ t salt
Add:
1 T soft butter
1 lb. rhubarb cut into small pieces.
Have on hand 1 slightly beaten egg white for the top of the
pie later.
Pie Crust (9” pie
pan):
(For this kind of pie I like to make a lattice crust, so make
enough dough for a top and a bottom crust. This is a double recipe. Some people
like to use all butter, some like all shortening, I like it half and half.)
2 cups flour
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt
6-8 T cold water
Here’s where you don’t need to get all excited. It’s easy.
1. Sift your flour and salt together into a big
bowl. Cut in (use a pastry cutter – it will make your life easy) the shortening
and butter until it’s combined into pea size or even smaller hunks but fairly
well incorporated.
2. Now pour in 6-8 T of COLD water. If this is
where you generally get afraid of the crust not turning out, use all 8
tablespoons of water. Take a regular dinner fork and mix your dough around
until it sticks together. Now put your hands in there and make it into a ball,
just enough to stay together, don’t get it all hot and sweaty, just pat it
together and don’t worry if not every bit of dough stays with it. It’s ok.
3. Divide your dough in half, put half in a
baggie and shove it in the fridge. Cold dough works better than room
temperature dough.
4. The half you still have out will be your
bottom crust. Roll it out with a rolling pin until it’s bigger than your pie
plate so you have enough dough flopping over the edge all around to work with later.
When rolling out your dough, flour on your surface first. I roll mine out on my
granite countertop – I flour the counter – works great. Also flour the rolling pin. Roll, pick up your
crust, flip over, roll again, flip, flour if you need to, roll again, flour
your rolling pin if you need to, roll until you have a round-ish crust that’s
evenly rolled and not too thin or too thick- around 1/8 inch. Pick up your
crust (I roll it up over my left forearm), slide the pie plate under, roll the
crust back down and there you have it. Now, if it’s torn at all, don’t worry,
you can patch here and there if you need to. Nobody will see that.
5. Now fill your pie.
6. Now roll out your top crust. Your ball from
the fridge should be nice and cold. Roll this out the same way. Once rolled,
cut this crust into long strips about ½ wide, or whatever you like. Now make a
lattice crust over the top of the pie. If you don’t want to make a lattice
crust, you can just do a regular pie crust for the top – and just put some
vents in it, like in a leafy pattern or some little decorative whatever…. I
like lattice though for this pie.
7. Trim and tuck lattice under edge of the
bottom crust. Using thumb and finger, pinch a fluted pattern around edge. Once
done, don’t keep messing with it – that’s what makes crust get kind of tough – your
crust doesn’t want your sweaty hands all over it.
8. Now brush with beaten egg-white over the pie, for a nice effect when it cooks.
Sometimes I like to also sprinkle a little sugar on it too – just because I can
and I like sugar!
9. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then at 325 for
30 -35 minutes. Keep an eye on it, everyone’s ovens are a little different, and
you don’t want to burn this baby.
10. Cool, serve with ice cream or alone. Stand back, congratulate self, feel awesome!
Dough after cutting in shortening and butter but before you add water
Dough after adding water and stirring together and patting into a ball
Flour your surface, spread around with your hand
Roll out your dough, make sure it's bigger than your pie plate
Throw it in your pie plate
Cut your rhubarb
Bite sized pieces
Fluffy eggs with sugar, flour, salt
Mix in rhubarb and butter pieces
Toss the rhubarb into the pie
roll out your lattice crust and cut into strips
Start the lattice in the center and work out to edges
trim and pinch edges
brush with egg whites
ready for the oven
Pie is finished, cool, eat!
