4th and Virginia: Pie Season!

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!