Wednesday, May 27, 2009

pie season

Ahh.. rhubarb pie. It's one of my favorites, maybe because rhubarb is the first fruit-like thing that's ripe in the spring? I really, really love anything with strawberries and rhubarb together, but there won't be any strawberries for about a week or so, so the humble pie plant was able to shine in this pie that I made for the party last weekend.

I really want to learn how to make a perfect crust, even though I'm still a bit freaked out about it. For this pie, I used this recipe from Martha for the bottom crust and I made a crumb topping by mixing 1/4 cup each of brown sugar, flour, and oats with 2 tablespoons of cold butter. The rhubarb pie recipe I got from here.. really simple and delicious. Overall the pie was fantastic (I ate a leftover piece warmed up for lunch yesterday. With ice cream. Shhh..), but I don't know about the crust. It was good, just a litte hard. Maybe I'll substitute some shortening for the butter next time to get it more flaky? Anyone have a great recipe to share?

Thankfully I have an entire season of pie-making before me to practice...

6 comments:

Steph said...

I'm salivating!

Unknown said...

This is my great grandma's pie crust recipe and it is fantastic! Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to work with (depending on the weather), but even if you have to end up piecing it together, it's still fantastically flaky and light....

Cut 1 1/4 cup Crisco into 3 cups of flour.

Beat 1 egg, 1 T. vingegar, and 5 T. cold water in small bowl, then mix into flour mixture to form a dough. Knead enough to get it uniform, but DO NOT OVERHANDLE!

Put into the fridge until chilled - it's much easier to handle when cold.

Makes approx. 3 crusts

Hope you enjoy!

Erin said...

i loooove rhubarb! you've inspired me. dessert tonight? thankfully, there's a plethora of rhubard over here in switzerland...and that makes me happy. :)

glam.spoon said...

my mom used to make strawberry-rhubard pie for us when I was little... I haven't had it in YEARS. I'll have to seek it out.

leah said...

once i discovered using my hands to cut the butter into the flour my pie crust became so much better and flakier. alice waters suggests it in the art of simple food and that is the recipe i usually use.

i can't wait to start making pies again myself!

Leah said...

Thanks for the recipe EmmyLizzy! I'll have to try it next time. :)