I bought two huge bunches of rhubarb stalks Sunday morning at the City Market. They were beautiful - bright red and inspiring; so I decided to make a pie. I didn't pick the best time to make said pie, what with the husband being gone and the boy deciding to give up his afternoon nap, but I am nothing if not an overachiever, so I did it anyway. I should lie to you and tell you that the boy made this pie, because then you wouldn't judge my less-than-beautiful crust, but instead I'll take all the credit because...
holy buckets, it tastes so good. Even with my mistakes! Cobbling together two recipes, I made it work (sort of) without corn starch, and even with the boneheaded addition of a couple of frozen strawberries. The filling was soupier than I like, but the crust recipe I have to share. It's so flaky and buttery and
gooooood.
I used the Cooks Illustrated crust (from
Baking Illustrated) but brushed it with milk & a sprinkling of superfine sugar before baking, rather than an egg wash. My filling was a modified
Bittman: I added frozen strawberries to keep it from being too tart (I got a little scared about the 5 cups of rhubarb) and I used flour as my thickener because I apparently threw out my corn starch. The truth is, I'm all about making mistakes with pie because it only means I get to make
more pies! Hooray!
Basic Pie Dough2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface1 tsp salt2 T sugar1/2 c vegetable shortening, chilled12 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces6-8 T ice water Process the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture; cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-second pulses. Turn the mixture into a medium bowl.
Sprinkle 6 T of the ice water over the mixture. With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Press down on the dough with the broad side of the spatula until the dough sticks together, adding up to 2 T more ice water if the dough will not come together. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 4 inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days, before rolling.
Makes enough dough for 1 double-crust 9 inch pie.
Two of the highlights included this totally insane apple cake (from Smitten Kitchen), which made the very best use of the big bag of Jonagold apples in my crisper. The recipe is so wonderfully adaptable - I didn't have OJ, so I used a little whole milk, and I wanted to decrease the amount of sugar so I subbed in a little Alaskan fireweed honey. I used a tube pan for the first time to great success; this whole charade where I pretend that I'm never going to be good at baking is starting to crumble. I'm getting good...
The other home run was the Pumpkin Polenta with Chorizo and Black Beans (from Rachel Ray). Making polenta was as easy as making a pot of couscous, and far more satisfying in this cold weather. It makes me sad for all these long polenta-less years here at my house, when I was still convinced I wouldn't like polenta because it was mushy. I want to top it with everything - mushrooms, red sauce, sauteed fennel, grated cheese, even old shoes. I'd try it.
