Rhubarb Pie

Another rhubarb recipe! I've never made a rhubarb pie. I had no idea it was so easy! I think the crust took longer than the actual pie filling. My crust was a little too thick, so I'll have to make sure I roll it thinner next time tomorrow when I make another pie to give to our neighbors.

I used my mom's pie crust recipe-- never buy frozen when making homemade is so easy and so much more tasty!



Pie crust:
(okay, as I'm typing this, I now see why my crust was so thick! This recipe is for a 2-crust pie, such as rhubarb pie. I thought it was for a one crust, so I made a double batch! Ooops! Don't make that mistake-- just roll thinner with this recipe)

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
6-7 tablespoons water

Using a pastry blender, cut half of the shortening into flour and salt until it's like meal. Put the remaining shortening into the mixture and blend until it resembles large peas.

Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time, until doughy.

Divide dough into two mounds.

Roll out 1 inch bigger than pan.
(If you are making a pie that requires a pre-baked crust, bake at 475° for 8-10 minutes.)
* Be sure to save your pie crust scraps so you can brush on some egg white and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake until just golden for some tasty pie-crust cookies!

Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

Directions
Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust and pinch edges to seal.

Brush top of pie crust with a lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° F and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Frozen Strawberry Pie

I thought this would be a refreshing summery dessert while also helping us use up the buckets of strawberries we picked a few weeks ago! It's pretty yummy, but not quite as creamy as I'd like. I may add an entire container of Cool Whip next time. The original recipe called for a Wheat Crust (recipe included below) but I used my mom's crust recipe, which can be found here. I just baked it at 475° for 8-10 minutes and let it cool before filling it with the pie ingredients.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 tsp salt
7 tbs very cold butter
ice water

Mix flour with salt in a medium bowl or food processor. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter. Add ice water, 1/2 tbs at a time, until dough forms into a ball. Gather up and pat into a disc. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. When ready to use, roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle. Place dough in pie plate and carefully unfold, fitting loosely and then pressing into place. Trim the edges and crimp for a decorative crust. Bake at 475° for 8-10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.


Strawberry Pie Filling

3 6 oz containers strawberry yogurt
6 large strawberries
1 cup cool whip

For filling, blend strawberries and yogurt together in a blender. Stir in Cool Whip and pour filling into cooled pie crust. Chill in freezer for a couple hours. Once frozen, garnish with some sliced strawberries

Handheld Rhubarb Pie

This is a recipe that my mom made often when I was a child. I just love the egg white topping-- it's the best part of the entire dessert!

Make crust:
2 ½ c. flour
1 c. Crisco
3 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 egg yolks (save egg whites for later in recipe)
2/3 cup milk

Combine flour, Crisco, sugar, and salt for crust with a pastry blender to the consistency of corn meal.

Beat 2 egg yolks and milk.



Add to flour mixture and mix well to form ball of pie crust. Divide into 2 parts. Roll out bottom crust on lightly floured waxed paper to size of jelly roll pan.

Place in jelly roll pan and peel off waxed paper. Let crust come up sides a bit so it will meet the top crust when it is placed over filling.

Filling:
Mix:
1 cup cornflake crumbs
2 tbsp flour
3 Tbsp sugar.

Sprinkle this mixture over bottom crust in jelly roll pan.

Combine:
5 cups cut up rhubarb (1” pieces approximately)
2 cups sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp flour

Spread the rhubarb mixture over the cornflake crumb mixture in the jelly roll pan. Dot with butter.

Roll out top crust on lightly floured waxed paper. Place on top of rhubarb filling and seal edges all around.



Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven to put meringue on.

While the handheld pie is baking, beat 2 egg whites until stiff. Spread on the hot baked crust. Return to oven for 5-10 minutes or until brown.

Strawberry Pie

We went to a strawberry patch and picked the ripest strawberries I have ever seen!



When we came home, we just had to make a pie with all of our yummy, juicy treasures. I just used this basic recipe; it tasted good, although it was a tad runny. I don't know if I inherited my moms knack for making runny pies or if we cut into it too soon. It wasn't quite cooled all of the way, but we couldn't wait any longer!

Ingredients:



dough for 2 crusted pie
1 1/2 quarts hulled, chopped strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 heaping Tbsp cornstarch
pinch of salt

Roll out the bottom crust and line the pie pan with it. Combine berries, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Pour into the bottom crust. Roll out the remaining crust, slice into strips and arrange in a lattice pattern. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or more until the filling is bubbly and crust is lightly browned.


I used my moms pie crust recipe and instead of making pie crust cookies with the scraps, I re-rolled them to make a mock lattice top.

Pie crust:



2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
6-7 tbsp water

Using a pastry blender, cut 1/2 of the shortening into the flour and salt until it has the texture of cornmeal.

Cut remaining shortening in and blend until like large peas.



Add water, 1 tbsp at a time, until doughy.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface to be 1 inch bigger than the pie pan. Turn dough into pie pan and either bake at 475° for 8-12 minutes (until golden brown) for a pudding pie or fill with pie filling for a baked pie.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

This is a recipe I stumbled upon when viewing another Daring Baker's blog. The recipe comes from Laura Rebecca's Kitchen. Her blog is actually one that I followed even before I joined The Daring Baker's.

I had to try this recipe when I saw it. I couldn't believe how small the ingredient list was for this recipe. And with directions like, "Mix all ingredients together"... you can't go wrong. Mine did get a tad over baked at 18 minutes, so next time I make them I'll pull them at 16 or 17 minutes.

One word of warning-- the batter. I (naturally) tasted it right from the bowl before baking and decided that it could be it's own ice cream topping. It's that good.

Enjoy!

Pecan Pie Cupcakes (adapted from Recipezaar.com)

1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Liberally grease a miniature muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Combine all ingredients and mix well; fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and enjoy!

Yields 24 mini cupcakes.