For me, summertime baking involves a serious weighing of pros and cons before the KitchenAid mixer ever gets plugged in, and well in advance of butter meeting eggs and sugar and flour. This process involves the calculation of one essential ratio: interior home temperature to overall deliciousness. The whole house is already hot as blazes. But there could be pie. Pie! Therein lies the dilemma. And I'm not gonna lie, the temptation of juicy, sweet, summer fruit between flaky, butter-rich crust is usually enough to convince me to crank that oven up to 350 and call it a day -- a sticky, often sweaty, but definitely delectable day. Some people do hot yoga, I'm more a fan of the strawberry-rhubarb.
So when I spied a few late stalks of rhubarb at the farmer's market, and remembered the pints of strawberries waiting at home, it was clear that the temp/taste ratio was leaning heavily toward one of my favorite summertime treats. This recipe is one that came from my aunt, and one that is used often in my family. Actually, I'm not sure if this is quite the same as the way my aunt makes it, because I gave up looking at the recipe a long time ago in favor of a more Jessica-style, choose-your-own-adventure type method. It's popularity might have something to do with the fact that it's basically fool-proof. I've made the recipe with more or less of this and that, or even different fruits and spices, and it always turns out uniquely sour, sweet, spicy and delicious. I made my own pie crust for this one, but (you didn't hear this from me) store-bought is also pretty swell. Let the pie, and the kitchen, cool down a bit, then serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a cool breeze.
Pie Crust
(From Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food)
Makes two 10-ounce balls of dough, enough for two 11-inch tarts or one double-crust 9-inch pie.
Have measured:
1/2 cup ice-cold water (you may not need all of this)
Mix together:
2 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Salt (omit if using salted butter)
Add:
12 tblsp (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes
Work butter into the flour mixture with a fork or pastry blender until mixture is sandy, leaving behind some fairly large, irregular pieces of butter. Pour in three-quarters of the water and work into the mixture slowly. If the water is consistently incorporated, and the dough is not wet enough to stick together when compressed, add more water, 1 tblsp at a time. Divide dough into 2 equal parts, compress into balls, then wrap in plastic and flatten into disks. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
Pie Crust
2 pints Strawberries, stems cut off and quartered
3 small stalks, or 1 1/2 to 2 large stalks Rhubarb, cut into 1/4 inch slices
3 heaping tblsp Sugar (add more or less, depending on sweetness of berries)
1/4 cup Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp freshly grated (or not) Nutmeg
2 tblsp Butter
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, flour and spices. Prepare pie crust, and lay bottom crust in pie plate (I prefer pyrex or ceramic, my favorite being the one pictured above by Millstone Pottery). Pour filling into the pie plate, and dot the top with chunks of butter. Top filling with second crust, whole or in lattice pattern, and crimp edges. Place in oven with a large pan underneath to catch any bubbling goodness that might overflow and will smoke and smell horrible the next time you use the oven if allowed to collect on the oven bottom. Bake until crust is golden brown and filling is doing said bubbling, usually about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment