Spring means Strawberry...Rhubarb Pie

Cooking soothes the savage beast in my case, and usually that means that I end up making a huge meal complete with dessert.

This weekend, dessert was Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, mainly because my green grocer kept piling more and more of them all over their fruit bins. Overflowing, even. My last attempt at Strawberry Rhubarb pie was a sodden, sour mess. This time I was determined to do it right.

So arming myself with previous knowledge and research on the interwebz, I went ahead and nabbed me some strawberries and rhubarb and made me some pie.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (Adapted from Epicurious)

Pie Crust Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

10 tablespoons (about) ice water

Pie filling
1 pint of strawberries - washed, hulled and sliced in half
3 cups of sliced rhubarb
1/3 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

pinch powdered cardamom (optional)

1 egg + water for egg wash

Directions

In a food processor, add the dry ingredients for the pie crust and pulse for a few seconds to blend. Then add shortening and butter and pulse until the mixture resembles large crumbs. Slowly add the water, spoonful by spoonful, until a soft dough comes together. Shouldn't be more than 2 minutes. Separate the dough into two balls, flatten each and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for about an hour before use or you can pop it in the freezer for 15 mins. Dough must be chilled in order for it to be malleable to roll out.

While your dough is chilling, mix all the ingredients for your pie filling in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. When dough is chilled and firm, remove from fridge and roll out one disk and line your pie plate (13 inch is best here). Roll out the other disk and cut into 14 strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling. Crimp the edges and brush the crust and edges with the egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake the pie for about 1 hour 15 mins. Let the pie cool thoroughly before cutting into it - it's a juicy pie and you want to make sure that the filling sets properly. Serve plain, or with vanilla ice-cream, or with my favorite - Cool Whip!

Caramel Apple...Tarte Tatin

I've always wanted to make a Tarte Tatin - it's a simple enough recipe, essentially an upside-down apple pie, but somehow it's also more. The beauty of the caramelized apples, arranged in a soft amber patter, the rich pie crust and the fact that it's baked in a skillet (yes, this latter point always fascinated me) makes it an especially special dessert.

I googled my way to a recipe, one that Epicurious was happy to provide - a Tarte Tatin with Brandied Caramel Sauce. First a medley of apples - I used a mix of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and the last of my Jonagolds - arranging them into a circular pattern.

Next, the brandy caramel sauce - this is what gives the apples that lovely amber color, rich and sweet, yet the tartness of the apples do match up well with it.

Finally, the pie crust goes over the sauced apples, like a blanket, and into the 400 deg F oven it goes for about 55 minutes. (see recipe for more detail)

The tricky part is the flip - I used a large pie plate as my base for the flip so in case anything decided to crumble apart, it was safely ensconced in the pie plate.

This was what I made for Thanksgiving last year  - let's just say I might not be going back to traditional apple pie anytime soon.