Pie

Summer of Rhubarb: Rhubarb Custard Pie

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Rhubarb Custard Pie (Recipe & Photo from Food Network Kitchen)

Rhubarb Custard Pie
As previously discussed I am not a huge cake fan. For most of my life I either had dairy queen ice cream cakes or cheesecake as my birthday cakes. It should come as no surprise that I decided to not bake a cake for my birthday. Instead I decided to bake a pie.
Specifically a rhubarb custard pie since I had exactly 4.5 cups of rhubarb left in my fridge to use up from my first harvest. I find that using rhubarb fresh is much easier than previously frozen as you don’t have to deal with draining excess fluid or adding more flour or corn starch to thicken it.
This pie is delish and super easy to make. I ended up eating 1/4 of the pie for my birthday.
 Ingredients

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Fit the pie dough into a 9-inch pie plate, fluting the edges, and chill until set, about 15 minutes. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork, and then line the crust with aluminum foil.
  • Fill with pie weights or dried beans and bake until the edges of the crust are just golden, 20 minutes.
  • Remove the foil with the pie weights and continue to bake until the bottom of the crust is dry and lightly browned, another 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely.
  • Toss the rhubarb with 1/4 cup granulated sugar and the lemon juice until well combined. Transfer to the crust and spread to form an even layer. Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet.
  • Whisk the eggs with the evaporated milk, flour and remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar until smooth, and then pour over the rhubarb.
  • Line with edges of the pie with aluminum foil to prevent over browning.
  • Bake until the pie is lightly browned, puffed and no longer wet in the center, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Before serving, lightly dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Summer of Rhubarb: Rhubarb Meringue Dessert

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I made this awhile ago with my first harvest of rhubarb from this summer. Summer came & went super quickly. I won’t complain. Fall is my favorite time of year. The majority of people in Minnesota would agree with me. Fall is the best season with the cooler weather, leaves changing, pumpkins, Halloween, etc. Other people would add football to the list and I suppose I will too. Not because I like watching it but because I like making food for other people and using that Sunday time to bake. A time for me to relax in the kitchen & try new things. While I am exited for the pumpkins, squash, & root veggies to take over, I have to say I will miss being able to go pick fresh rhubarb from the garden. Gardening is the main thing I enjoy about summer. At least I have a little stockpile in the freezer which I will probably use to make this dish again. It may just be my new favorite rhubarb recipe.

Rhubarb Meringue Dessert (from Betty Crocker)

  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup half & half or whipping cream
  • 2 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup flaked coconut

Heat oven to 350ºF. Mix butter, 1 cup flour and 1 tablespoon sugar. Press evenly in ungreased square pan, 9x9x2 inches. Bake 10 minutes.

Mix egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, the salt and half-and-half in large bowl. Stir in rhubarb. Pour over hot crust. Bake 45 minutes.

Beat egg whites in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Beat in 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Beat in vanilla. Spread over rhubarb mixture; sprinkle with coconut. Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown; cool about 30 minutes. Cut into about 3-inch squares.

Key Lime Pie

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I love working out. I love how I feel afterwards. I love how it makes my body & mind feel great. I love feeling strong. I also hate working out. Mainly because I hate the concept of working out. I think it stems from being in dance my whole life. I never had to work out. When I was a child I had gym class, played outside, and danced. Let’s be honest, kids don’t need to work out. They are simply very active. I feel that many adults can learn from this.

As I have gotten older I still like being active but I don’t really enjoy most workouts. A problem many people experience. I prefer to take classes or do videos. I like to do things outdoors. I also try to walk to work whenever I can. If I walk to and from work I get over 3.5 miles in. I consider that my “workout” for the day.

As I was trying to force myself to commit to a workout on Sunday, I thought about just going for a walk instead. I decided to walk into town to get some sweetened condensed milk to make a key lime pie. Workout done. Bonus, I got to bake a pie and then enjoy eating it as well.

Key Lime Pie

Crust

  • 18 graham crackers
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup sugar

Filling

  • 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 3/4 cup lime juice

Crumble graham crackers. Mix in sugar and then melted butter. Press into pie plate. Bake in a 350F oven for 5-8 minutes until golden brown & set. Cool slightly.

Mix filling ingredients together. Pour into crust. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until filling is set.

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Summer of Rhubarb: Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie

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Memorial Weekend is the kick-off to summer. Fishing, gardening, barbecues, and fruit pies. In Minnesota, rhubarb pies are very common and for me, summer is also about rhubarb. It was a no-brainer that for my Baking Sunday this memorial weekend I decided to make a Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie using some frozen rhubarb that I had from last summer.

What a great way to kick-off the Summer of Rhubarb.

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Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie

  • For the crust… (use store-bought or your favorite recipe. This is my quick go-to cause I always have these ingredients in my pantry)
    • 1 1/4 cups all-pupose flour
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/3 cup shortening
    • cold water
  • For the filling…
    • 4 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb
    • 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
    • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 1/3 cup flour
  • For the crumb topping…
    • 1/2 cup flour
    • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
    • 3 tbsp cold butter

 

Crust: Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture is in pea-size chunks. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time, pushing the moistened dough to the sides. Add enough water until the dough is moist enough to hold a ball shape. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to be 1/8 in thick. Line a 9in pie plate with pastry. Crimp edge as desired.

Filling: Stir together the sugar, flour, & cinnamon. Add the fruit. Gently toss until coated (if using frozen fruit let stand for 45 minutes until the fruit is partially thawed but still icy).

Crumb topping: Stir together the flour & sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Assembly: Pour the prepared filling into the pastry lined pie plate. Top with crumb topping. Line edge of pie plate with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake in a 375F oven for 25 minutes (50 minutes if using frozen fruit). Remove foil and bake for another 30-40 minutes until crust & topping are golden and filling is bubbly). Let cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hrs (this will prevent your pie from running all over the place). Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

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Key Lime Pie

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Last summer was incredibly hot for what felt like forever. It was actually one of the hottest summers in history here in MN. Since I am in the mode of perfecting recipes I decided to do a more summery pie. I asked for input and the final verdict was key lime pie. Shoot. I really do not like this pie. I have never had a taste for it and I know that there are key lime snobs out there. However, once I set my mind to do something I do it.
To begin, I started searching the web for key lime recipes since I did not have my cook book handy. (I would have done this anyway to compare recipes). This immediately put me into a panic. There are tons of recipes for key lime pie out there and they are all slightly different. Some with more sweetened condensed milk than others, some with sour cream, some with eggs, some with food coloring. The basic components were the same but I have no idea what to do with this pie. Fruit pies are easy. I’ve done them for years. I can search recipes and pick one out and know what to do to tweak it to make it perfect or just not do it at all based on the componants, but key lime might be my death sentence.
I settled on two recipes. One from pioneer woman and one from allrecipes.com. They were drastically different. The pioneer woman used only one can sweetened condensed milk & egg yolks. She claimed you could use limes if you didn’t have key limes so I decided to try it with limes. The other recipe used two cans sweetened condensed milk and sour cream & I used the key limes for that one. Now when I was squeezing the limes for these recipes I didn’t know how they would taste. The key lime juice was like lime juice on steroids. It was so tart. I don’t know if it is because I live in MN and the key limes are not as fresh but the juice from the key limes compared to the limes might make a difference in the pies.
When it was all said and done. It was actually the allrecipes.com pie that one the contest. The pioneer woman key lime pie was delicious. It was very light and sweet and refreshing. The consistency just wasn’t what one wanted for a key lime pie. The other pie was more tart but not overwhelming. The extra sweetened condensed milk and sour cream was able to counteract the tart key lime juice. The texture of the pie was very nice as well.
I only had one key lime pie snob to test them out on, but he was the only one that mattered since it was his request.