Some Solitary Cooking and a Rhubarb Pie

Three weeks of wonderful traveling and visiting made me thoroughly enjoy my slow Monday morning of quiet pie making.

Jibs is napping, Clara and Jimmy are out exploring the river for wildflowers and bugs, and I'm in the kitchen. Everyone is having a happy day indeed.

When I returned to my lovely little rhubarb crop this weekend I was pleased to discover a healthy bunch ready for picking.

Strawberry-rhubarb has to be one of my favourite fruit combos.

It literally took me an hour to decide what to do with my 8 precious cups of the sweet red gems.

Since its a holiday and my fridge is bare from our weeks of being away, my choices were somewhat limited.

I was missing key ingredients necessary for:

Rhubarb Soda and Rhubarb Jam.

These looked inviting as well...tartlets and crisp.

In the end I settled on a simple Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie with Crumble from my good old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumble

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

1 recipe Single Crust Pie

1 recipe Crumb Topping (below)

3/4 C sugar

1/3 C flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 Cups fresh chopped rhubarb

3 Cups fresh quartered strawberries

Prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry and trim to fit the plate. Crimp edges if desired. Prepare crumb topping. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together sugar flour and cinnamon, add fruit and gently toss.

Transfer fruit to pastry lined pie plate.

Sprinkle with crumb topping.

Bake in a 375* oven for 45 mins.

Cool and eat with ice cream.

Crumble Topping

1/3C Brown Sugar

1/2 C flour

3 Tbsp cold butter

healthy pinch fresh nutmeg (optional)

Stir together sugar, nutmeg and flour, cut in cold butter until mixture resembles a crumb.

Breton Apple Pie

Our family is one full of pie lovers. My mum and gramma are pie makers. Pie for breakfast is quite a common thing...if there happen to be leftovers.

My grandpa would quite often, after supper, tell my gramma he wanted a piece of pie and she would whip one up in an hour.

I cannot count the number of pie varieties I have tried on account of my mum and gramma.

All that said, I don't fancy myself a pie maker. I have made my share of pies in different forms, sweet and savory. I'm not a master by any means.

"So Jess how's your pastry success been lately?" My gramma asked me today, which made me smile. Mostly because I know it makes her happy that I love to cook, like she loves to cook.

Honestly though, my pastry is pretty hit and miss.

I'm quite sure all cooks learn a lot by trial and error.

Gramma's first pie was a pumpkin, she had never made a pie before and thought she'd be a good (new) wife and make her husband a pie. She made her crust, dumped a can of pumpkin into it, smoothed it out and baked it. She proudly served it to my grandpa but, instead of gratitude, was met with gags and sputters.

Grandpa-"What did you put in this?"

Grandma-"Nothing just the pumpkin!"

Now she knows you have to add sugar, spices, cream and other such important ingredients.

Gramma has since totally redeemed herself.

Last night, after dinner, I thought I'd make an apple pie for Jimmy. This pie had caught my eye as a quick one to make during the week.

Breton Apple Pie is quick, and really won't feel like pie making, in the laborious, fiddly kind of way it can.

The crust is somewhere between a shortcrust and a shortbread cookie. It's easy to work with and shortcomings can easily be patched.

The apples are partially cooked before hand on top of the stove with applesauce, lemon and cinnamon. They will become soft and shiny and rich smelling.

Everyone loves this pie. I will be making this one over and over. Maybe it will become a favourite in your house too.

Breton Apple Pie

Originally in by Nick Malgieri and also in The Washington Post, September 17, 2008

Apple

2Tbsp unsalted butter

2 1/2 lbs apples, peeled, cored and sliced (6-8 apples)

1/4 C apple sauce

1/4 C sugar

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dough

1C unsalted butter, room temp

1tsp vanilla

1C sugar

4 large egg yolks (1 of the egg whites beaten with a pinch of salt for a wash)

2 3/4 C flour

Butter a deep 9 inch pie plate and set aside. Place oven rack at the lowest setting and preheat oven to 350*.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter in a large saucepan, add apples, applesauce, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook, covered about 10 minutes or until swimming in liquid. Uncover and cook another 10 minutes.

Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a mixer.

Beat at medium speed for 5 minutes.

Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to incorporate the flour.

Place half of the dough in the bottom of the prepared pan.

Use your fingertips to press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan and about 1 inch up the sides.

Spread the filling over the dough.

Roll out remaining dough on a board with lots of flour until the circle is the same size as the pie plate. Top the pie with the dough and press down around the outside to seal.

Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash. Use the tines of a fork to trace a lattice pattern on the top.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until the dough is nicely colored and baked through.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

Slice and serve with ice cream, cheese or by itself.

Springtime Lime Pie

Here's a spring dessert for you. 10 minutes prep time, 18 mins bake time...chill (4 hours)and eat.

Lime Pie

(myrecipes.com)

22 graham wafers, crushed (yield 1 1/4C)

1/4C butter, melted

2- 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk

1 1/4 C freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 C sour cream

2 Tbsp powdered sugar

zest of 1/2 a lime

Preheat oven to 325*.

Mix graham wafer crumbs and butter in a 10inch pie plate. Press crumb mixture into plate.

Bake for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, whisk together milk, lime juice and eggs in a large bowl.

Pour into baked pie shell. Bake 18-20 mins.

Chill for 4 hours.

Mix sour cream and sugar in a small bowl. Spread on top of pie. Sprinkle with lime zest.

Serve.

Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies

These are not your usual sugar-butter laden peanut butter cookies. They're reasonably healthy, easy to prepare and will surprise the skeptics.

I was a bit skeptical myself. Sugar-free, spelt cookies don't sound very promising.

If you don't know what spelt is and you have never baked with it before, go to the bulk food store, buy just what you need for these cookies and be pleasantly surprised at how normal it feels to use it.

Spelt actually gives these cookies wonderful flavour. The batter will look a little more gritty than regular flour but will taste perfect when they're baked.

I took these to share with a group of friend last night and everyone agreed, they're good!

...(despite being healthy)

One thing I will mention, Heather from 101cookbooks recommends you buy a well combined peanut butter and not a super oily one. I used PC Crunchy and it worked beautifully.

Heather's Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies

(101cookbooks.com)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter

1 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350* degrees. Place racks in the top third.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla.

Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture

and stir until barely combined - still a bit dusty looking.

Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two.

Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets.

Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork.

It's a loose batter, so if you're set on doing criss-crosses,

go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step.

Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes - but don't over bake or they will be dry.

Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Cooking with Guinness

Steak and Guinness Pie

Guinness Cake

3 delicious recipes with a common theme.

It is very hard for me to let a St. Patricks Day pass without making something with Guinness.

First, a dark rich beef stew baked inside a puffy, buttery crust. Served with peas and a green salad on the side.

Followed by a very dark and damp chocolate cake topped with a fluffy white frosting. (Looking quite like a pint of the dark beverage it contains.)

Regardless of their preferences towards Guinness as a drink, I have yet to find a person who did not love it in these forms.

Steak and Guinness Pie

(adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe)

3 medium red onions peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled chopped

2 Tbsp Butter

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

6-8 mushrooms, sliced or chopped

2.5 lbs stewing beef cut into 3/4 inch pieces and trimmed of fat

1 Tbsp herbs de provence (or 2 sprigs rosemary stemmed and chopped.)

salt and pepper

1 pint of Guinness

2-3 Heaping Tbsp Flour

water or beef stock

1 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese

1 package store bought puff pastry

1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375*.

Heat a very large saucepan over med heat and saute onions gently for 10 mins.

Turn heat up to med-high and add the other vegetables. Stir together and then add beef, herbs, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp pepper. Fry for 4minutes.

Pour in Guinness and scatter the flour over top. Stir in enough water or stock to just cover the beef and veg.

Bring to a boil and then put the lid on the pot and place in hot oven for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is very tender.

Remove the pan and stir the stew. Return stew to the oven and cook another hour.

If the stew is a bit watery at this point remove the lid and cook on the stove top over med heat until some of the liquid is gone and the stew is really thick.

Stir in half the cheese.

Season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Roll out one of the sheets of puff pastry big enough to cover the bottom of the appropriately sized dish. Let the excess pastry dangle over the edges.

Pour the stew into the bowl. Top with remaining cheese and brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash.

Score the other sheet of pastry diagonally in 1 cm crisscrosses. Place the lid on the pie and fold the edges inwards together to seal the pie and make a nice crusty ring around the outside.

Brush the top of the pie with more egg wash and place in the oven for 45 mins at 375* or until pastry is puffed up and golden.

Guinness Cake

(Nigella Lawson)

1 C Guinness

1/2 C + 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 C cocoa powder (unsweetened)

2 C sugar

3/4 C sour cream

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 C flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

8 oz Cream cheese

1 1/4 C icing sugar

heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 9 inch springform pan.

Pour Guinness in a large saucepan, add butter and heat until butter is melted over med heat.

Whisk in cocoa and sugar.

Remove from heat.

Beat together sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Pour into buttery beer.

Whisk in flour and soda.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 45 mins.

Cool.

Whip cream cheese until light and fluffy, add sifted icing sugar. Add enough cream to make the icing spreadable. Beat again.

Top cold cake with icing.

Finally, another delicious Guinness meal we have had recently can be found over here.

Cottage Pie

Another easy one that Jimmy and the kids love. A good one pot dish for those nights when you aren't sure what time people are coming home and you have to keep it warm.
It tastes so retro, which I love, and it looks quite the part if prepared in a lovely mint green Pyrex baking dish. Anyone else have a Pyrex obsession? The only thing to serve with this, in my mind, is a dish of sweet pickles, some thickly sliced bread and some molded jello for dessert.

Cottage Pie

adapted from Everyday Food November 2010

3T butter melted

1 large yellow onion, diced medium

2 large carrots cut in medium chunks

salt and pepper

2T tomato paste

2T Ketchup

1.5t Worcestershire sauce

1lb ground turkey, lamb or beef

1.5t herb de provence or thyme (more if using fresh)

1C dark beer (I used tankhouse)

1C stock or water

2T flour

1C frozen peas

1 large russet or yukon gold potato sliced thinly

Prettiest 2Quart Pyrex you've got

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Preheat oven to 400*.

In a large skillet, heat 1T butter over med-high heat and add onions and carrots, stirring often until soft. 5mins or so.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato paste, ketchup, and worchester. Add meat and stir until almost cooked, 3mins. Add herbs and beer and bring to a boil. Cook stirring a lot until slightly reduced. Sprinkle with flour, stir. Add stock and cook until thickened, 2mins.

Stir in peas and season again, if you feel it's necessary.

Transfer mixture to pyrex. Top with potatoes, overlapping slices. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Drizzle remaining 2T of melted butter over the top of potatoes. Bake 40-45mins.

Cool at least 10mins before serving.

Mo Pie...Mo Friends

Had the great pleasure of spending yesterday with some good friends. Rainy bus riding, tea sipping and pie making made for a full and delicious Monday.

I recently took a book out of the library called Savory Baking. If you think you'd like things like, Peppery Pear and Goat Cheese Scones, Spinach Feta Pie with Nuts or Peameal Bacon Bread Pudding then take this book out of your local library or buy it.

On this particular morning, the Spinach Feta Pie and the Curried Vegetable Potpie with Dried Fruit were sounding just right. We settled on the spinach one and went to work.

Here's the evidence.

The girl can cook! Perfect, flaky crust. Thanks Aban.

Sharing the finished product.