What is That? Celery Pie??

For followers of my blog, you probably already know how deeply I was affected by the loss of my Grandma a year ago. As the anniversary of her death approached, I was suddenly given a great gift by my former neighbor Joanne. A big bag of rhubarb! I know what you're saying.. rhubarb?? This time of year? Well as she explained it, she has a big patch of rhubarb in the yard at her new house and she cut it all down only to have it all grow right back! So with more rhubarb than she knew what to do with, she brought it to me.




In past years when Joanne lived right across the street from me, she had rhubarb in that yard too and she would give me tons and tons of it so I could give it to Grandma. Grandma made jam and cobbler, and pie and anything else she could think of to make with rhubarb. But now, it's up to me. Last year I made a cobbler that Nick and I both loved. But this time I decided to make pie like Grandma's.

I've gone over pie crust before, so if you need that recipe it can be found here. The recipe is either doubled or made twice because this pie has a top and a bottom crust.

You will need one pound of fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled and cut into pieces. Basically I just cut them in half since they are a lot softer than rhubarb and will break down more when baked.


You will also need a pound of rhubarb, cleaned and sliced into about half inch pieces.


Mix the strawberries and the rhubarb together with the juice of one lemon (if it's a drier lemon, use two).

In a small bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup corn starch and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.


After you get your bottom crust in the pie plate, sprinkle about 2 Tablespoons of the sugar mixture on the bottom of the crust.


Then mix the rest in with the strawberries and rhubarb.



Pour the whole mixture into the pie crust. Dot the top with little pieces of butter. About 2 Tablespoons total. All you do is take little pieces of that butter and scatter them around the top of the fruit. You don't have to do this, but hey why not!? Everything is betta wit butta.



Now lay the second crust on top. You're going to have to vent the pie on top so steam can escape so if you want to be decorative, do that before you put the crust on top of the pie. I used a little star cookie cutter to make my vent.


As you can see, my fluting of the edges ability has not improved.

Brush the top crust with cream or milk and then sprinkle with sugar. Now this is imperative. Place the pie on a cookie sheet. DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP or you will have strawberry rhubarb molten lava in your stove.

Place the pie on the sheet in a preheated 400 degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes. If after 30 minutes the crust is getting too brown, then cover the edges with foil. Bake another 15 minutes. I didn't have a "too brown" issue with mine. It baked just fine. In fact, I ended up leaving it in probably for more like an hour total.


Maybe it sounds corny but I felt Grandma with me when I was baking that pie. All the years she tried to get me to eat hers and I was ascared of rhubarb. I have no idea why. But now, Nick and I love it. The pie came out perfect!



Can you see why we call it Celery Pie? =)

Move Over GA, SC Has Some Kickin Peaches!

Several years ago we went on a trip with my whole family to Charleston, SC to celebrate my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. We chose Charleston because it was kind of in the middle between those of us in Ohio and my brother and sister, who had moved to Florida. While there, I discovered the joy of South Carolina peaches. Before this, I had always preferred nectarines. I don't know why, since I don't have an aversion to the fuzz on a peach. I just had my preference and that was that. Then I ate a South Carolina peach and all that changed. It was the best peach I had ever had. It was juicy and not too soft but soft enough that the juice ran down your chin and down your arm and it was so good you wanted to lick your own arm so as not to waste a drop. Since then I seek out SC peaches in our stores. So when my mother in law told us she was going to Myrtle Beach for a few days with my sister in law and her family, I asked her, if it wasn't too much trouble and she happen to see a roadside stand, could she get me some peaches. When they got back, I got the call... "I got you some peaches." Thrilled and excited to bask once again in peach rapture, I headed over to their house to pick them up.

The problem was, when I got them home and actually looked at them, they were kind of past their prime after being jostled around in a hot car for about 10 hours on the trip home. So what can you do but make pie?

I happen to really love Martha's "Our Favorite Pie Crust" recipe so that's what I use. She claims you need a pastry cutter, but I use a fork and it's perfectly fine. This recipe makes one pie crust. So if you want a top crust on your pie you'll have to double it. Start with 1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour mixed with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon sugar in a bowl.



Add one stick of cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces.



Now you will need that pastry blender or, like I said, a fork. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Make sure the butter pieces are no larger than the size of a pea.


Sprinkle the mixture with two Tablespoons of ice water and work it through the dough. You want the dough to be able to hold together if you take some in your hand and squeeze it. If it doesn't, then you will need to add more ice water. Add it one Tablespoon at a time. It should look like this:


When you get it that consistency, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour to firm up.



While the crust is chilling, prepare your peaches for pie heaven! They need to be peeled so you will need a large pot of boiling water. You will also need a large bowl of ice water. I used about 8 peaches of varying sizes. They weren't overly large but they weren't small either. Drop the peaches, about two or three at a time, into the boiling water for about 10-15 seconds.



Take them out after that 10-15 seconds and immediately drop them into the bowl of ice water.



Once they are cool enough to touch, the peels will slip off easily.



Slice the peaches and put in a bowl and toss with a little lemon juice.




By this time, your pie crust is probably ready to be rolled out. Take it from the fridge, unwrap and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough carefully. You don't want to break it and you want it to be as much of a circle as possible. Make sure as you roll, you move the dough around so it doesn't stick to the surface. Add more flour to the board if necessary and make sure you flour your rolling pin. But don't over flour, you don't want a dry crust. The dough should be about 1/4 inch thick.



When you have it in the size you need and know it will fit in your pie plate, roll the dough around your rolling pin.


Gently unroll the dough into your pie plate.



Cut off some of the excess, but not all. With the excess that is left, tuck it under the plate.



From here, if you have more pie crust talent then I, you can do all kinds of fancy stuff to the crust. But since I'm really not very good at that, I just lightly crimp it with a fork.



Now take your peaches and mix them with 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a liberal grind of fresh nutmeg. This isn't any ones recipe, just a mixture I threw together based on how I've seen peach pies made in the past. The mixture will most likely be pretty juicy which is why you need some cornstarch in there to thicken up those juices while it bakes.


For me, you can't go wrong with a streusel topping. I prefer it over a second crust. For an easy streusel topping, combine a half a stick of unsalted butter, softened, with 3/4 cup of flour, 1/4 cup light brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Use your handy dandy fork again to mash it all together and make a crumble. I wanted to add chopped pecans to the topping, but when I went to get them, I discovered I didn't have any. Doh!



Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the pie.




Put the pie on a baking sheet. Trust me, don't skip this step! You do not want to clean peach lava off the bottom of your stove. Bake the pie at 450 degrees for the first 8-10 minutes. Then lower the temp to 350 and bake for another 45-50 minutes.




You can let it cool, or you can eat it warm. You can serve it as is or add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You can do whatever want with it, but now matter how you serve it, it won't last!

The pie quest continues!

When I got my copy of A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman recently, it came with a little book, also by Marcy, called Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate. There are several things in it I've been meaning to try and this pie is one of them. And then, as I was perusing other food blogs I saw almost the exact recipe on Bakerella and knew I had to try it. I can't stand it anymore!! It looks too good not to try.

Since the recipe itself calls for a frozen pie crust, I don't feel like I cheated by not making my own. Hey I was just following the recipe! All you do is whisk the batter ingredients together, then fold in the nuts and chocolate chips, pour into the crust, bake and you're done!







It's so good and not nearly as sweet as I thought. But you may want to serve it with some vanilla ice cream as Marcy recommended. Enjoy!


Blondie Chocolate Chip Pie
(recipe by Marcy Goldman)

2 large eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 frozen 9 inch deep dish pie crust

Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with flour, both sugars, butter and vanilla. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour filling into pie crust. Place pie on the prepared baking sheet. (Do this to avoid unfortunate mishaps like these). Bake for 1 hour. Serve with ice cream and hot fudge sauce if desired.

Cranberries, part deux

Thanks to Wendy on the PVB Recipe Board for this recipe for Pear Cranberry Pie. The moment I saw the title I knew I had to make it. And it kills two birds with one stone... it continues my new year's quest to make more pie and it uses up some of the cranberries I have been hoarding in my freezer.

I am not a pie maker so I find crust intimidating. Actually I find anything I have to roll out intimidating. It's never even, it's never the shape it should be. But I'm goin in. Cover me!

The full recipe will be at the end, but here is the play by play. You start with 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup cake flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Pulse that in the food processor a few times to mix the ingredients. Then add 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces and 2 Tablespoons cold vegetable shortening. Pulse about 6 times until the until you have lumps about the size of peas. Then with the processor running, add 3 Tablespoons of the cold water and process until large moist clumps form and the dough holds together. If the dough is too dry, add more cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time. From there you want to put all the dough together and form it into a flat square. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour.




Butter a 9- or 10-inch pie pan. Take the dough from the fridge and, on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a round about 4 inches wider than the bottom of the pie pan.




You can roll the dough around your rolling pin then place it in the pie pan. Carefully press the dough into the pan. Trim the edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and crimp the edge.




Freeze for 15 minutes before baking. As not a pie baker, this part made me sweat! I didn't want to overwork the dough, so even though it was way thinner on one side, I kept it the way it was. I also have no clue how to crimp edges! I thought of flattening them with a fork too late so I tried to make a nice edge from seeing so many chefs on TV do it. Not bad right!?




While the crust is in the freezer, mix together pears, sugar and melted butter. I used red pears. They looked the best in the store that day. Funny thing, I bought 5 pears to use. When I was slicing them, I lost count and wasn't really paying attention but assumed when I came to the end of the bag, that I had sliced 5 pears. A few days later, I found a lone red pear rolling around in my trunk! Oops! Stir in cranberries and cinnamon (I also added a little nutmeg). Then pour the mixture into the pie crust.




Now it's time for the best part, the crumb topping!!! In a small bowl, stir together granulated and light brown sugars, flour and cinnamon. Pour in melted butter over the flour mixture and mix until fine crumbs form. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the pie.




Now it's time to bake this beauty! Bake until the crumb topping is golden brown in color, the pears are tender and the cranberries are soft. Let it cool for about an hour or more. This pie is delicious. It's not overly sweet and the pears are a nice mild compliment to the tart cranberries. A little vanilla ice cream with it rounds out this great dessert!!






Flaky Pie Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling dough
1/3 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus additional for the pan
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

In a food processor, mix together the all-purpose and cake flours, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter and shortening and process, using about 6 pulses, until the mixture forms pea-size lumps. With the machine running, add 3 tablespoons of the cold water and process until large moist clumps form and the dough holds together. If the dough is too dry, add more cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Gather the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour before rolling. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead and refrigerated.) This makes one crust for a 9 or 10 inch pie plate.

Butter a 9- or 10-inch pie pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a round about 4 inches wider than the bottom of the pie pan. Press the dough into the prepared pan. Trim the edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and crimp the edge. Freeze for 15 minutes before baking.

Pear and Cranberry Crumb Pie

For the filling:
5 cups peeled and cored ripe pears, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar, or more to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cranberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the crumb topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

For the filling: In a large bowl, mix together the pears, sugar and melted butter. Stir in the cranberries and cinnamon. Transfer the mixture to the pie crust.

For the crumb topping: In a small bowl, stir together the granulated and light brown sugars, flour and cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the flour mixture and mix until fine crumbs form. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the filling.

Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until the crumb topping is golden brown, the pears are tender when tested with a toothpick and the cranberries are soft, about 30 minutes. Set the pie aside to cool for at least 1 hour before serving. The pie can be baked 1 day ahead of time, covered and stored at room temperature.

First Resolution for 2008 - Make more pie!

I have decided I need to master the pie. And yes, Nick will be VERY happy about this resolution! Granted, I have made this particular pie before, but I've never really mastered pie. I don't really know how to make a good pie crust, or a good fruit pie filling. I have no doubt though, that it will be a lot of fun learning!

For now, I do know how to make this one... Chocolate Hazelnut Pie. I LOVE chocolate and hazelnuts together in any way, shape or form. This pie starts out with a crust of flour, brown sugar and finely chopped hazelnuts. Add melted butter then press into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. I am using a recycled Baker's Square pie plate. I save them whenever possible for this reason. They do come in very handy when you are taking a pie to a party, which is what I am doing with this one tonight. The crust then bakes for 8 - 10 minutes or until lightly browned.




Take your mixing bowl and whip attachment and put them in the freezer while you use another bowl and another mixer (I used the Kitchen Aid hand mixer for this) to beat one 8 oz. block of softened cream cheese with sugar, melted/cooled semi-sweet chocolate and milk.




Take your bowl and whip attachment out of the freezer (that is, if you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, if not then you will need to do this step after the previous one) and add one cup of heavy cream and whip to soft peaks.




Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.




Place the now mixed pie filling in the cooled/prepared pie shell.



Top with more hazelnuts or chocolate shavings or both! Refrigerate.




And enjoy!

Here is the exact recipe. I found it on Better Homes and Gardens website. The recipe includes ingredients for a raspberry sauce to serve with it, but I've never found it necessary. The chocolate and hazelnut is delish on it's own!

Chocolate Hazelnut Pie

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup very finely chopped hazelnuts
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate pieces, melted and cooled
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup whipping cream

1. For crust, in a bowl stir together flour, hazelnuts, and brown sugar. Stir in melted butter; toss to mix. Spread evenly in a 9-inch pie plate. Press onto bottom and sides to form a firm, even crust. Bake in a 425 degree F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until brown. Cool.

2. For filling, in another mixing bowl combine cream cheese, melted chocolate, granulated sugar, and milk; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. In a chilled bowl beat whipping cream until soft peaks form; fold into cream cheese mixture. Spread in the cooled crust. Cover loosely and chill for several hours or overnight.