Get Your Children Cooking: Rhubarb Pie Recipes
Kelly turns her kitchen over to her daughter Emma with delicious results.
Teaching children how to cook with local, seasonal fruits and vegetables, how to choose meat ethically, or how to be vegetarian has a huge impact on all of our lives.
My daughter, Emma Alter has always had a keen interest in baking. Today she is writing a guest post, sharing a pie recipe that uses the fresh rhubarb we bought at the farmers' market. Her thoughts and recipe are below:
As my mother has said in many posts, it's an important thing to teach your children how to cook. Cooking with your kids means spending quality time together, teaching them an important skill, and it can even make you enjoy the task more.
To this day, every time I cook, I ask my mother to help me, even if I don't need the help. It always takes us twice as long as it would alone, but we always have fun, and we always get something delicious at the end.
My brother, Hugh, spent his first two years of university cooking dinner almost every night – he can now cook up any Thai or Indian treat, from a recipe or from his head. I, on the other hand, prefer to bake.
Chocolate cake with maple icing (a recipe passed down from my maternal grandmother), plain cheesecake decorated with fresh berries (a recipe passed down from my paternal grandmother), chocolate chip cookies, and even candy. (I make a mean chocolate-covered caramel).
For some reason, one of the things I don't have much experience in is pie. After trying a tortiere that - though it turned out delicious caused me such grief that I called my mother practically in tears when the pastry crumbled, I tried again.
It turned out beautifully. When I came home from university for the summer, I insisted that I bake this pie. This is a great pie for any occasion, as comfort food or dessert at a dinner party.
Though the recipe calls for 5 to 6 apples (which I used the first time), I substituted 3 of the apples with fresh rhubarb. Any amount can be used, though just remember that each apple equals about a cup of rhubarb.
There is nothing like a rhubarb pie though most people associate it with strawberries, rhubarb can be added to practically any fruit pie.
All that is necessary is to replace any amount of the original fruit with rhubarb and to add one extra cup of sugar. Rhubarb is extremely sour, so the extra sugar is important to make the pie edible. But with the right amount of sugar, it's like an all-natural sour candy, in pie form!
Although my mother has used a recipe from Martha Stewart for as long as I can remember, I decided to try a new recipe from a book I received from Mom at Christmas, How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman.
The most important part of the pie is the crust, and this recipe makes an incredibly sweet, chewy, crispy crust that turns a beautiful golden brown and melts in your mouth.
It doesn't hurt that it's about as simple as can be, either. The recipe originally called to be put in the refrigerator (as most pastry recipes do), I find it extremely difficult to work with cold dough, so I roll it at room temperature (or just below, as the recipe calls for ice water) and place it in the fridge or freezer while I work with the pie filling.
Since both apple and rhubarb lend to an extremely runny pie, it's important to add some thickener. Even if you like a runny pie, I recommend at least a tablespoon of cornstarch. That is as much as I added to my pie, and it was practically soup. Delicious, apple rhubarb soup.
Pie Shell for a 2-Crust Pie
Takes about 45 minutes.
Ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting the work surface
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 6 tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary
- Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the container of a food processor; pulse once or twice. Add the butter and turn on the machine; process until the butter and flour are blended and the mixture looks like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.
- Place the mixture in a bowl and sprinkle 6 tablespoons of water over it. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gradually gather the mixture into a ball; if the mixture seems dry, add another ½ tablespoon of ice water. When you can make the mixture into a ball with your hands, roll it into two balls. Flatten it into a small disk.
- You can roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, usually quite successful; sprinkle both sides of it with a little flour, then proceed. Or sprinkle a countertop or large board with flour. Roll with light pressure, from the centre out. (If the dough seems very sticky at first, add flour liberally; but if it becomes sticky only after you roll it for a few minutes, put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before proceeding) Continue to roll, adding small amounts of flour as necessary, rotating the dough occasionally, and turning it over once or twice during the process. Use the ragged edges of the dough to repair any tears, adding a drop of water while you press the patch into place. When the dough is about 10 inches in diameter (it will be less than ¼ inch thick) place your pie plate upside down over it to check the size.
- Move the dough onto the pie plate by draping it over the rolling pin or by folding it into quarters, then moving it into place and unfolding it. When the dough is on the plate, press it firmly into the bottom, sides, and junction of the bottom and sides. Trim the excess dough to about ½ inch all around, then tuck it under the edge of the plate.
- Repeat the process with the second ball of dough, only instead of placing it on a pie plate, place it on an upside-down cookie sheet or anything flat. Place both pieces in the refrigerator or freezer while you make the rest of the pie.
Takes about 1 ½ hours, plus cooling time.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar (plus 1 cup extra for the rhubarb)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 5 or 6 apples (any amount to be substituted with equal amounts of rhubarb)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (only necessary if no rhubarb is being used in the recipe)
- 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch or 2 tablespoons instant tapioca
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits
- Milk as needed
- 1 pie shell
- Preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Toss together the sugars, spices, and salt. Peel and core the apples and cut them and the rhubarb into ½ to ¾ inch thick. Toss the apples and rhubarb with the dry ingredients, adding cornstarch or tapioca.
- Pile the apples and rhubarb into the rolled-out bottom crust, making the pile a little higher in the centre than at the sides. Dot with butter. Cover with the top crust. Decorate the edges with a fork or your fingers.
- Place the pie on a cookie sheet and brush with milk; sprinkle with sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut two or three 2-inch-long vent holes in the top crust. This will allow steam to escape. Place the pie in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 40 to 50 minutes, or until the pie is golden brown. Do not underbake. Cool on a rack before serving warm or at room temperature.
More organic recipes and sustainable eating tips:
Olive Oil Cake Recipe
Two Ways To Try Asparagus
