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Seasonal Baking

A good way to bake on the cheap is not only making everything yourself but using fresh local ingredients that are in season.

Our rhubarb at the farm was ready to be picked and local strawberry farms started selling baskets of delicious strawberries. This year has been drier than previous years making for more juicy and sweet berries.

One of my favorite pies is strawberry rhubarb. After telling people my plan for this past long weekend was baking strawberry rhubarb pies I was informed this was also a favorite among my family and friends so I decided to make a large batch and bring to a party and supper this weekend I had.

For the crust I use the Crisco recipe from the back of the Crisco can, you can also use their website which gives you the recipe in different formats, if you needed a double crust, deep dish, single, etc. I use the double deep dish and tripled the recipe to make 6 single crusts:

DOUBLE CRUST (Makes 1 Double Crust)

2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup well-chilled Crisco Shortening
4 to 8 tablespoons ice cold water

Mix the salt and flour before cutting in the Crisco. I have a non-stick pastry knife/blender that I use, if you don't have one use a fork to mix. Using 1 tablespoon at a time add the chilled water until dough holds together and workable with your rolling pin. My rolling pin is silicone and non stick which really makes rolling pastry out much easier and more enjoyable.

For the filling I used my recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook and substituted the 6 cups of rhubarb for 3 cups rhubarb and 3 cups strawberries. (Please note this recipe is for ONE pie recipe, personally I found this quite a bit and used 24 cups of fruit to fill 6 pies)

2 to 2 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated orange peel, if desired (I use lemon)
6 cups chopped (1/2-inch pieces) fresh rhubarb
1 tablespoon cold butter

As for the top pf the pie I make a crumble, this is made of flour, butter and sugar. It makes for a nice change from either meringue or double crust pies.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed brown or white sugar (this recipe I used white)

Bake at 425 for about 40-45 minutes until crumble starts to brown. If you use a double crust instead of crumble you can go up to 50-55 minutes just keep an eye on your crust.

I cool my pies in my grandmother Ethel's old pie cooling rack which I love and makes a great presentation I might add! It doesn't use much room on my counter either!

Tips and tricks:

If your crust starts to get too brown on the edges cover in aluminum foil.
Do not wash your rhubarb until you are ready to use it, this keeps it nice and crisp. Also, store in plastic wrap or in a ziploc bag in the fridge.
Too much rhubarb? You can easily freeze it in freezer ziploc bags.
Work with cold hands with the dough, I always run my hands under cold water before I handle the dough and rolling it out, this avoids it warming up too much and sticking.
Buy your fruit when in season, they not only taste better but you will support local farmers and costs much less.
Make in large batches if possible, baking pies is a lot of work so make it worth your wild. I make minimum half a dozen and freeze as much as I can.
Line the bottom of your oven with aluminum paper, this makes for easy clean ups if your filling bubbles over a bit.