Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

  » By Keith Prickett

June 19th, 2008 - Posted in Dessert | Leave/read a comment (1)

Rachel was at it again.  This time she used her Stahlbush Strawberries (just now coming into season) and Rhubarb (which has already been cut once, but it’ll grow more for a cut later on in the season).  As I said before she really loves smittenkitchen.  She thinks I need to get a nice camera (as opposed to my cheap, point-and-shoot, digital camera) to take quality food shots.  I agree, but I don’t want to fork out the dough.

She used a recipe from the site for the pie and I have to say it turned out incredible!  Rachel spent a lot of time in the kitchen on this one.  Apparently the recipe originally comes from Bon Appetit, April 1997.  After the pie was done cooking we decided that next time we might leave out the shortening (and replace it with butter).  Other than that, like I said, it was great!  I really love the strawberries around here and rhubarb is really growing on me.  I wouldn’t have given rhubarb a second glance a few years ago.  Now we seem to be eating it all the time.  We sure have been eating good around here lately!  Here’s what we did:

Ingredients for Crust:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 10 tablespoons (about) ice water

Ingredients for filling:

• 3 1/2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices trimmed rhubarb (look for Stahlbush in your grocery health food section)
• 1 16-ounce container strawberries, hulled, halved (about 3 1/2cups) (look for Stahlbush in your grocery health food section — or get fresh if available!)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 larg egg yolk beaten (for glaze)

Directions:

• For Crust: Combine Flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor [or use a pastry cutter].
• Using a on/off pulse cut in the butter and shortening until a coarse meal forms.
• Blend in enough ice water a few tablespoons at a time to form moist clumps.
• Gather dough into ball, cut in half and flatten each half into a disk.
• Wrap in plastic separately and refrigerate until it is firm, about 1 hour.
• For Filling: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Combine first seven ingredients in a large bowl and toss to blend.
• For Pie: Roll out each dough disk to 13-inch round. (Rachel really liked using this pie crust maker and I saw it in action, it’s really awesome!
• Transfer to 9-inch pie dish.  Trim excess dough leaving a 3/4 inch overhang
• Roll out second dough in the same way.
• Cut it into fourteen 1/2-inch-wide strips.
• Pour filling into crust and arrange the 1/2-inch strips on top
• Seal the end.
• Brush the glaze over the crust and sprinkle with turbinado sugar (if you have it) for a nice touch.
• Bake the pie for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350, then bake until the the rhubarb is tender (about another 30 to 40 minutes)  If the crust starts to brown too much you can cover it lightly with tin-foil.

I hope you enjoy it!

Bread with Added Wheat Gluten [Update]

  » By Keith Prickett

June 18th, 2008 - Posted in Breads | Leave/read a comment (2)

I tried making bread with the 1/2 cup of wheat gluten added as suggested by a friend.  I mentioned it in my whole wheat bread recipe, but didn’t actually try it until now.  The result was a bread that, when sliced, looks and feels much more like what you can buy in the grocery store.  I think it’s too much like what you get in the store.  Next time I am going to try my recipe with 1/4 cup of wheat gluten instead of the 1/2 cup I added this time.  We can usually finish a loaf of bread in about a week, so it’ll take me that long before I bake another loaf.

This most recent bread also didn’t smell that great, again, I think it was the wheat gluten (it was the only thing I changed).  I did buy the wheat gluten a while back, so now I am wondering how long it lasts and how to store it.  I guess I have a few experiments to run before I update you on my bread status again.  This just proves once again that making great bread is a fine art.

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

  » By Keith Prickett

October 23rd, 2007 - Posted in Dinner, Snacks | Leave/read a comment (4)

I guess there is a lot of pumpkin to go around this time of year. This is my third pumpkin recipe in the last few weeks. Even after this recipe, I still have fresh pumpkin left. My wife works for Stahlbush Island Farms and has brought home a lot of organic pumpkin (it’s one of their bigger products) for us to enjoy.

She tried the pumpkin rolls and thought that they were really good. I especially like them hot out of the oven (even if I have to reheat them there). Here’s what I did to make them (based off of “Mom’s Pumpkin Dinner Rolls Recipe“).

Ingredients (for 12 rolls):

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of good Active Dry Yeast.
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar
• 1/2 cup of 110 degree (Fahrenheit) milk
• About 4 cups of flour (add more as you need when kneading)
• 1 cup Organic Canned Pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 3/4 stick of butter (< 1/2 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten a bit

Instructions:

1. Mix yeast and sugar into the milk and let the yeast grow for about 10 to 15 minutes. If it doesn’t grow (bubble and foam) then neither will your rolls so go get some new yeast! I get mine from our local co-op (First Alternative Co-Op) in bulk and it hasn’t failed me yet!
2. Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl
3. Chop the butter into bits and mix it into the dry ingredients
4. Add the egg, pumpkin and foamy yeast mixture
5. Mix everything together until its all combined
6. Next, take the dough and knead it on a floured surface (and keep it floured on top and bottom to keep from sticking on you and the surface) for about 10 minutes.
7. If you are in a hurry you can skip this step but your rolls might not be as good. Set the dough in a bowl and cover with a tea towel for about 1 hour (or until it doubles in size). Indeed, I was in a hurry and skipped this step so please comment if you include it and let me know how it turns out.
8. Punch the dough down and separate into 12 balls.
9. Place the balls on an oiled baking tray (or use a springform pan or glass baking dish) and let them rise for another 45 minutes.
10. Bake the rolls for 30-40 minutes or until they just turn golden at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

I think the two keys to baking bread, rolls, and similar recipes are:

1. Let the yeast active for about 10-15 minutes with a little sugar or honey using 110 to 120 degree water (or milk in this case). I have been baking bread for some time now and ever since I started doing this my dough has turned out wonderfully.
2. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. I used to be afraid of kneading because I thought it would make the bread tough, but I think the exact opposite is true. This allows the yeast to work through the flour and helps it to rise. Now my only problem with baking bread is that it rises TOO MUCH, but that’s a story for another day of blogging.

I hope you enjoy them!