Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Sadly, I’ve been on a bit of a fruit hiatus! But thankfully we have a small patch of rhubarb that is just perking up, so I decided to make a spring classic: strawberry rhubarb pie. I have always loved rhubarb, and this combination is especially delicious, the tart rhubarb goes very well with the sweetness of strawberries.

Rhubarb is a wonderful plant to have in a backyard garden. With a half a dozen plants you have more than enough rhubarb for a few pies, and possibly even some left over for freezing! What is even greater is that this particular plant is a perennial, so it can be a permanent part of your backyard. Rhubarb is relatively low maintenance but requires a little bit of TLC in the spring, like thinning out the plants to avoid overcrowding and a little fertilizer or compost around to help them grow nice and tall for you.

Rhubarb leaves are said to be toxic, so when trimming your rhubarb make sure to dispose to the leaves in a place where your pets can’t get into them.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

For Filling:

1 pound of rhubarb (washed and trimmed of leaves, cut into ¼ inch pieces)

1 pound of strawberries (washed and trimmed, cut into thin slices)

1 ½ Tbsp Cornstarch

½ cup sugar

For crust:

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup unsalted butter (chilled and cut into small pieces)

4 Tbsp ice water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make dough, combine flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk together. With a pastry blender cut in the cup of butter continue to cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the 4 Tbsp of water and try to bring dough together, if the dough is still too dry try adding more water, 1 Tbsp at a time until the dough comes together. Divide dough in two and wrap in plastic wrap and shape into discs. Refrigerate for one hour.

For the filling combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix together, making sure to even distribute the sugar and cornstarch.

Once the dough is chilled, on a floured work surface, roll both discs out to desired size (this will vary depending on the dimensions of your pie plate). Place one of the rolled out discs on the bottom of the pie plate, top with filling, and then cover with the remaining pie crust (you could also cut the second pie crust into strips and form a lattice). Bake in the 350-degree oven for about one hour.

Honey Bourbon infused Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

*All photographs were taken by my friend Michelle. See more of her beautiful work at http://michellekmartin.tumblr.com/ *

I recently watched an episode of “Throwdown” on The Food Network that featured blueberry pancakes. It left me with a crazy hankering for some pancakes; instead of the classic blueberry I thought it would be nice to incorporate some of the remaining apples from our harvest this autumn.

We have a few different apples varieties left (Macs, Empires, and Golden Delicious) and all are delicious candidates for the apple portion of these Honey Bourbon Infused Apple Cinnamon Pancakes. I once had an apple crisp that was infused with bourbon, and I was amazed at how well the flavors of apple and bourbon meld together. At the package store I was lucky to find bourbon that was infused with honey (yum!). In this recipe I used the bourbon as a bit of a flavor and also a way to keep my apples from oxidizing and turning that icky brown color.

Some tip for delicious pancakes:

1. Don’t over-mix. Beating the batter until there aren’t any lumps will develop the gluten in the flour and make for a gummy texture to your pancakes.

2. Use a mixture of regular milk and buttermilk.

3. Let batter rest for about 15 minutes before cooking pancakes.

4. Separate eggs and beat the whites into stiff peaks before incorporating into the batter. This will create a fluffier batter and make for tender and light pancakes.

Honey Bourbon infused Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 cup milk

2 large eggs (separated)

Cream of tartar

4 Tbsp butter (melted)

3 medium sized apples (cored and sliced thin)

Honey infused bourbon

Core, peel, and slice apples. Add apple slices to a shallow bowl and pour a generous amount of bourbon over, set aside. Place flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and whisk together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in both kinds of milk, egg yolks, and melted butter. Whisk all these ingredients together, but do not over-mix, having some small lumps in the batter is ok. Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes. Preheat an electric griddle to 350 degrees. Put the egg whites and a few pinches of cream of tartar in an electric mixer with a whisk attachment and beat on high until still peaks form, 1-2 minutes. Gently fold egg whites into the rested pancake batter. Grease the griddle with some butter or vegetable oil, and spoon on a desired amount of batter, add apple slices once the pancake is poured. Flip pancakes when small bubbles form on the surface of the batter. With these pancakes, flipping once is desired.

Note: if you prefer thinner or thicker pancakes you can adjust the amount of milk added to the batter.