First Pie - recipe and early reactions

DAYUM. That's a tasty pie. I got my recipe from the Food Network's website; here it is, for your viewing/baking pleasure.

Crust:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour as needed, up to 1/4 cup
* 1/2 cup cake flour
* 3 teaspoons sifted powdered sugar
* Pinch salt

* 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter-flavored shortening
* 1/4 cup (4 tbsp, 1/2 stick) salted butter

* 1 egg
* 2 teaspoons vinegar
* 1/4 cup ice cold water

I adapted this recipe to the pie crust method I got from Alton Brown in the Good Eats episode "I Pie." Cube the shortening and butter and stick them in the freezer for ten minutes or so (if you're planning ahead, cube the 3 tablespoons of butter for the filling and throw it in the fridge). Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor; pulse a few times to get them mixed together. Add the cubed, chilled butter and pulse a few times more. Then add the shortening; pulse. Whisk together the wet stuff, add half, pulse, add the rest, pulse. The dough will have started to clump together quite well. Dump it all into a ziploc bag and squish it all together to make a ball of dough. Dust it with some flour and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so. Go chop your rhubarb and strawberries. When you come back, split the dough into two balls, and roll one out. Put it in the pie plate and chill it, freezer this time. Throw the other ball in the fridge for now. Preheat the oven to 425 F.


Filling:

* 2 1/2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
* 2 1/2 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries

* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 2 tablespoons minute tapioca
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 3 tablespoons butter, cubed small

* 1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water
* Large granule sugar

So you've chopped your goodies, now mix together that next block of ingredients; sugar, tapioca, lemons, cinnamon, and vanilla. Toss it together with the fruit and let stand for 15 minutes or so, which will yield lots of juice to the sugar. Meanwhile, roll out the second ball of dough; it'll be the top. If you haven't already, cube the butter. Put the filling in the bottom of the pie, dot with the cubed butter, cover with top crust. Crimp together the edges and cut a few slits for steam to escape. Brush the egg white over the crust, sprinkle sugar on top.
Oven time! Collar with foil and bake. After fifteen minutes, reduce heat to 375 F and remove the foil. Bake 45 to 50 minutes more, until the insides bubble and the top begins to brown. Let cool before serving.

A few notes: I used regular shortening, because I have a bunch of it in the fridge. I skipped the lemon zest, because my lemons ran away (I made a curry for dinner, but after zesting them for the curry, I misplaced the lemons. Oops.) I forgot the butter under the crust. I didn't have any big, grainy sugar which would have been perfect for topping the pie, so I used regular sugar instead. Last but not least, I rolled the dough a bit too thick. It's sort of tough to get a fork or spoon through without squishing the filling out, but whoa is it delicious.

That's a yummy pie right there. Special thanks go to my lovely assistants Ben and Chris, who also provided some of the ingredients! Chris brought me the rhubarb, and the eggs used were from Ben's chickens. Their reactions have been positive - overall, delicious. I'll bring a few slices to work with me later today and see what the good folks at Ian's Pizza (shameless plug here) think of the pie.