Rhubarb (Peach) Pie

So...I haven't posted here in a really, really long time. What can I say? I got distracted. And cooking feels like a hassle to me when I have to photograph everything. But I've been sitting on these photos for months now, and I have no excuse for failing to share this recipe.


Pie is my very favorite dessert in the world. All that fruit feels virtuous, plus it's one of those rare foods that seems daunting but is easier than it appears. Lots of people have told me they couldn't make pie. I get it. All that stuff about "cutting in" and not letting gluten form in the crust probably sounds as mysterious to a lot of folks as "proofing yeast" and not overkneading bread dough sounded to me. But just like I managed to turn out a decent loaf of bread my first time, you can do the same with pie.



This is my grandma's pie crust recipe, and she made the best pies in the world. The secret is in the liquids: vinegar, unlike water, prevents gluten from forming when you work the dough (gluten makes the crust tough and chewy), and the egg keeps the crust from falling apart when you roll it out.


Grandma Frieda's Pie Crust

3 cups flour (unbleached, all-purpose, unsifted because I'm lazy)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups butter (or, if you can find it, fresh lard)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vinegar
up to 5 Tablespoons ice water

1. Mix flour and salt. Dice the butter into 1/2 inch cubes (this makes the next step easier and faster, which keeps the butter colder, which prevents gluten formation).

2. Cut in the butter. You can use a pastry cutter or two knives, but I prefer to use my hands, picking up handfuls of the mixture and rubbing it between my hands. You're finished when the mixture resembles small peas.

3. Beat the egg with the vinegar and mix in. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time until you are able to form a ball with the dough.

Yields four 8 or 9 inch crusts (two double-crusted pies), or three 10 inch crusts.

Rhubarb Pie

Saran or other plastic wrap
2 10-inch pie crusts from recipe above
7 cups rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar
pinch salt
milk or egg white

1. Pre-heat the oven to 450. Place Saran wrap on counter. Dust with flour. Place one crust over it, dust with flour, and roll out. Place in a 10-inch pie plate, preferably glass.

2. In a large bowl, mix rhubarb, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Place in pie crust.

3. Roll out second crust. You can just place it on top and poke some vents in it, but I like to make a lattice crust. Using a butter knife, cut into 3/4 inch strips. Use two of the longest strips to make a cross in the center of the pie with the vertical strip on top. Add two more horizontal strips, top and bottom, above the vertical strip. Continue to work outward to the edges of the pie, folding the strips back as needed. Here's a video, in case, like me, you can't visualize anything spatial.

4. Brush the top crust with milk or egg white. This makes it shiny and pretty.

5. Bake 10 minutes at 450. Turn the oven down to 350 and bake an additional 50 to 55 minutes, until the crust is golden. Remove from oven and let cool at least 10-15 minutes before cutting. Best still warm from the oven, but good for breakfast too.



Since rhubarb season is long over and we are right in the heart of peach season, I suggest using them instead:

7 cups peaches, peeled and sliced.
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 1/2 Tablespoons corn starch



Tune in next time to hear about the travails of trying to eat well in a non-air-conditioned apartment. Or, why I haven't been cooking much the last few months.

No-Knead Bread at Altitude

I've long been afraid of baking bread. Yeast is so...alchemical and mysterious. And I'm not really one for measuring. But last weekend it was snowing (again), I was already making soup, and I figured that since I was going to be stuck inside anyway, it was time to conquer my fear. Reminding myself that flour is cheap and it would not be the end of the world if the loaf ended up in the trash, I pulled out Bittman's No-Knead Bread recipe that's been lingering in my recipe file for three(!) years and dove in.

And the bread wasn't bad. Really, it wasn't. But it wasn't great, either. It was kind of dense and tough. I suspected this might have something to do with the fact that (1) I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, because that's what I had on-hand (2) I mixed it 2-to-1 with whole wheat flour, because I ran out of all-purpose (did I mention it was snowing?) and (3) I was using a sea-level recipe at 5280 feet.

I did not, however, let this deter me for long. This weekend, I tried again, followed the recipe better, and tweaked it for high altitude. And this time, it was *delicious.* So without further ado, I bring you:


Mile High No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, via Mark Bittman at The New York Times

Ingredients:
3 c bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt*
scant 1/4 teaspoon instant (rapid rise) yeast

*I recommend Real Salt. It's mined in Utah from a prehistoric seabed and Whole Foods sells it in bulk for less than $3 a pound.

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups tepid (warm room temperature) water and stir until blended. Dough will be sticky and shaggy, but will come together in a rough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature (68-70 degrees) for 12-15 hours. When dough is ready, it will have roughly doubled in size and surface will be dotted with bubbles.

Note: High gluten content in your flour is essential at high altitude. Do *not* substitute all-purpose or whole grain flours unless you add additional wheat gluten.

Note: Don't be tempted to skimp on the salt. It turns out it's important.

2. Dump dough out of bowl onto lightly-floured work surface. Fold it over itself a few times. Sprinkle with flour, cover with saran wrap, and let rest 10-15 minutes

3. Using just enough flour (really, the least you can get away with) to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a silpat or non-terry cotton towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with an oiled piece of saran wrap covered with a second, damp cotton towel. (This is to make up for the fact that air pressure is less at altitude.) Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel or silpat and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 45 minutes, then check the temperature of the bread. Remove lid and cook for up to another 15 minutes, until bread reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees.

Note: Mine got stuck at just over 200 degrees, but I took it out after about 55 minutes anyway because, well, it just seemed done.

5. Remove bread from oven and cool on a rack until it reaches nearly room temperature before you cut into it. (This keeps it from drying out.)

Enjoy!