Pie Crust

from the Silver Palate Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 8 tablespoons chilled butter (1 stick)

• 6 tablespoons shortening or more butter, chilled

• 5-6 tablespoons ice water, as needed

Instructions

Sift flour, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add chilled butter and shortening.  Using a pastry blender, cut the fat into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle on ice water, 2-3 Tbsp. at a time and toss with a fork.  (We use a food processer instead of doing this by hand, works just as well and is 2x faster!) Turn dough out onto your work surface, and using the heel of your hand, smear dough away from you, about a 1/4 c. at a time.  Split dough into two sections, create two circular disk shapes, about an 3/4 inch thick and wrap in wax paper.  Chill for 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour (for dusting)

• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1¼ pounds rhubarb, cut into ½-inch pieces

• 1 pound strawberries, hulled, halved, quartered if large

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• ⅓ cup (packed) light brown sugar

• 5 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

• Pinch of kosher salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoon raw sugar or granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°.

Take the dough out of the fridge and let sit for 5-20 minutes. Roll dough out to 1/4″ thickness on a floured work surface.  Makes one bottom and one top crust.

Let dough sit at room temperature 5 minutes to soften. Working one at a time, roll out disks on a lightly floured surface to ⅛” thick. (I like to roll out the dough on parchment paper so I can then pick up the parchment paper to help transfer the flattened dough into the pie pan.)

Carefully transfer 1 dough round to pie dish. Use any overhanging dough for edges of the pie. Crimp as desired. (No matter what I do, I somehow always get a crack or hole in my pie dough..and just remember it is fine, no one sees the bottom of your pie, it all gets covered up with the delicious filling!)

In a large bowl; scape out as many vanilla seeds as you can out of the vanilla bean. Add rhubarb, strawberries, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, and salt; toss to coat.

Scoop filling into the pie dish.

For the top of your pie – you have options! Sometimes we will do a crumble topping (quick and simple!) or a pie dough (but the easier/low pressure version.) I don’t often use one flat rolled out piece of pie dough on the top (too much pressure!) so I will usually cut out strips of pie dough or use a cookie cutter (see above with the hearts) and use those pieces to cover the top of the pie.

If you use pie dough to the top of the pie: beat egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl and lightly brush over top of the dough. Sprinkle with raw sugar. Cut a few slashes across the top of the pie (or leave some openings if you used the cut out shapes like the image above.)

Transfer pie dish to a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (for catching overflowing juices later) and chill in freezer 10 minutes. Bake pie 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375°. Continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown and juices are thick and bubbling, 70-80 minutes or longer.

Transfer pie to a wire rack and let cool.

Bon Appetite is very adamant about letting your pie cool – for at least 4 hours! “If you don’t give it time to set up properly, the filling will be runny when you cut into it.” The last time I made this recipe we only let the pie cool for 2 hours and it was perfectly delicious…so follow this direction as you see fit!