My Favorite Pie Crust plus Rhubarb Pie

We had a family gathering and I baked three Rhubarb pies since we all have our personal favorites. Try them all and decide for your self......mine is Rhubarb Cream. The recipe below had an even tie with Rhubarb Strawberry Streusel Pie. I wouldn't know I didn't get to taste them, sigh.

This is truly a wonderful crust, I always always have success with it.

• 5 cups flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 lb of lard or shortening, chilled
• 1 cup of cold ginger ale or 7-up

1. Mix flour and salt, cut in the lard until there are pea sized crumbs. 
2. Pour in the ginger ale and gently combine to mix the wet and the dry ingredients together.
3. Try not to over work the dough and have all the ingredients cold.
4. If you make a one crust pie, put it into the pie plate and chill before baking. 
5. Bake at 375 F for about 12-15 minutes or it has reached the desired color. (it helps keep it from shrinking). For a double crust pie follow the directions below. 

Double 9" crust Rhubarb pie filling;

• 6 cups rhubarb, chopped
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Line the bottom with pastry. 
2. Add the chopped rhubarb. 
3. Mix the sugar, flour, eggs and pour over the fruit. 
4. Dollop the top of the fruit with butter. 
5. Cover with the top layer of pastry.
6. Brush with a bit of cream and sprinkle with regular or coarse sugar 
7. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes on the bottom rack of your oven. 
8. Turn the oven down to 350 F and bake for 40 - 45 minutes. 
9. If the top of the pie is getting too brown cover with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent further browning. 

Raspberry Freezer Syrup

With raspberry season here in the raspberry capital of Canada, I thought I'd share this all-year fresh tasting raspberry syrup.

In our family it is a must addition to waffles with vanilla custard. Just a drizzle also adds so much to a slice of Napoleon Torte, vanilla jelly roll, cheese cake, plain yogurt or a smoothie.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 flat raspberries (5 lbs)
• 8- 10 cups sugar

Method:

1. Puree cleaned berries in blender until just blended
2. Measure out berries into a large bowl.
3. For each cup of berries add 1 cup of sugar. I do a little less ( 8 cups sugar for 10 cups berries). Do not lessen the sugar more as it is what makes the syrupy texture and acts as the only preservative in this mixture.
4. Let sit at room temperature for about half a day, stirring every half hour or so. Ladle into clean jars and freeze. No need to seal, kept in freezer.  Makes about 12 cups. One cup is enough for a larger family serving on waffles. You can re-freeze or keep it in the fridge for about a week. 

I like to collect a few odd shaped jars to fill and give away  as a gift. In this case, I bring the liquid just to boiling, ladle it into a sterilized hot jars and seal with the original rubber lined lid, also sterilized.  Even in this case, I still advise to keep refrigerated or freeze. It does not take long to thaw and keeps it tasting like the berries were just picked.

Fresh Raspberry Pie

With the raspberry season beginning, it is time to roll out those berry recipes! We had a birthday party at the beach for two special 'sons' last night and found out that fresh raspberry pie with a sparkler makes a fine birthday cake.

Fresh Raspberry Pie:

• 1 baked 9 or 10-inch pie crust
  
• 4 cups of fresh raspberries

Glaze:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons raspberry jello
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1. In 4-cup glass measure or small mixing bowl, combine water, sugar and cornstarch.
2. Microwave at High for 2 to 5 minutes (until thickened and clear) stirring every minute.
3. Stir in raspberry jello. Cool about 10 minutes.
6. Pour carefully over the berries in the pie shell.
7. Refrigerate several hours; serve with whipped cream.

Enjoy the ultimate summer dessert together with some good friends.

* The glaze is one I adapted from a fresh peach pie recipe and works well in any flavour!

Canada Day Strawberry Filled Doughnuts

Happy Canada Day!

All over Canada families and friends will be gathering to celebrate Canada's birthday.

If you live in Canada you already know that a Canadian favorite place to meet for coffee is the local doughnut shop.  

We stopped in ourselves for coffee and picked up some Tim Horton  Honey Crullers  for our Canada Day dessert.

 As far as I can tell, a glazed honey cruller is basically deep fried cream puff dough.

I thought it might make a great way to make cream puffs without heating up the oven on a hot day and a great way to make a quick dessert.

 I used an electric knife to slice them in half.

If you don't have an electric knife, use a sharp serrated knife.

I then gently removed the soft part inside which is much like we do with cream puffs.
I then filled them and served them "open faced".
Six doughnuts makes enough for 12 servings.

For smaller appetites,

I used some of the little honey cruller tim bits and stuffed them with whipped cream and strawberries.

• Tim Horton Honey Cruller doughnuts and doughnut holes
• fresh berries
• 2 cups whipping cream (for one dozen doughnuts and 20 timbits
• 2 packages Dr. Oetker Whip It cream stabilizer or 2 tablespoons vanilla instant pudding
• 1/4 cup powdered / icing sugar

1. Slice doughnuts in half using a electric knife or serrated knife.
2. Remove the soft part of in the inside of the doughnut.
3. Wash and dry strawberries and slice and dice into small pieces.
4. Whip cream with stabilizer or instant pudding and powdered sugar until stiff.
5. Place whipped cream into a piping bag with a star tip, fill the doughnut and top with strawberry pieces and then garnish with a few more stars of whipped cream.
6. Refrigerate until serving time.  These filled doughnuts are best when doughnuts are purchased and and put together on the same day.