Rhubarb Cream Pie Recipe

Rhubarb is in season and it’s plentiful.  Last year I first heard of a rhubarb cream pie.  It’s something my Darling Hubby had when he was growing up.  My family only ever made sweetened rhubarb boiled down and eaten straight out of a bowl.  This pie is really yummy and is one of my new favorites for the spring.

You can use your favorite double crust recipe, but this is my favorite go to pie crust.  It’s flavorful and flaky (and in my case, can be made soy free!)  The original recipe is written to make 2 double crust pies, but I’ve halved it for you in brackets, so if you want to make one double crust pie, please use the number in ().

• 4 cups flour (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup shortening (I use butter and find it is so much better and is soy free!) (3/4 cup) (1 1/2 sticks butter)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (1/8 tsp)
• 1 tsp salt (1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp vinegar (1/2 tsp)
• 1 egg, beaten (1)
• cold water to = 1 cup (1/2 cup)

Mix flour, baking soda and salt together and cut in butter or shortening til you have course chunks.  Set aside.  In a liquid measuring cup mix vinegar and the beaten egg and add enough cold water to equal 1 cup (1/2 cup).  Pour liquid into dry and mix til dough forms.  Roll on a floured surface and line the pie pan bottom.  Prick with a fork all over and add filling.

Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups rhubarb, cut into 1 inch chunks.  Frozen is ok to use, just rinse and extend cooking time to 1 hour

Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, eggs and rhubarb in a large bowl.  Pour into prepared pie crust.  Top with remaining crust (lattice if you so desire), or cut slits for venting and bake 50-60 mins at 400* F.

Let cool and enjoy!

Strawberry Cake From Scratch

Bug’s birthday party was scheduled for February 4th and if I wanted to share in the festivities and eat cake, I had to find one that was ok for me to eat.  All the boxed mixes contain soy.  Bug loves strawberries and asked for a strawberry cake (chocolate was easy, but not strawberry) and that left me to find a homemade strawberry cake…there are some out there, but they all use strawberry gelatin and not having a box in front of me I didn’t know if there would be soy or natural flavors included…plus I didn’t want the added food coloring, especially since I was already planning on dying the frosting red, green, blue and yellow.

Then I stumbled upon this little gem or a recipe.  Rather than strawberry gelatin it used real strawberry puree!  Score!

Here’s the recipe copied from the above link.

• 2 ¼ cups cake flour (sifted)  (I used All Purpose flour, sifted)
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup butter , room temp (2 sticks)
• 1 ¼ cupssugar
• 2 teaspoons strawberry extract (you can use vanilla if you can’t find strawberry)
• 1 cup whole milk , room temp
• 3 eggs , room temp
• ¾ cup pureed fresh strawberries(or frozen, thawed)
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest(I left this out)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

  My ingredients

Directions:

Thaw (if necessary) strawberries and puree.  Bring butter, eggs, and milk to room temperature.

Combine sifted flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time; mix well after each addition. Next add pureed strawberries and extract and combine well. Gradually add the flour (and baking powder) and the milk alternating between them until completely mixed. Then add lemon zest and juice and mix well.

Lightly grease and flour a 13 X 9 pan or (2) 8″ round pans. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Oven times may vary.  (Mine was done in 30 minutes, the recipes author did two 8″ pans that were done in 25.)

The cake just out of the oven.  It smelled delish, really just like a boxed strawberry cake, only better!

So the verdict…Darling Hubby asked me to make it again, leaving the frosting off.  My complaint was that it didn’t bake up fluffy like a traditional cake, though that might have been because I used AP flour rather than cake flour.  It was dense, more like a fudge brownie than cake.  It had good flavor, though.  Most of the kids ate it, but by the time we had cake they’d filled up on fruits and veggies.  lol  Despite the cake being soy free, it appears that butter is going to be another issue, but we knew that was a possibility.  Hopefully when my gut heals from all the soy damage I’ll be able to introduce milk and butter again (cheese seems to be ok for now).

Oh, and if you want to see the finished decorated cake, here ya go.

I followed the recipe for Wilton’s Fluffy Boiled frosting from the can of meringue powder and dyed it red, blue, yellow and green (the primary lego brick colors).  The red was a hit…I just hope it washed off the faces of our guests!  lol  Hopefully I’ll find time to write about the party tomorrow.  The day has gotten away from me and I have things to do before Darling Hubby gets home.  🙂

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

My husband loves Reeses Peanut Butter cups and this pie comes close to recreating that in a pudding pie.  It’s so delicious and easy to throw together. I’m not sure of where I found the original recipe for this (it’s possible it was on a cream cheese or cool whip package.)  I apologize in advance for the less than stellar photographs of a quarter of a pie…it’s seriously so good that it disappears so fast!

Ingredients
8oz package of cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter + 1 Tbsp, divided
1 package (3.4 oz) of vanilla pudding mix
1 cup cold milk
2.5 cups (8oz) cool whip, thawed & divided
3 squares semis-sweet bakers chocolate
1 Oreo, chocolate or graham cracker crust

Directions
Mix the cream cheese and 1/2 cup peanut butter together until smooth.  Add the pudding mix and the cold milk and blend until well mixed.  Whisk in 1 cup of the cool whip.  Pour filling mix into the crust and refrigerate until ready to use.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the remaining 1.5 cups of cool whip and the bakers chocolate.  Microwave on high 1.5-2 mins, stirring after each minute, until chocolate is melted and smooth.  Cool completely (placing in the freezer for a few minutes speeds up this process.)

When the chocolate mixture is cool, spread over the pudding mixture in the pie crust.  In a small microwaveable container, warm the last Tbsp of peanut butter for approximately 30 seconds and drizzle over the chocolate topping.

Recommended chill time is 4 hours…it usually doesn’t sit that long in our house!  Enjoy!