Slab Pie

Why I have never, in all my life, heard of a slab pie until I saw this Sour Cherry Slab Pie recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I'm not a huge cherry fan (though I love the artificial flavor), but I'm quite interested in the idea of a slab pie.

A slab pie has double the crust and filling as a regular pie. Rectangular since it is baked in jelly roll or high sided baking sheet, they are easier to transport and hold onto. Now we are onto something.

For the last few weeks I've been thinking about doubling this recipe with the frozen rhubarb and strawberries I have in my freezer.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe
3 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Trim outside stringy layer of large rhubarb stalks; make sure to trim away any and discard of the leaves which are poisonous; trim ends.)
1 cup strawberries, stemmed and sliced
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of grated orange peel
Unbaked pastry for two-crust 9 inch pie(If making a 10 inch pie, or just want more filling, use 4.5 cups of rhubarb, 1.5 cups strawberries, and 1 1/4 cup of sugar)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix the rhubarb and the strawberries with the sugar, tapioca, salt, and orange rind. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Turn into a pastry lined pan. Top with the pastry, trim the edge, and crimp the top and bottom edges together. Cut slits in the top for the steam to escape.

Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350°F, and bake an additional 30-40 minutes longer (40 to 50 minutes longer if doing a 10-inch pie). Cool on a rack. Serve warm or cold. If you do cool to room temperature, the juices will have more time to thicken.

Photos from Smitten Kitchen.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Rhubarb Bread

I've been on a baking spree today baking breads for our camping trip next week. I made my mom's Chocolate Zucchini Bread for the first time. It's one of my childhood staples.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
2 sq. unsweetened chocolate 1 oz. each
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. sifted flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. each of baking soda, salt and cinnamon
2 c. grated zucchini

Beat the eggs until lemon colored. Beat in sugar and oil. Melt chocolate and stir into egg mixture along with vanilla and zucchini. Whisk flour with salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. With large spoon, stir in zucchini mixture. Mix and bake in two well greased loaf pans at 350 degrees for about 1 hour or until done in center.

I also made Rhubarb Buttermilk Bread. The kids and I had to try them after lunch and I'm happy to say they are both fantastic!

Note: I didn't make the topping for the Rhubarb Buttermilk Bread and I followed the suggestion of adding a bit more flour to the batter.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

This recipe is from my mother-in-law and much loved by my beloved.Rhubarb Custard Pie
3 C cut up rhubarb
2 eggs, beaten
2 T milk
1 1/2 C sugar
3 T flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1 pie shell

Combine eggs, milk, sugar, flour, salt and nutmeg. Mix with rhubarb and put in pie shell.

Topping
1/2 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C flour

Cream together and top pie shell with mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 400, then for an hour back at 300 or 350. Serve with warm with vanilla ice cream and/or whip cream.

Photo from here.

Rhubarb Strawberry Cobbler

Rhubarb and Strawberry is one of my favorite fruity dessert combinations.

I made this Rhubarb Strawberry Cobbler over the weekend. It was very good but the cobbler part was definitely more like a biscuit (maybe that's what a cobbler is??) so be warned if you are going to try it and are looking for something different. It would have been even better with vanilla ice cream but alas, we're trying to be healthier....

Photo courtesy of: http://images.craveonline.com/