Sunday, April 25, 2010

SMS: Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie


This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection is Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie. Every week I tell myself that I’m going to write my post on Sunday morning; then pretty much every single week I find myself procrastinating writing it at 10:00 PM, just under the wire. Today is super-busy, though, so I must do it now while I have window of time. In addition to our usual Sunday long run,* Josh and I attended a brunch in the East Bay and we celebrating our third anniversary (of dating) at our favorite restaurant tonight. Yesterday was a quiet, relaxing Saturday – a great day to spend some time in the kitchen and make a pie. It was also an absolutely glorious spring day (and today looks like it will be one, too), so it felt appropriate to be making a recipe filled with lovely seasonal produce. I don’t think I was alone in my excitement over nice strawberries being in season: when I tried to buy them at the Farmer’s Market on Thursday, only empty boxes remained (I went kind of late). Fortunately, Whole Foods was flush with them.

Since fruit pies don’t keep very well, I made a half recipe and baked two mini-pies. I was worried about the cobbler biscuits burning since they were quite small, so I added them after the pies had been in the oven for about fifteen minutes. I used Melissa’s all-butter pie dough, which, now having made twice, I think is an excellent recipe: it comes together (I use a hand pastry blender) and rolls very well, not to mention it is buttery and delicious. I had never made anything with rhubarb before I received some in my CSA box last year, and though it’s not an ingredient I will necessarily gravitate towards, I have enjoyed both times I’ve baked with it. Which is good, because I bought too much for the pie and need ti us it up. The one problem I had with this recipe is the liquid from the pie oozed all over the place! Check out how nice and neat it is before:



And after:



Oh, well, it was still some darn good pie. Melissa suggests pairing the pie with her Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream for “pure heaven.” Oh, Melissa – if you insist. The ice cream was selected by Karen last July and I have made it a number of times since then, so obviously it doesn’t take much coaxing to get me to make it, especially when there’s the promise of pure heaven!

This recipe rated a 9 for Deliciousness and a 4 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.25. Many thanks to our hostess, my blogging buddy Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. In addition to her being a super-nice person and excellent baker (I’m lucky enough to have sampled her baked goods through Secret Baker), one of the things I really enjoy about Tracey’s blog is you can tell she learns a lot in the kitchen and is great at breaking down recipes and conveying the information to her readers. She even got me over my fear of making croissants. You can find the recipe here on Tracey's site and visit the SMS blogroll for more pie.



*I mentioned a while ago that I was going to start training for a marathon, and I’m doing it! Barring any injuries, I will be running the Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Marathon on June 26th. This means that a chunk of time each Sunday is devoted to a long run. Luckily today is a “short” long run and I only have to do eleven miles (as opposed to fifteen last Sunday and seventeen next Sunday), so I won’t be too exhausted for our dinner.

19 comments:

Nina said...

Congrats to your anniversary!

Great looking pies and good luck to you on your runs! I know there's one in SF in September or something like that. My friends were talking about it!

rebecca @ beurrista said...

Can I say that I started salivating at the sight of your second pic? Those strawberries look luscious! I also love that you rate your recipes.

Tiff said...

Your pies look great! I thought about making the ice cream but was worried it would add to much complication to a busy weekend. I will have to try it next time, it looks really yummy.

Unknown said...

Thank you for your kind words Margot :) Your pie is gorgeous! Love the minis, especially those teeny tiny biscuits on top. It seems like a lot of people had problems with the juices oozing everywhere on this one so you definitely weren't alone. I'm a huge fan of Melissa's all-butter pie crust too, it's the only one I seem to have luck with lately. Glad this pie received such a high deliciousness rating - it's a bit of work but I thought it was worth it. Thanks for baking along this week!

Happy Anniversary to you and Josh - hope dinner was fabulous! Good luck on the marathon training. Shane's been training like crazy too - his first marathon is next Sunday and his long runs were 20 miles the past few weeks (he does his on Sunday too). He's in his taper period now and has really been enjoying the shorter runs! I don't know how you guys do it, I'm so impressed!

JoAnn Freda said...

Ditto on the salivating. I can't believe how good the cobbler pie with the brown sugar ice cream looks.

Gloria - The Ginger Snap Girl said...

Your mini pies look wonderful! Kick butt in your marathon training! What a perfect thing to compliment weekly baking. I need to get back to the gym!

Kayte said...

Looks wonderful...and I have to agree with Melissa, nothing goes better with strawberries and rhubarb than vanilla ice cream. Looks heavenly! Happy Anniversary and best wishes for all the coming ones!

Leslie said...

Happy anniversary to you and Josh! I love your minis. I must not have used enough fruit because mine stopped just short of boiling over.

More sunny weather coming next weekend!

k.a.r.e.n said...

MMMMMMmmmm... love your minis! Love the ice cream too. I think I might have some in the fridge.

spike. said...

looks great. I was posting a little late myself- didn't get it in until this am. Good luck on marathon training!

Julie said...

Beuatiful pies!!! Isn't that ice cream just awesome!! It's one of my favorites.

Kaitlin said...

Happy anniversary!

I really think that your pie looks just as beautiful before and after - just in different ways. It's more rustically pretty after, but still great to look at.

And good luck on your marathon!

Shandy said...

Love your cute little cobbler pies! Adorable and they look absolutely delicious, especially with the brown sugar ice cream!

Good for you for training to do a marathon. I know you will succeed! I am training to bike a 170 mile event through Shelton, Tacoma and a loop through Kitsap county here in Wa mid August.

Mimi said...

Happy Anniversary!
Your pies look absolutely mouth watering.
Good luck with your marathon training.
Mimi

Hanaâ said...

Congratulations on your 3rd anniversary!! Wishing you many more :o)

Your pie looks super cute (doesn't anything "mini" look cute?). I love how your little biscuits puffed up. So tall!! Great job!

Cakelaw said...

Look at those strawberries - delicious!

Ras Yeti said...

Three years! Congrats, but like soul sister Beyoncé says, if Josh like it then he shoulda put a ring on it... Wha-oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!

Anonymous said...

Your mini pies are cute, and the pie with ice cream looks so delicious!

Good luck with your training!

Deana Sidney said...

They may be a mess but wow they are great looking.. worth scrubbing the silpat for!