Strawberry Pie

This is Justin's favorite! It all started a year and a half ago--Justin's birthday is in late November, and I asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He asked if he could have strawberry rhubarb pie instead. I found a recipe and started to gather the ingredients. After a few trips to various grocery stores, I could not find rhubarb anywhere. I still wanted to try to make a strawberry pie using the ingredients I had already bought, but I needed to find a new recipe. I went straight to Allrecipes and found this recipe. I decided I'd try it. I always use the same crust recipe, so I was ready to go!


I've made this pie half a dozen times since then. It's a tasty summer pie, and everyone loves it! We got strawberries in our CSA (community supported agriculture) basket this week, so this pie had to be made.


What I used for the crust*:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
6 tablespoons water


*this is a recipe for a double crust pie


What I used for the pie:
Approximately 4 cups sliced strawberries (I only had about 3 1/2)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Approximately 2 tablespoons butter (I used margarine)
Approximately 2 tablespoons milk
Approximately 2 teaspoons granulated sugar


How I did it:
I preheated the oven to 425 degrees and got right to work on making the crust. I've made this crust before, so I know that everything has to be exact for it to come out right. I combined the flour and salt in a large bowl. After giving that a quick mix, I added the 2/3 cup shortening. I used a hand mixer to create a crumble out of the mixture. The next step is the most important: I added 6 tablespoon of water to the mixture--one tablespoon at a time. I fluffed the mixture with a fork after each water addition. If you do this wrong, the dough comes out too powdery or too sticky. This time I needed to add 1/2 tablespoon more water to make it right. After adding the water and getting it right, I formed the dough into a ball. I divided the large dough ball into two smaller balls (bottom crust and top crust).

I took my first dough ball and rolled it out with a rolling pin. I always put flour on the countertop so that the crust won't stick.

After rolling out the dough enough so that it would cover my entire pie plate, I carefully picked it up and moved it to the pie plate. You can see that I had to push down and move the crust a little after I put it on the plate. It's really important to make sure that the crust comes all the way to the top of the plate because the top crust needs to meet the bottom one when you seal it. 

I set the pie plate and crusts aside while I worked on the pie filling. I had already sliced the strawberries, so I just had to get the sugar mixture together. I combined the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and almond extract together in a large bowl. The extracts kind of clump a little bit in the sugar, so I just go through and break them up with a spoon.

Once the sugar mix was less clumpy, I added the strawberries and coated them with the mixture. It is so tempting to pick one of them up and eat it, but I resisted this time!

I poured the sugary strawberries into the crusted pie plate. I mounded the strawberries in the middle a little bit because they spread to the sides while the pie is baking, so it winds up evening the pie out. After I poured the strawberries in, I set the pie plate aside to work on the top crust.

I rolled out the other dough ball on the counter (again--using flour on the counter to keep the dough from sticking). Usually I cut the dough into long strips and lattice it myself, but Justin bought me a quick-lattice maker for Christmas that I hadn't used yet. I just placed the quick-lattice maker on the dough, and it cut the squares into the dough for me. The only problem is the squares don't come out when I pull the cutter off. I had to pick the little squares out with my fingers. Slightly tedious, but it didn't take me too long.

I slid the lattice crust onto the top of the pie. I placed a dab of butter into each opening. I also brushed the crust with milk and sprinkled a bit of sugar on it to make it golden during baking.

I placed my crust shield on the pie (another Christmas gift from Justin) and popped it in the 425 degree oven for 40 minutes. It turned out just right!

Rating:

Our friend Andrew was over for dinner, so he had a piece of strawberry pie for dessert. Andrew isn't big on sweets, but he really enjoyed this. It's a winner!

The first time I had it, I didn't think I liked the almond flavor, but it has really grown on me. I've considered omitting it, but Justin says that's one of his favorite parts. If you're not big on almond, you could add less or omit it completely. The pie would still be heavenly!

Warning: following this recipe will result in a messy kitchen! And maybe an expanded waistline!

Sawyer's Birthday Cupcakes--best for canines!

Sawyer's 4th birthday is tomorrow, so we're having his birthday bash today. This is his first birthday party with friends, so we wanted everything to be perfect. The past 3 years, I've made a coconut cake for him and he just gets to have a piece. This year--because we're having other canine friends over--I decided to make dog-friendly cupcakes for Sawyer and his canine companions. Originally I was just going to take a dog cookie recipe that I have and adapt it into cupcakes, but I couldn't find my book! So instead, I looked up some recipes online that used the ingredients I already had in the house. I just did a google search and found this recipe.

What I used:

2 cups shredded carrots

2/3 cup natural applesauce (unsweetened)

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 cups oat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

Frosting (these are approximations)

2 cups plain yogurt

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup meringue powder

How I did it:

First I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I had baby carrots in the fridge, so I used a food processor to shred them. I had bought them for Justin's salads next week and wound up using most of the bag--oops!

I combined the shredded carrots with the eggs and applesauce in a large mixing bowl and set it aside. It was a little runny but it was with good purpose.

The original recipe calls for whole wheat flour, but I didn't have any, and I can never find it in the grocery store. Instead of using regular flour (which is one of the 1,000 things Sawyer's brother, Kirby, is allergic to), I always throw oats in the food processor and grind them to a fine flour-like consistency. You can see (in the picture below) that I processed more than 3 cups, so unfortunately I had to throw about 1/2 cup away. It's always sad throwing away food!

I added the cinnamon and the regular oats to the oat-flour mixture. After that was well-mixed, I combined the wet and dry ingredients--being sure to add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly. The mixture turned paste-like, so I added just a bit more applesauce to make it more like batter.

I liked the idea of small cupcakes for the dogs, so I used my mini-muffin tin to make mini-cupcakes. The batter still wasn't as runny as regular cupcake batter, but the original recipe said it would be "thick," so I went with it. These cupcakes don't rise, so I filled the pan up to the top.

After making one tray of the mini-cupcakes, I wanted to make a few regular sized, so I used the rest of the dough to make a dozen doggy cupcakes. 

They mini-cupcakes baked for about 13 minutes, and the larger cupcakes baked for 25. I let them cool overnight so I could figure out how to do the icing. 

I had read somewhere before that you could use meringue powder in yogurt to thicken it up to use as icing. I did a trial-and-error with the yogurt and powder--adding peanut butter to really get it to thicken up. I used an icing piper to get just enough onto each cupcake.

I added coconut on top to keep the feel of Sawyer's original birthday cake--plus these cupcakes don't have any sugar in them, and I wanted to give the dogs a special treat! 

I have some cupcakes set out for the party, but I've also created these doggy bags for the canine guests. Inside there is a to-go cupcake, some dog treats, and an extra special dog toy.

The rating:

I gave Sawyer and Kirby an un-iced cupcake last night, and they loved it! The real taste test will be when the party guests arrive. I wouldn't recommend that any human guests try these cupcakes. Like I said, they don't have sugar in them, and plain yogurt doesn't really taste good.

Hope everything goes off tonight without a hitch!

Oh, and P.S.! Humans are getting cupcakes too--coconut cupcakes! I didn't experiment with those though. I cheated and used a box and pre-made whipped icing. They still look fantastic though!

Chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies

Being home the whole week on Spring break, I had to do a bit of baking. I love working in my mom's kitchen because she has so many cool gadgets that I don't have. It has become sort of a custom for me to make these chocolate chip cookies when I come home because Dad loves them so much.

What I used:

1 cup dark brown sugar (I would have used light brown sugar, but we were out)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup butter flavored shortening

2 tbs milk

1 tbs vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tbs baking soda

1 tbs salt

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 package Hershey's semi-sweet baking bar plus 2 oz leftover chocolate

How I did it:

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. Then I combined the wet ingredients (sugars, shortening, milk, vanilla, and an egg) and mixed with the KitchenAid mixer. 

As the wet ingredients were mixing in the KitchenAid mixer, I combined the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). 

I slowly added the dry mixture to the wet mixture. 

Then I added the chocolate chips to the mixture.

I used a small cookie scoop to drop the dough in small rounds on the ungreased cookie sheets. I baked the cookies for 10 minutes.

I let the cookies cool on parchment paper and then melted the baking blocks. I dipped the ends of the cookies in the chocolate and placed them on the parchment paper. I slid the chocolate dipped cookies in the fridge for about 30 minutes, and now they're finished and delicious!

Rating:

I've made these so many times before, but they are a family favorite. The chocolate chip cookies are good on their own, but the chocolate dipping adds that extra bit of "mmmm."