Happy Friday the 13th! Be careful my pretties because you never know who might be watching you! Because on Friday the 13th or Halloween, even pies have eyes! A vanilla scented rhubarb tart is given a creepy twist with the easiest Halloween friendly decoration!
I was a bit nervous and harried when I made these. You see sometimes I think of ideas and they just don't work out or they're just not feasible but I believe that they are. Like these rhubarb eye pies, which are on the menu at this year's Halloween party menu.
I planned these a week ahead of time. I wanted to make these in disposable foil pie tins so that I could make a large number and they would keep their shape. I went to a shop where I had to purchase 1,000 of these tiny pie tins (hey if anyone needs some, you know where to come!). Then I made these pies crossing my fingers that they would work. Thankfully I think that they worked out better than I thought they would. I ticked off one more Halloween party item and did a happy dance.
I was much less stressed when I met Nina that afternoon for a training session. She came over to our communal garden and announced that she was now fasting. I thought that this was her version of solving the problem of cooking. She explained that her fast involves drastically cutting calories and eating a meal of protein with long periods not eating to help build muscle and lose fat (misery is just a bonus). It sounded like hell on earth and I could tell that she was not coping.
"I'm so hungry I'm going to eat someone's face off!" she said with madness in her eyes, while kneeling dangerously close to my face.
She got so desperately hungry that a new neighbour upstairs had started to cook some food just near where we were working out. "Yoohoo!!! Hello!??" said Nina waving her arms and doing jumping jacks on the grass below to get his attention.
"Hey what are you cooking? It smells really good!" she said, I think hoping for an invitation to eat.
"Errrm Chinese food. Tomato and eggs," he answered. He did not invite her up to try some and she was sad. I offered her a rhubarb tart but alas that wasn't high protein enough. Moral of the story: eat pies even ones with eyes or you could possibly want to eat someone's face off.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you sometimes see things in your head and not know whether you can make them real? Have you ever tried a diet like this? How long is the longest time you've stick to a diet or fasted?
Creepy Rhubarb "Eye" Pies
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Print Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Makes 16 pies
5-6 sheets shortcrust pastry, thawed but then kept in the fridge so it doesn't go floppy
1 bunch rhubarb, trimmed and cut into pieces
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon water
a dozen pitted, frozen cherries (do not thaw)
White on white edible paint and a fine paintbrush
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 210C/410F and have your pie tins ready (I prefer these to cupcake trays as they are shallower which makes pressing pre-made dough easier). First make the base and pre-bake it so that it cooks completely. Cut out rounds of shortcrust pastry for the bases as large as your pie tins (you won't use all the sheets, around 3-4). Dock holes at the bottom and bake for 15 minutes.
Step 2 - In the meantime place the rhubarb and water into a saucepan and heat. Allow to soften, it won't take very long and then add the sugar and vanilla. Taste for sweetness adding more if you want. Strain and cool the rhubarb (the rhubarb syrup is delicious with soda water).
Step 3 - Fill the pastry bases with the rhubarb. Then cut out fluted rounds in the shortcrust pastry for the top. Secure to the base brushing with the egg wash mixture.
Making the "eyelids"
Step 4 - Halve the cherries and check their size. Cut out small rounds that are big enough to wrap around the cherry and cut these in half to form half moons or "eyelids" and gently with a knife, cut a little line for a double eyelid.
Step 5 - Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash and then place half cherry and then gently press the "eyelid" into place. Brush egg wash on the eyelid and bake for 15 minutes. When cool, draw a white line under the cherry eye and a tiny dot.
1. Use Very Cold Butter or Fat. Butter, shortening, lard, or suet—whatever fat the recipe calls for should be well-chilled and cut into small pieces to start with for the flakiest crust in the end. The fat in a pie crust must maintain some of its integrity in the dough to make the crust truly flaky.
While butter, shortening, or lard make equally light and tender crusts, an all-butter crust will be flakier due to butter's higher water content: as the crust bakes the butter melts and its water turns to steam, creating thin, crisp layers (flakes).
Also known as Sugar Pie pumpkins, these thin-skinned squash are smaller (4-8 lbs.) and have a sweet, dense flesh with a fine-grained, smooth texture. The cooked flesh is a bit drier, which makes a great pie filling.
“My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does. Other fats, even though they have great pros, lack flavor,” De Sa Martins said. “The more flavorful the butter, the more flavor your pie crust will have,” Huntsberger added.
Adding more flour is always an option, but add too much flour and your dough will end up like a cracker—not a pie crust. Remember: The more you mix your pie dough, the tougher it becomes. To keep the mixing to a minimum, try rolling out your dough between two pieces of parchment paper.
Apple cider vinegar is added to relax the gluten proteins in your dough and tenderize it. You can also substitute it with an equal amount of white vinegar. Cold Water: For pie crusts that are flaky, cold water is a must. Adding warm liquid would melt the shortening that we carefully cut into our flour for flakiness.
Rolling out your pie dough directly after mixing would warm too quickly and become sticky. Resting the mixture in the fridge keeps your pie dough nice and cold, making it easier to roll.
Pumpkin pie filling will be labeled as pumpkin pie mix or pumpkin pie filling. Ingredients - Pumpkin puree made from scratch contains only pumpkin, but canned puree may contain a preservative like salt. Pumpkin pie filling contains additional ingredients like sugar, spices, and thickeners.
Large pumpkins that we traditionally think of as jack-o-lanterns aren't ideal for pie as they are very stringy and have a lot of seeds. There really isn't very much “meat” to the larger pumpkins. Sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, are sweeter.
According to David and Susan, Costco uses one kind of pumpkin exclusively: Dickinson pumpkins. Dickinson pumpkins are not the orange jack-o'-lantern canvas you're picturing; rather, they're beige with smooth sides.
1. Preheat the oven to the temperature that your recipe recommends. Most fruit pies bake at a temperature between 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Some recipes call for baking the pie in a 450 degree F oven to begin with, then turning down the oven to about 350 degrees F.
As important as not overmixing is staying chilled, literally!! That means keeping all elements cold— your counter, ingredients, hands, heart (just kidding!). No, but seriously, cut up your butter into little cubes and chill them before you incorporate them into the flour.
Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.
Which rack you use in the oven can help ensure a crisp crust. Baking the pie on a lower rack will concentrate heat on the bottom of the pie and help the crust crisp.
Egg: The egg in this recipe acts as a binder that allows for a flakier, more delicate crust. It also binds all of your ingredients together so that you can roll out your pie dough without it breaking apart.
Introduction: My name is Francesca Jacobs Ret, I am a innocent, super, beautiful, charming, lucky, gentle, clever person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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