Baby Pie Love

(I have a new favorite thing... handpies!)

Well, I'm still computerless and rather gloomy about all the things that I've forever lost, but I'm finding a silver lining in my fairly internet-free existence: I haven't been on Facebook in five days, and I feel fantastic. I never realized what a blackhole that site really is for me-- the compulsive way I'd flip from gmail to Facebook, looking at nothing really, for hours on end. I've always been an advocate for the thing as a virtual address book, and I don't think I'll ever get rid of it, but all the "J" parts of my ENFJ personality really swelled to monstrous proportions as I became almost addicted to monitoring my Newsfeed. I'm better off breaking it as a habit, demoting it to occasional novelty.

Instead of mindless internetting, I have been baking. I've decided to try to become a pastry genius, and begun the journey with precious mini treats called "handpies."

I've never cooked with rhubarb before but have always been drawn to its beautiful red stalk and electric green meat. After coming across some particularly vibrant bundles at the market last week, I decided that the time had come to test out the pastry and rhubarb all at once.

Handpies are basically fancy poptarts that you can shape to look like tiny pies. After gathering several cartons of strawberries, top-quality butter and flour (my Vermonter friend MC swears by King Arthur and after this experience I'm definitely a convert), I began the Great Experiment.

I made two batches to start: one whole wheat, and one all-purpose. The flakiest, most delicious kind of pastry is kept very cold at all points, so the best thing to do is measure everything out and then put it all in the fridge for about an hour. Here's the pastry recipe:

1/2 C unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 1/4 C flour (I found the best was a mix of wheat and all-purpose)

dash salt (if you're like me and want a more savory-tasting pastry. Otherwise, omit.)

(Please forgive the terrible photos-- all I've got is my Blackberry!)

Dice up the butter and measure out the flour-- put it all in the refrigerator for one hour. If you have a pastry blender you're much more sophisticated than I am, and once the hour is up you can cut the butter into the flour with impressive swiftness, stopping only once the stuff resembles coarse breadcrumbs. If you're a peasant like me, rinse your hands in cold, cold water and crumble it all up with your fingertips. Be careful-- the best pastry is the pastry that is the least handled and stays very cold. That's what makes it flaky.

Once you've got your coarse breadcrumbs, add water by tablespoon until you can JUST combine the flour and butterballs into a single, large ball. Don't over-water. The water should also be ice, ice cold.

Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate. (I don't have a photo here, mostly because it's not pretty and I think you can imagine what plastic-wrapped dough looks like without much visual cues on my part.)

Next, chop up your fruit filling. I used rhubarb and strawberries, and I never measure these things out so I usually have tons left over that I put on yogurt or in oatmeal for breakfast... or, you know, just spoon out of the pan. Here's a kind-of recipe list for the filling:

Fresh fruit of your choice.

Spoonful of brown sugar

Water or orange juice-- enough to boil the fruit in a thin layer in a sauce pan

1 tiny bit of cornstarch if you want the filling thick.

Chop up all the fruits into tiny bits, and put in boiling liquid on stove. Add sugar and cornstarch. Stir and keep stewing over low to medium heat. Set aside once it looks like a filling to you.

(The chopped up fruit. When I made this the second time, I diced it much, much smaller.)

(Once it began to thicken.)

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Next, roll the dough out using a healthy bit of flour. Cut into disks being inventive and using a butter knife and a round-shaped item from around the kitchen.... or a cookie cutter if you're fancy. I used a ramekin and a wine glass.

Place the things on greased cookie sheet. Fill with fruit stuff, making sure to leave room for the crust. Place another disk over the top, pinching the sides or pressing with a fork for that traditional "pie edge" effect.

I don't have a photo of it, but don't forget to cut vents into the top part! You can also do a quick egg wash or sprinkle the tops with raw sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden, or until you're too impatient and hungry to wait any longer. This was sort of my slapdash way of making them. I used the leftover pastry and filling to make that mini lattice-top shown earlier; I'm going to eat it tonight!

Fruity treats are the best way for me to use overripe fruit. I've got a box of blueberries I accidentally crushed walking home from the store the other day that will soon be reincarnated into a blueberry-peach-cobbler-thingy.

I'm going to see how long this no Facebook thing lasts-- probably until I get my new computer. In the meantime, I see more baking in my future: I'm on a mission to produce the perfect baguette crust, and my oven is not very agreeable to the steam bath.

Happy baking!