Rhubarb Plum Mini Pies

Raise your hand if you’re not entirely ready for the month of June to be here…

Raises hand.

Wasn’t it just my birthday? Didn’t Roberto just leave for a 2-month work trip? When did wearing dresses even become too hot? I’m just all sorts of behind on the times here. I love summer, just as I love all seasons, but the salty sea air, the fresh fruits and veggies from the garden, the no-makeuped face because a sunkissed face looks simply perfect—these things simply give me life!

As the next 4 months of my life consist of weddings, moving, trips, showers, our wedding…I’m truly trying to chill any chance I get, to really enjoy my last few months in West Virginia and to not let the stress of planning the upcoming “I dos” AND moving to another state overwhelm me. Little by little I have been exploring this incredible state, been staying up slightly later than my normal 9pm bedtime, and just all around seizing each and every day.

As I am trying to live in the moment as much as possible, something that has been on my mind lately is when can I have a huge garden, 3 dogs, 5 chickens and maybe a pig?! We are moving to beautiful Vermont after the wedding and looking into house buying—yes, insert a freaked out yet excited face—and all I want is a big enough yard to be able to 1. Have the mowed lawn smell all around me, and 2. Learn how to really garden like my mom always has. Some of my favorite memories growing up would be when my mom was like Oh, Kate, can you go pick a few containers full of blueberries before dinner? Always yes, always, always, always.

So yes, I have been craving that lifestyle for a while now—and then I got it into my head that I had to bake with rhubarb. While strawberry rhubarb is always a yes, how about plums in place of the strawberries?! Slightly sweet, a very different texture, just needed to spice it up a little bit. I used my go-to piecrust (always a dash of cinnamon), stuffed it with a fruity, citrusy filling, and baked them into tiny, adorable little things!

While baking a normal sized pie is, of course, always welcome, I wanted to make little individual sized pies—this was much more cutesy to gift to some of my friends! They fit perfectly into itty-bitty boxes that I had, tied them up with some string, I guess you could say it is one of my favorite things!

…I will always quote The Sound of Music…

Whether you’re itching to have a garden, like me, fully embracing summer, like me, craving a flaky pie crust, like me, or just loving life and all its beauty, like me, then these Rhubarb Plum Mini Pies will make your hot and hazy June days all the more sweeter!

crust ingredients

Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Brown Sugar—1 TBL

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 ½ tsp

Butter, cold—4 oz, or 8 TBL

Milk, cold—4 oz, or ½ C

process

In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Cut the butter into cubes, making sure that it keeps as cold as possible.

Add it to the flour mixture.

Using your hands or a pastry blender, rub the butter into the flour, breaking the butter up into tiny, pea or hazelnut sized pieces.

Once all of the butter has been coated in flour (basically smooshed!), slowly add in the milk, mixing as you go.

When all of the milk has been added, your dough should be slightly sticky.

Wrap in plastic and chill until you are ready to use!

filling ingredients

Rhubarb, diced—9 oz, or 2 C

Plum, diced—6 oz, or 1 C/1 medium

Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Cornstarch—0.75 oz, or 2 TBL

Orange Juice—2 ½ TBL

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Butter, small cubes—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Eggs—1, for eggwash

process

In a large bowl, mix together the diced rhubarb, diced plum, sugars, cornstarch, OJ and cinnamon.

Reserve filling until you are ready to use.

Cut the butter into tiny cubes and set aside.

To make the pies—remove the dough from the refrigerator, and place on a floured work surface.

Roll out the dough to about ¼“ thick.

If you are using mini pie pans, use a cutter that is about ½-1“ bigger than the pan, and cut out 16 circles; you may reroll out the dough when needed.

Spray the bottom of your pie pan(s) and press the rolled out bottom crust gently, but firmly, into ever edge.

Fill the pies with enough of the filling to make a nice mound.

Eggwash the edges of the crust and place the top crust, making sure to press into the wash so that it will stick.

Crimp the edges with a fork, cut a vent in the middle of the pie with scissors or a knife, and refrigerate while you preheat the oven.

Once you have finished with all of your mini pies and they are in the fridge, preheat the oven to 425˚ F.

Brush the tops of each pie with the eggwash and sprinkle with sugar—I like to use turbinado sugar because they are bigger!

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 375˚ F.

Bake for 7-10 minutes, until they are golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool just slightly.

Enjoy by themselves or with a yummy scoop of icecream on top!

Bon Appétit!

Almond Chai Breakfast Pastry

Ever have those days when you’re just craving a Poptart-like breakfast pastry? And then you realize that as an almost-26 year old you really shouldn’t be ooing and ahhing over all of the varieties in that aisle, that maybe you should just be picking up your fruit and yogurt, and leaving the store as quickly as possible.

Yes. That happens to me almost every time that I am in the supermarket. I go up and down the aisle that has Oreos (obviously need to see if there are any new flavors!), and then peak at the Poptarts, thinking maybe it will be the day that I cave, the day when I buy Cinnamon Brown Sugar, S’more and Strawberry Poptarts.

It has yet to happen.

Then I made this wild discovery—I may be skilled enough to make my own Poptarts at home, I mean culinary school should have prepared me for this exact adult moment, am I right? And naturally I’m going to make something a little different, a combination that I am pretty sure I can’t find sitting in a box between the ever so delicious S’mores and Blueberry flavors.

Cue the nuts and spices.

First, making your own chai spice blend is ever so easy, read ingredients below, but I used some from Easy Indian that are so authentic and fragrant—highly recommend! Second, nuts are always optional, but unless you have allergies I really do not suggest omitting them. The added crunch and the toasted flavor really elevate the pastry as a whole, giving them just a few more taste points in my book.

Finally, the pie dough and assembly are what take the most time and have the most steps. Rolling, cutting, chilling, assembling, chilling, egg washing, chilling, baking. Can you tell that chilling the dough and the temperature is very important?! While they are not the most complicated, a bit of patience is required if you want to achieve the most flakey, most buttery, most yummy and most aesthetically pleasing pastry—which is why I have provided very detailed steps and photos, I suggest reading all of the steps before starting!

Literally perfect for ANY time of the day…which just means for me I need to run an extra mile or go to an extra spin class this week in order to feel slightly less bad about eating more of these Poptarts in a day than I probably have in my life!

dough ingredients

Flour—6.75 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Sugar—0.25 oz, or ½ TBL

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Butter, cold—4 oz, or 1 stick/8 TBL

Milk—2 oz, or ¼ C

Water, cold—1 oz, or ¼ C

process

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Cut up the butter into hazelnut sized cubes and add to the flour mixture.

Using your hands, a pastry cutter or a fork, rub the butter into the flour mixture until combined.

Slowly add in your cold milk and water, kneading with your hands or a spatula until you have formed a dough ball.

Wrap tightly in plastic and chill until you are ready to use.

filling ingredients

Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Chai Spices*—0.25 oz, or 1 TBL

Chopped Almonds, toasted—1.5 oz, or ¼ C

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

Egg, beaten—1

process

In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, spices and chopped almonds.

*I used Easy Indian Chai Spice, but to make your own—2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp each of allspice, cardamom, cloves, ginger, black pepper!*

Add in the milk and mix to combine.

Your mixture should resemble slightly wet sand; this just helps it stay together when you are filling your pastry!

turnover assembly

Take your dough out of the refrigerator and put on a lightly floured work surface.

Roll your dough out until it is about ¼“ thick.

*To make sure that you get a nice and even dough when rolling, rotate 45˚ after every pass of your rolling pin, making sure that there is enough flour underneath and it is not sticking.*

Once you have rolled out your dough, using either a fluted pastry wheel or regular pizza cutter, cut out rectangles that are 3” x 1½”.

This should make about 6 sets.

Once you have finished cutting out the rectangles, place them on a baking sheet covered with either parchment or a Silpat in the refrigerator to chill.

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

You should have 6 bottoms and 6 tops—egg wash the bottoms completely, this will help your filling stay in place better.

Take about 2 TBL of the filling and place it in the middle of your bottom rectangle.

Egg wash the edges of the top pastry and place wash side down on your filling.

Crimp the edges with a fork so that the top and bottom pastry stick together.

Chill for about 5 minutes in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to bake, poke air holes in the top so that your pastry can vent, egg wash the top, and sprinkle coarse sugar on top.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the oven onto a cooling rack

Bon Appétit!