STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB PIE [A Two-Day Marathon]

In peak season since May, strawberries and rhubarb flooded fresh produce aisles of every grocery store across the province. Well aware of the potential toxicity of conventionally grown strawberries, I waited until a routine trip to a local health food store yielded a container of organic fruit and several burgundy stalks.

At home, I browsed the web for a few guidelines and began mixing the dough for my very first strawberry-rhubarb pie. Armed with a hand-held mixer, I combined flour with softened butter, coconut oil, a free-run egg, palm sugar, salt, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Once the ingredients appeared thoroughly mixed, I gradually poured in cold filtered water to moisten and chill the resulting concoction.

MEASUREMENT	INGREDIENT
1 cup	Organic wheat flour
1 cup	Organic corn flour
¼ cup	Unsalted butter
1	Free-run egg
2 tbsp	Coconut oil
¼ cup	Cold filtered water
2 tbsp	Raw palm sugar
½ tsp	Sea salt
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
3 tbsp	Lemon juice

Dry at first glance, the batter took shape with gentle kneading and could now be refrigerated. As I opened a heavy Samsung door, a whiff of cool air rushed out and swaddled my fatigued body. For a brief moment, I envied a lonesome jar of pickles tucked away behind a head of celery and left-over dinner. Long forgotten, it stood dormant, lost in the vast frigid space of a French door ice box, an attractive hide-away for a housewife weakened by amplifying demands of a growing family.

As if distraught by his master's neurotic musings, Bob rushed off a large bright-orange leather sectional, causing me to snap out of my daydream and carry on with the project. After all, the time during Marcus' two daily naps is all I had to live a life of my own, free of chronic obligation to tend to others. 

Content with the progress, I pulled out a large cutting board- a fairly recent addition to my collection of kitchen tools- and began quartering de-stemmed strawberries and chopping pre-washed rhubarb. Sharpened a day earlier, a large knife sliced through plant flesh with remarkable precision and speed, completing the task in record time. I then combined four cups of fruit and vegetables with the remaining ingredients and let stand for a few minutes, mixing periodically to ensure consistency. 

MEASUREMENT	INGREDIENT
2 cups	Organic strawberries, quartered
2 cups	Organic rhubarb, chopped
¼ cup	Raw palm sugar
3 tbsp	Tapioca
6 tbsp	Lemon juice

Eager to see and taste my first strawberry-rhubarb pie, I proceeded to roll out the dough, using a slightly bigger piece for the bottom crust. Despite replacing half of the required amount of wheat flour with a gluten-free variety, I was able to transfer the entire base sheet into a 9" oven-safe glass plate without it tearing or crumbling. 

Pie filling neatly in its place, I rolled out and perforated the second sheet using an icing tip to mark the middle and miniature cookie cutters to make several butterfly, bear and fish cutouts, carefully arranging them on top of the crust for a 3D effect. Using my thumbs, I sealed the edges and placed the plate in an oven pre-heated to 425°F for 5 minutes, reducing the temperature to 350°F immediately after and baking for 45-50 more minutes or until the filling started to bubble and the crust browned.

Elated by the results, I resolved to make a gluten-free version for my in-laws, who have been sharing living space with us since the end of February, the very next day. Keeping tabs on the sugar content, as in a prior experiment, I combined organic corn, amaranth and almond flour, added an extra egg yolk to mimic gluten and mixed the batter. All other ingredients remained the same.

MEASUREMENT	INGREDIENT
1 cup	Organic corn flour
½ cup	Amaranth flour
½ cup	Almond flour
¼ cup	Unsalted butter
1	Free-run egg
1	Free-run egg yolk
2 tbsp	Coconut oil
¼ cup	Cold filtered water
2 tbsp	Raw palm sugar
½ tsp	Sea salt
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
3 tbsp	Lemon juice

As before, I transferred the ball of dough into the fridge to chill and began working on the filling. This time, however, I decided to pre-cook the mixture in the hopes to reduce the overall baking time and prevent the crust from over-browning. Within 10-15 minutes of cooking on the stove, the fruit and vegetable mixture released enough juice to blend with tapioca powder separately to avoid clumping. Carefully, I filled two of my smallest measuring cups with liquid from the pot and combined it with tapioca in my Magic Bullet before pouring it back into the mixture.

Unbaked gluten-free crust w/ a pre-cooked and blended filling

The filling was ready and was set aside to cool. Meanwhile, I rolled out two crust sheets, taking extraordinary care to keep them from cracking. In the absence of gluten and its typical substitutes like gums and starches, the dough refused to cooperate and had to be rolled in thicker sheets. The same baking plate in immediate proximity to my crust, I quickly transferred it in, filled with cooled fruit mixture and covered with the top plain sheet, using the same thumb technique to seal the edges.

Since the filling was already cooked, I baked the pie at 425°F for 10 minutes, reducing the heat immediately after to 400°F and baking for 20 more minutes or until the crust turned light brown. Unfortunately, I followed an online tip to brush the top crust with an egg white and watched it crack in front of my eyes, reminded once more of the peculiar nature of gluten-free batter.

Baked gluten-free crust w/ a pre-cooked and blended filling

A slice of warm home-made pie adorned my dessert plate as I edited a plethora of photographs taken in the past 48 hours. Coupled with freshly brewed Colombian coffee, the sinful treat melted away piece by piece until nothing but a few crumbs remained...