Blueberry Rhubarb lattice crust pie
We LOVED the blueberry rhubarb galette I made last week so much I had to make it as a double crust pie this week to bring to friends. Because of the pandemic we haven’t seen our best friends since 2019. We are allowed to have a bubble of 10 people but haven’t really taken advantage of this so far.
I wanted to see if replacing half of the water in the Bravetart all butter crust would make it even more tender. I used to make a vodka pastry that was half shortening and half butter. I really didn’t like the idea of eating shortening with the transfers so I wanted to find another pastry recipe so started to use the Bravetart recipe. I remember that pastry as being a bit more tender than the Bravetart all butter pastry. I wonder if it is because of the vodka or not. Supposedly the vodka interferes with gluten formation in the pastry, does anyone know if that is true? Anyhow, I will know tomorrow when we get to eat this delicious pie.
Comments
I love the rich color!
The colour isn’t even on purpose nice never been able to bake the crust much light than this. In order to make sure the filling sets they are always deeply browned. I also usually egg wash as well which also contributes to the colour and shine.
I made a blueberry and rhubarb pie this summer too and absolutely loved it. I've had strawberry and rhubarb together a million times, but never blueberry with rhubarb. I think it's even better!
Thanks Ilene. Here I thought blueberry rhubarb was so unusual but it doesn’t seem that it is. I do agree with I’m you, as much as I love strawberry rhubarb I think I like blueberry rhubarb more too.
I would never have thought to combine them myself, but then I saw a NYT recipe for it.
Hi Benny. Love the wide strips in your latticework. Blueberries are great with rhubarb. I made one way back in the 1970's after finding the variation in one of my mother's cookbooks. On the competition show Bakeaway Camp this past spring, Martha Stewart told one of the contestants that her favorite pie is raspberry-rhubarb. I'd never thought or heard of that combination before, but how can it be bad?
What did you think of the vodka crust? Yes, alcohol is a tenderizer in baking. I tried it in pie dough once, after Cook's Illustrated came out with theirs, but I didn't care for the taste it left behind. Earlier this year, Gesine Prado gave some great tips on pie dough technique in one of the Isolation Baking Shows with Jeffrey Hamelman. I tried them on a whole wheat crust, and it came out very tender.
Best in baking,
dw
Hi Debra. Thanks for your comments on my pie. The wide lattice was a product of my being a bit lazy to make a more complex lattice and I actually really like the effect and how easy it is. I can’t believe you made a bluebarb pie over forty years ago who knew it wasn’t a new thing? Nothing new is new?.
As I said I used to use the Cooks Illustrated vodka pie pastry recipe and for over a year it was my go to. But I was never comfortable with the transfat of the shortening. So when I found Bravetart’s all butter recipe I switched to it. I wondered if the vodka would tenderize it by interfering with gluten development I assume that is how it tenderizes it. I’ll report back here tonight after having some pie for dessert.
This is the video I mentioned, where Gesine makes pie dough. Lot's of technique tips in there. It starts at 26 minutes in.
The Isolation Baking Show - Episode 5
Thanks for sharing that Debra, I will watch it today.
Well the vodka does not affect the flavour because the recipe has a high ratio of butter to flour but only tenderizes the pastry a small amount. I’ll keep using the vodka because the pastry can never be tender enough.
Edit: I realized that this wasn’t a fair comparison. My last use of this pastry dough used a 10% protein flour and this one used 12%. So it si quite possible that the vodka did in fact tenderize the pasty. To be fair I will need to do the vodka and 10% protein flour.
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Thats really amazing - pies are so fun - did you laminate the lattice dough. It looks like a puff pastry.
Yes Geremy, the pastry dough was laminated using a book and letter folds . I really like using these folds for making pie pastry to create all the layers. Pies are my favourite dessert both to make and eat.
For your update, Benny! It looks delicious! How much vodka did you use in this recipe?
Yippee
Thanks Yippee. I just replaced 50% of the water with vodka as that was the ratio of vodka to water from the Cooks Illustrated recipe. Let me know how it goes for you when you try it out.
We have just started spring here. We divided our rhubarb roots a few weeks ago into a new patch, and they are already throwing up new growth. Can't wait to try out your blueberry and rhubarb pie. Love it.
Thank you Gavin, I love strawberry rhubarb so when I saw two recipes for blueberry rhubarb I knew I had to try it. My friends who I made it for said they like it more than strawberry rhubarb. I will definitely make it again. I hope you like it when you try it!