Pink and Green Pie

 For my birthday this year, Jamie got me The Boozy Baker because I like cocktails and baking (pretty awesome gift, right?). I was really excited when she gave it to me and I didn't want to wait long to make something from it. I always do a lot of planning and dreaming when I first get a cookbook, so it was nice to do some actual baking not too long after getting it. I had already decided to buy a bunch of strawberries to make jam, so I needed to find a pie recipe with strawberries - and there it was, the classic combo of strawberries and rhubarb, but just a little different. I brought a slice to my internship and the rest of the pie to Memorial Day brunch (yes, this was awhile ago, but guess what? Strawberry and rhubarb are still available at the market!). A half slice survived to the end of the day. It is very, very good and gave me my first opportunity to create a crust with vodka.

The only change I made was leaving out the pistachios, which I know mostly removes the green part from the pink and green combo, but Aaron is not a nut fan and since it wasn't an integral ingredient, I let it slide. Do yours however you like.

Pink and Green Pie from The Boozy Baker:

Makes one tasty pie

For the crust:
1½ c. all-purpose flour
1 Tb. granulated sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, child and cut into ½” cubes
1 Tb. vodka
2-4 Tb. ice water

For the filling:
1¼ lb. fresh rhubarb, trimmed
1 c. granulated sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ c. berry liqueur
¼ c. cornstarch
½ c. strawberries, hulled and sliced

For the crumb topping:
½ c. all-purpose oats
2/3 c. rolled oats
¼ c. granulated sugar
¼ c. packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
7 Tb. unsalted butter, diced

To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until coarse. Add the vodka and then the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until the dough comes together in large clumps. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

On a floured surface, roll the dough to a 12” circle. Transfer to a 9” pie plate (mine is slightly bigger) and crimp the edges decoratively with a fork. Put in the refrigerator while preparing the filling.

To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, sugar, and cinnamon in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb begins to soften and the sugar dissolves, 5 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the berry liqueur and cornstarch and stir until smooth. It will look like strawberry milk, which is weird. Anyway, once smooth, add to the rhubarb mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to the refrigerator and cool for 30 minutes.

To make the crumb topping, combine the flour, oats, sugars, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until it forms coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Remove the crust and rhubarb mixture from the refrigerator. Stir the strawberries into the rhubarb mixture and pour it all into the crust. Sprinkle with the crumb topping and bake for 30-35 minutes (mine was perfect at 30), or until the crust is crisp and golden and the fruit is bubbling.

This is a very tasty pie and though not radically different from the strawberry-rhubarb I’ve made before, it is a fun variation.

Aaron's Birthday Chocolate-Bacon Cupcakes

Aaron did a 30 day no red meat challenge from mid-January to mid-February. Because of this, he was talking about missing meat a lot. One day at his volunteer shift at the library he mentioned this and was pointed to a cookbook, called simply I Love Bacon!. Yes, the exclamation point is a part of the title. So, with his birthday shortly after the end of his challenge (it was Monday of last week), I decided to make him a bacon themed dessert. What I learned from this? Bacon makes for ridiculous frosting. Just check out the name: maple-brown butter-bacon frosting. Yeah. It’s like that. Another thing I learned? It makes a lot of frosting, so have another plan for it, like turning this cake into a chocolate version and covering it with this frosting.

Oh, and that if you don’t have any crème fraiche (and don’t have time to make any), you can sub in half heavy cream and half sour cream. That’s knowledge you can use for cupcakery.

Aaron’s Birthday Chocolate-Bacon Cupcakes from I Love Bacon!:

Makes 12

For the maple-brown butter-bacon frosting-
8 slices ¼“ thick bacon, diced into ¼“ pieces
1 c. butter
¼ c. milk
¼ c. heavy whipping cream
2 Tb. crème fraiche (or 1 Tb. heavy cream and 1 Tb. sour cream)
1 Tb. vanilla extract
3 Tb. maple syrup
1 tsp. salt
3 c. confectioners’ sugar

For the cupcakes-
8 Tb. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. flour
2 Tb. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ c. granulated sugar
¾ c. packed brown sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
½ c. buttermilk, at room temperature
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 Tb. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
To make the frosting, in a large sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, about 10 minutes. Using a mesh sieve, drain the bacon bits by pouring the rendered bacon fat into the bowl of a mixer. Set the bacon pieces aside.

In the same sauté pan, melt the butter and cook until it turns brown and gives off a nutty fragrance, scraping the bottom of the pan occasionally so the butter doesn’t burn. When the butter is dark and begins to burn, immediately remove the pan from the heat, scrape all the browned bits loose, and transfer the contents to the mixing bowl with the bacon fat. Refrigerate the bowl until the butter is cold. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix together the milk, cream, crème fraiche, vanilla, and maple syrup; set aside.

Fit your electric mixer with the paddle attachment. When the browned butter is cold, cream it on medium speed with the salt until blended. Add the confectioners’ sugar and continue to cream at medium speed until fluffy, about 8 minutes. Slowly add the milk mixture and continue mixing until smooth and homogenous. Refrigerate until cold.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with your amazing silicone liners.

To make the cupcakes, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Put the butter, the sugars, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, turn the speed to low, and add ¼ of the dry ingredient mixture. When no traces of flour remain, add 1/3 of the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Continue evenly alternating the flour mixture and the buttermilk, ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix in the chopped chocolate and oats. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups; each cup should be ¾ full. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the muffin tin and cool completely on a rack.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, fluff the cold frosting with a small offset spatula until soft and spreadable but not runny. Place about 3 tablespoons of frosting on top of each cupcakes, then sprinkle on about ½ teaspoon of bacon bits and a pinch of sea salt. Serve immediately or after an awesome birthday dinner.

These are so flipping good! The frosting is one of the best I’ve ever had. I know I say that a lot, but this really is. The flavor combination is out of this world. If you want to go bacon free on this one, it’d be pretty easy to do and I may try it at least for the frosting in future recipes. But if you want to make a different cupcake, I’d highly recommend this one.

Oatmeal Cakes

I love oatmeal. It’s one of my favorite breakfasts. I came to love oatmeal even more when I discovered the glory that is steel cut oats. While I know many people don’t like oatmeal because it’s mushy, I do also enjoy rolled oats. However, steel cut oats are something else. They’re chewy and delicious and they’re a labor of love, taking longer to cook than rolled oats. I love them.

So the other day I made a massive amount of oatmeal and didn’t eat all of it because as much as I love it, I do have a limit. Anyway, I decided that instead of just heating up the rest of it later, I’d try something else. And this is that strange, delicious experiment.

Oatmeal Cakes:

1 c. cooked steel cut oats
Lemon zest
Dash of lemon juice
¼ c.-ish honey plus a bit more for garnish
Two big dashes of cinnamon
A bit of flour
Coconut oil







Heat coconut oil in a medium size saucepan over medium heat. Mix together all of the ingredients and form into palm size cakes (I have small palms, so you may want to make them a bit bigger). Cook each side until a nice light brown crust has formed. Serve with additional honey.

These didn’t stay together perfectly, but they were so good I didn’t care. The coconut oil adds an extra little bit of flavor and also makes these bad boys vegan, so there you go. It’s a fantastic breakfast. Next time, I’m going to mix in fruit.