pie – BEAN & BANTAM

An easy butter crust from scratch… recipe is typed out below pics. This crust works well for sweet or savory pies: for sweet pies, brush top crust with water and sprinkle with sugar. Use as is for savory pies. I use this all the time as a chicken pot pie top crust, with no bottom crust, and for quiche, as well as apple pie, and strawberry rhubarb pie. Happy eating!

Thrilled: this post FEATURED on the Chicken Chick’s Clever Chick Blog Hop #175

Recipe typed out below the pics:

Pie Dough in the food processor:

Combine in food processor, pulse once:

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

Then add 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks plus 2 tb) cut into 1 inch chunks and pulse 4-6 times

In a measuring cup, combine:

1/2 tsp vinegar

1 egg yolk

ice water to bring to 1/2 cup

Pulse 25-30 times

Separate dough into two parts, flatten each into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for one hour before rolling out into a top and bottom crust.

Every spring when the rhubarb gets big enough to pick, I make a strawberry rhubarb pie, from scratch. This is when I know that spring has really, truly, finally arrived. sliced strawberries

a pie in the making.... strawberries and rhubarb and butter and sugar — a pie in the making…. strawberries and rhubarb and butter and sugar and a crust with some more butter… a lot more butter…

strawberry rhubarb pie means it is finally spring — … a mere two sticks of butter in each pie, one pie for a neighbor and one pie for us. I use the Joy of Cooking recipe for the filling, and a recipe from my mother for the crust…

I think I have some new fans of this spring-pie-from-scratch ritual; the chickens love to eat the strawberry hulls. Do you recognize these guys without their baby chicken fluff? Mottled java hen eating strawberry hulls

mottled java flock eating strawberry hulls — Pie is fine by us! Keep it coming! The Barred Rocks are eating their own pile of hulls outside the coop.

Mottled java rooster and hen, almost two months old — Mottled java rooster and hen, about two months old

mottled java rooster and hen on some rough rock steps — Coop door, a young roo, a hen, and my improvised rock steps

And, we have a fancy automatic door, with a built in daylight sensor, which shuts once dark, and opens in the morning. Powered by a small solar panel on the south gable end of the coop. The chickens are in the coop about 15 minutes before their automatic door shuts each night, settled on their roosts well before it gets dark. I check on them after the door shuts, and haven’t run into a straggler yet. I’m glad there’s no chicken wrangling involved, no chicken herding, no coaxing necessary. The door does re-open, one minute after closing, for a ten second final all in for the night last chance.

mottled javas explore the outdoors — Small section of the fenced in chicken yard (more on the fence in another post). The Barred Rocks are also doing well, and both breeds have been integrated into same coop. Those windows open in warm weather, with hardware cloth screening inside.

A very old 5 gallon cast iron kettle near the coop door, now planted with hens and chicks sedum.

Happy spring to all.

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BEAN & BANTAM

Tag: pie

Pie: Quick Homemade Crust for Sweet or Savory Pies

Pie Dough in the food processor:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

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Pie Dough in the food processor:

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