Catching up on recent projects- three pies while my father was visiting: the pear galette, a cherry pie (with leaves a bit too large… ooops) and I finally got around to trying the rhubarb custard cream pie.
The pear galette was wonderful and like the apple galette, pretty fast and easy for a scratch pie. The only note I have is to be more careful next time with my selection of fruit and the thickness of my slices, as my fruit was only barely soft enough to eat with 10” of additional baking time. It probably could have used even a little bit more time, but the edges were getting dark even with a foil ring to protect them. I served it with Amaretto whipped cream, a divine combination.
The cherry pie used the last of my frozen sour cherries from last year- it was so good! Made the leaves a bit too large and the glaze was thick from being frozen, so that the brush marks from my pastry brush held their shape! That was a first. This pie was blind baked and the fruit gently cooked stovetop in a large saucepan that would fit all the cherries in one layer.
The rhubarb custard- I used leftover dough for the crust and didn’t quite have enough, so my sides were a tad short. And because the dough had been re-rolled from scraps, it was worked a little more than is ideal and there was a little more shrinking to make the pie even smaller. Not a big deal, except that not all of my fruit would fit, and I only had room for about half or maybe 2/3 of the custard. Probably would have looked very different with more custard. The custard was not perfectly smooth, but in such a thin amount it wasn’t particularly noticeable and didn’t bother me in such a rustic pie. I liked the custard cream, but I think the strawberry-rhubarb was still my favorite, while my husband liked the rhubarb-cherry (he said it was even better than the all-cherry pie!) and my daughter preferred the all-cherry to any of the other pies.
Made the curls by warming a block of chocolate in my proofer and then using a potato peeler- fast and very easy garnish.
