RHUBARB STRAWBERRY PALEO CRISP

Two healthy rhubarb plants are thriving in the garden. I picked quite a bit the other day and froze a bag with four cups of chopped rhubarb, gave some to a friend and used another four cups to make a crisp. I like rhubarb mixed with strawberries. As it is hot outside and not wanting to heat up the kitchen, I cooked the rhubarb on the bbq. I use the top rack above the burners so that the bottom doesn't burn before the crisp is cooked. If you don't have a top rack or what some call a warming rack, you can cook the crisp on the main grill with a few burners turned on and the crisp off to the side without the burner turned on right under the pan with the crisp. Last year I made several pies on the top rack and they turned out well. If the topping is browning too fast on the bbq, cover the pan with tin foil while the fruit cooks. I covered it after about 20 minutes of cooking.

I used honey in the topping and as it was more clumpy versus crumbly, I used my fingers to drop small clumps onto the fruit mixture. The crisp cooked for 50 minutes on the bbq and I had the temperature at about 400 degrees F. 

The consistency of the topping using honey.

Adding the topping to the fruit.

Ready for the bbq.

Cooking on the top rack.

Ready for sampling.

INGREDIENTS:

Fruit:

4 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups sliced strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar or stevia (stevia for baking)
2 tbsp arrowroot powder or minute tapioca

Topping:
1/2 cup slivered almonds or chopped pecans
3/4 cup almond flour
2 tbsp coconut flour
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut oil (at room temperature) or butter

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, add the fruit, lemon juice, sugar and arrowroot powder and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together all of the topping except the coconut oil or butter. Add the oil or butter and mix using a fork or pastry blender so that it forms into crumbs or clumps. Using honey will make it form more like clumps. 

Grease with oil or butter a medium size baking pan. Add the fruit mixture, spread it evenly across the pan and add the topping to cover the fruit. Bake for at least 30 minutes or until it is bubbling and the topping has browned. Serves 6 to 8.  

BLUEBERRY CRISP ON THE BBQ

As it is the season for berries, it is hard to resist buying more berries than you can consume. Furthermore, some of the berries that you may have bought are getting soft. A large clamshell of blueberries that we had bought were getting soft. The options were to either freeze the berries or use them in baking. Since it has been so warm outside, turning on the oven did not seem to be a good idea. I decided to bake the crisp on the barbecue. Having already baked a cherry crisp and pies on the barbecue this summer, I decided to bake a crisp using a round speckled blue roasting pan that normally is used to cook a small roast or chicken. I won't use glass or ceramic baking dishes on the barbecue. I prefer to use metal. Using a barbecue for cooking is very handy when you don't want to heat up your kitchen.

This recipe calls for four cups of berries. I had about 3 cups of fresh blueberries and added some frozen mixed berries to make the four cups. I used Splenda in this recipe. 

10 inch round speckled blue roasting pan.

The four cups of berries before and after adding the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and flour.

Before and after adding the oil to the topping mixture. 

Ready for baking.

Baking on the barbecue.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup sugar or Splenda
zest and juice from one lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp flour

Topping:

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar, options: 1/4 cup brown +1/4 cup white or Splenda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup almonds or pecans plus a few extra for the topping

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium size bowl mix the blueberries, sugar, zest and lemon juice, cinnamon and flour. Combine well.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, oatmeal, sugar and salt. Add the coconut oil or butter and mix together using a pastry blender or mixing spoon depending on the softness of the oil. The coconut oil I used was soft because it is summer time and I used a mixing spoon. I just blended the oil throughout the dry mixture. If the butter or coconut oil is hard, use a pastry blender and blend until the topping looks like crumbles. Add the 1/2 cup of nuts. I used pecan halves and did not chop them. Mix the topping with nuts. I added the nuts to the dry mixture before I added the soft coconut oil as the oil was very soft due to the warm kitchen.

Oil a medium size pan and add the blueberry mixture. Pat it down into the pan. Add the topping evenly over the blueberries and top with a few almonds or pecans if you wish. 

If using a barbecue, preheat the barbecue to 400 degrees F and place the pan over an unheated burner/element. Bake for about 60 minutes.

If using an oven, place into a preheated oven of 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is browned. Let the crisp cool before serving. Serves 6 or more depending on appetites. 

Adapted from natashaskitchen.com

BAKING PIES ON THE BBQ

With the weather so hot it is hard to want to turn on the oven to make pies. I have been picking cherries off of the trees and rhubarb from the garden. I had already picked, pitted and froze eight cups of cherries earlier this week. Either I had to freeze these cherries and rhubarb for future baking or think of other options in order to do some baking. I thought of using the barbecue. I had never baked before on the barbecue and did some research by asking some friends and going online. No one I had talked to had baked pies on the barbecue. Some had make pizza. What I read included baking over an element that is not turned on or baking over an inverted pie plate that created a bridge between the actual burner and the pie plate. I also read to use aluminum pie plates and to not use glass or enamelled pie plates like an Emile Henry. Since our barbecue has a second rack above the main rack, I decided to bake the pies on the second rack. It would be off direct heat and in many ways it was like an oven.

I kept the barbecue temperature at about 400 degrees F and the pies took just over an hour to cook. The gas barbecue is large and has five burners. I turned on only three of them. I could have turned on four of them. After about 40 minutes I moved some of the pies around on the second rack as I noticed some were cooking faster than others.

I would definitely do this again and bake not only pies but other food. In making these pies, I decided to not have a full crust on the top as I wanted to watch the fruit and see if it was cooking and also get an idea of how the crust would bake.

Here is the link for a previous posted recipe for cherry pie. This recipe includes the pie crust and filling. I used the pie crust recipe from Tenderflake as it makes three double pie crusts (tenderflake pie crust recipe.). This is a fail safe recipe for me. I use Crisco instead of Tenderflake and I mix the dough in a mixmaster.

Provided below is my standard rhubarb pie filling. You can add strawberries or cherries to the chopped rhubarb. I had some extra cherries that couldn't make it into the pie and I added them to the rhubarb filling.

Rhubarb Pie Filling

4 cups rhubarb, chopped
2/3 cups sugar or Splenda
3 tbsp flour or minute tapioca
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cherry filling added to the pie crust.

Not a pretty way to layer the dough on top.

Rhubarb filling added to the pie crust.

My version of a galette, not very pretty.

Baking on the top rack of the barbecue. The lid was closed while they baked.

Cherry pie cooling on top of the stove.