PoE Pie Cookoff Winner!

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Congratulations to Kate Stevenson for placing 1st in the PoE Pie Cookoff last week!              

           

Kate is a UW student and a junior in the PoE program. She received the most first place votes with her Preciously Puny Petite Pies! (Due to complications with second place voting, we have chosen not to announce a second place winner this time around.)

They really are as tasty as they sound, but if you didn’t make it last week, take a look at her recipe and try it out for yourself! Then promise that you’ll be present for the next PoE Cookoff 😉

Thanks, Kate for sharing your great recipe with the PoE community! We hope you’ll join us again for another PoE Cookoff soon and bring your friends along.

(Click “read more” for Kate’s recipe!)

Preciously Puny Petite Pies (Strawberry Rhubarb)

Crust
3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon cold vegetable shortening
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced into small pieces
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons ice water
vegetable oil non-stick spray
1 large egg, for egg wash
coarse sanding sugar

Filling
12 ounces (about 2 cups) fresh strawberries, hulled and diced
5 stalks rhubarb, trimmed and diced
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest plus ¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon orange flavored liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
1 ½ cups granulated sugar

To make the crust, combine the sugar, flour, salt, vegetable shortening, and butter and pulse in a food processor until the mixture reaches the consistency of a very coarse meal (you don’t want to completely incorporate the fats). Then pulse in the ice water 1 teaspoon at a time until the crumbs hold together when pinched. Divide the dough into 2 flattened disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. After the dough has been refrigerated, roll it out on a floured surface and use a round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out circles. press these into a lightly greased muffin tin. Place the tin into the freezer until firm.

Preheat oven to 350°F. To make the filling, combine all ingredients in a saucepan and place over medium heat until the fruit is just barely soft (~10 minutes). Strain the fruit mixture and reserve the liquid. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until thickened. Add just enough syrup to the fruit and save the rest for strawberry-rhubarb waffles! I like to add a few fresh strawberry pieces for extra flavor. Add about 2 tablespoons of the fruit mixture to each cup, then cover with lattice strips of dough (like a tic-tac-toe board). Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar (optional). Place muffin tin back in the freezer until firm (~30 minutes). Remove from freezer and bake for 60-70 minutes. Gently loosen the mini pies from muffin cups with a wooden skewer or butter knife once they have cooled. ENJOY!

Announcing the winners of the PoE Cookie Cookoff!

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1st Place: The Sassy Salty Chocolate Chip Cookie
by Tikvah Weiner (PoE Admin)

If you’re curious to see what the 1st place Sassy Salty Chocolate Chip Cookie is all about, be sure to check out the “read more” link below to find the recipe. 

2nd place: The Wookie Cookie and The Best Molasses Cookie Ever
by Joe Kobayashi (PoE Undergraduate Program Coordinator) and Giulia Anderson (PoE Undergrad – Junior), respectively (a tie!)

Congratulations to the bakers of these awesome cookies!

If you missed the Cookie Cook-off, do not fear! In honor of January 23rd National Pie Day PoE will be hosting a pie cookoff on Wednesday, February 8th from 12-1pm in the PoE Commons.

The rules are simple. Bring any kind of pie you like – sweet, savory, chicken pot pie, cream pie, vegetable pie (ever had sweet potato pie??), pie with streusel topping, betty crocker crisscrossed pie, ice cream pie, fruit pie – whatever you desire. Come up with a clever name for your pie and we will put it to the test.

The cookoff will only work if we have lots and lots of judges!! We need lots of people to sample the fare and vote. So don’t worry if you have don’t own a pie tin and have never turned on your oven. We need everyone there! If you’re new to baking there are some great pie recipes on this baking blog.

Click here to get the 1st Place recipe!

Sassy Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
  • 3 ½ cups (17 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoons coarse sea salt, plus additional salt for sprinkling lightly on cookies
  • 2 ½ sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 2/3 cups (10 ounces) lightly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup (8 ounces) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 18 to 20 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into large chip-size chunks (I recommend chocolate with at least 60% cacao content and prefer Scharffen Berger or Callebaut.) **I used one bag of bittersweet choc chips**
Directions
  1. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
  2. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugars together until lightened, 3 to 5 minutes.
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
  4. Add flour mixture, blending at lowest speed until just combined.
  5. Drop chocolate pieces in and mix in gently, by hand.
  6. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for 1 to 24 hours.
  7. Preheat convection oven to 325˚F. If convection is not available, preheat conventional oven to 350˚F.
  8. Roll dough into 1 ½-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a sheet pan lined with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
  9. Sprinkle just a few grains of salt on each ball of dough and bake until cookies are golden around the edges and cooked through, but still soft, 12-15 minutes (on the longer side for conventional ovens).
  10. Let the cookies cool for 3 to 5 minutes on the pan. They are best eaten when warm. If they will not be eaten right away, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool further before storing.