I had meant to post this recipe a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve kind of been off my game a little the last few months, as witnessed by the fact that I have been posting rather sporadically. Sorry, I’ll try and do better. Yeah, I know I’ve said that before, but this time I mean it!!!!

If you have followed this blog, or taken a look through the recipe indexes you will notice that I love rhubarb. While technically not a fruit-we use the stem of the plant-people most often refer to it as such since it is mostly used in the same context as fruits-meaning it is most often used in making desserts.

Here in Wisconsin, rhubarb is on of the first edibles to break ground in spring and by mid May it is ready to start harvesting. Because it is ready so early we often associate it with spring and early summer, often pairing it with other early summer fruits such as strawberries and raspberries. But, rhubarb can be harvested all summer long and into early autumn.

While pairing rhubarb with peaches is far from new, ground breaking work it’s not a pairing that you see regularly, so I thought I would whip up a Peach and Rhubarb pie to make use of our rhubarb patch one last time before it was done for the season. While this recipe comes a little late, I still see plenty of peaches in the markets and if you have a rhubarb patch you probably still have a couple of weeks left before the hard frosts kill it all off, so hurry up and make yourself one of these. You won’t be sorry!

Peach and Rhubarb Pie

3 cups peaches, sliced, with or without skins-your choice. I left them on.
3 cups rhubarb, sliced
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Your favorite pie crust for a two crust pie.
1-1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9″ deep dish pie tin with one pie crust. Combine the peaches and rhubarb with the flour, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon, tossing to coat well. Pour into the pie tin and top with the remaining crust. Pinch the edges of the crusts together, fluting the edges for a decorative look. Cut 4-5 steam holes in the top of the crust and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes then sprinkle the top with the remaining sugar and continue to bake another 15-25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. I like to wait an hour or more to make sure the pie has set up properly.

My last post was about snow days and Hot Chocolate. One very important component to Hot Chocolate, that I didn’t mention, is the marshmallows. Sure some people like to top their cocoa with whipped cream, but for pure comfort factor you can beat marshmallows!

Homemade marshmallows are a thing of beauty. They taste so much better than the store bought ones, can easily be customizable, and aren’t overly difficult to to make. While vanilla is the standard flavoring for marshmallows I also like to make them flavored with almond extract or peppermint extract. If you try this start with half the amount of vanilla and keep adding until you get the flavor you like. Also, once set, you can simply cut them into squares or use mini cookie cutters to cut out different shapes. Personally, I like snowflake shaped marshmallows.

Homemade Marshmallows

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or flavor of your choice)

Coat a 12×17 rimmed baking sheet with pan spray, line with parchment and spray again. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle with gelatin. Allow to soften for 5 minutes. Meanwhile place sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove lid and cook until syrup reaches 238 (soft ball) on a thermometer. With mixer on low, whisk gelatin and slowly pour in the sugar mixture. Raise the speed and whip until mixture is thick, white and has almost tripled in volume (about 12 minutes).

Add vanilla and beat 30 more seconds Pour into prepared pan. To smooth out the top coat the back of a spatula with pan spray before smoothing it out or the marshmallow mixture will stick to it. This stuff wants to stick to everything! Allow to cool, uncovered, at room temp. at least 3 hours or overnight. Coat cookie cutters with pan spray and cut into desired shapes. Dust lightly with a mixture of cornstarch and powdered sugar (1:1 ratio) and allow to air dry for 12 more hours. Store in an airtight container.