Rhubarb seems to be one of those foods that people either love or hate. I love it, but I didn’t feel like using it for strawberry-rhubarb pie, the pie that introduced me to rhubarb.
Instead, I decided to make a pie whose filling is essentially a rhubarb fool. The pie itself is easy to prepare, but because each of the components requires time to chill, it won’t provide instant gratification. Some things, however, are worth the wait.

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The wet weather in these parts led to an almost (but not quite) predictable cancellation of soccer games on the weekend that we were supposed to provide snacks. This means I ended up staring at a surplus of navel oranges and thinking, “What am I going to do with these?”
Marmalade presented itself as an option, except I’m still in Pi Day pie (a la) mode, so I don’t want to be distracted with canning. Then I thought, “I wonder whether a marmalade topping would work well on a tea-flavored cheesecake pie?”
Let’s find out, shall we?

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In the ScienceBlogs Pi Day bake-off, it would seem that Pastry Chef Free-Ride has a posse.
Reader Jake emailed me to share a pie recipe for me to prepare with the sprogs. Writes Jake, “This is one member of the extended family of molasses crumb pies and a cousin to the Pennsylvania Dutch Shoo-fly Pie. This recipe comes from my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother, and when it comes out right (tends to vary a bit with relative humidity and barometric pressure) it is nowhere near as gooey or sickly sweet as most shoo-fly pies I’ve had. A cooled slice can be picked up with the fingers and eaten out of hand with no mess other than a crumb or two.”
As someone who spent half a dozen summers of my life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I’m happy to make the acquaintance of a less gooey, less sickly sweet pie from the shoo-fly lineage. As a bonus (yeah, I’m talking to you, jc), the recipe doesn’t call for any ingredient more exotic than molasses.
Here’s the recipe, with our commentary on the preparation:

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We’re still a week away from Pi Day, but the break in the rain here has made me believe that spring may be on its way. What better way to celebrate spring (especially in the aftermath of a wintertime fruit pie) than a violet custard pie?
The violet custard is based on a recipe from The Savory Way by Deborah Madison.
The day before you’re going to bake the pie:
Go out to the garden and pick about 150 violets.

Avoid the ones with little bitty slugs on them.

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