“It is so annoying that you can’t eat anything sweet anymore without feeling guilty about it!”. I was working in the cafè in Savonlinna when I heard an old woman saying that sentence to her friend.
It was easy to hear from the woman’s voice that she was genuinely upset. I felt bad for her. Like someone would have ruined the highlight of her day. The day that probably did not include many other highlights than the afternoon coffee with a piece of sweet pie eaten with her friend.
“I know what you mean.”, I noticed answering to her in my head.
White sugar and white flour. Bad, bad, both bad. You do not need to read many magazines to get the message. You should not eat them at all because they ruin your health and can cut down your lifespan. They simply do not include anything good for your wellbeing.
Or do they?
I agree that too much white sugar and white flour is bad. For example, I have found a correlation between too much sugar and my joint pain. And too much white flour causes constipation and makes me tired. Both of them (if I eat too much), make me also feel blue. Not a good thing.
BUT.
I have also tested that I eat a piece of sweet pie every day and that I eat bread or some other food that includes white flour every day. The result: No difference in my mood nor physical wellbeing.
On the contrary, I have felt great both physically and mentally.
I have felt that the quality of my life has been higher during the times when I have allowed myself to eat a little bit of everything every day than during the times when I have banned myself everything unhealthy.
I have felt free and that, I think, is a big thing in life.
So if you ask me the thing with food really is balance and moderation in everything. It is good to learn ways how to tame your sweet tooth but there is no need to go extremes if you do not have a good reason for it.
That is why I publish this sweet recipe too. The recipe that includes pretty much everything that you should not eat.
(Of course, rhubarb does not belong to them. Read more about the health benefits of rhubarb here.)
This recipe I have got from my mom. It is super simple but also super delicious. Like my mom has said, “Because this recipe is so simple, it allows the real taste of rhubarb to come out”. This pie has brought me a lot of joy and that is why I want to share it with you.
So here is what you need for The Grandma’s Simplest and The Best Rhubarb Pie:
- 6 eggs
- 3 dl white sugar
- 3,75 dl white wheat flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 150 g butter
- rhubarb pieces
Bake in 200ºC about 15-20 minutes.
Here are the more detailed instructions:
1. Break eggs and add sugar in them.
2. Melt butter and mix baking powder with wheat flour.
3. Whip eggs and sugar.
4. Add flour mixture and butter into the dough.
5. Pour the dough into the baking tray.
6. Lick the dough. (It is so good!)
7. Put the rhubarb pieces on top of the dough.
8. Put the pie into the oven.
Bake in 200ºC about 15-20 minutes.
9. Sprinkle sugar on top of the pie.
10. Make some coffee or tea and enjoy your pie with vanilla sauce or ice cream.
What more important, enjoy every piece of your pie!
“For them, it seems, eating is a life-enriching exploit, not a chore, and certainly not a guilt-trip. (…) They eat slowly, enjoying both the food and the company.”
Those words are from the Guardian’s article “Let them eat cake”. It tells about French and their relationship with food. How the French live longer and have lower death rates from coronary heart disease compared to UK and US citizens. And how just 10 % of French adults are obese despite their diet stuffed with cream, butter, cheese and meat.
I haven’t seen that old lady since that day in cafè. If I see her, I would like to tell her about that article. And that really, there is no need for her to feel guilty about having a piece of sweet with her friend.
For you too I would like to give a test;
On a beautiful summer day, ask your friend to go for an outdoor terrace with you. Enjoy something sweet together and afterwards, think whether your experience included more negative or positive for your health and happiness?
I have made this test already many times. The result has been always the same.
(Super simple & super delicious blueberry pie recipe you find here.)
Photos: Marianne Ahonen Photography.
