Rhubarb is usually in season around late May to June each year. If you are able to get a lot of rhubarb and have the freezer space, it freezes well if you cut up the rhubarb and blanch it. Otherwise, expect a short window of time each year when you will have the opportunity to make rhubarb pie. Strawberry-rhubarb pie seems to be more popular, but I prefer to stick with straight rhubarb for my pies. For those of you who insist on including strawberries, replace half of the rhubarb could be with strawberries in this recipe. Vanilla ice cream is WONDERFUL with pure rhubarb pie!
1. Mix together in a bowl:
> 6 cups cut rhubarb
> ⅞ cup sugar (may use 1 cup sugar if there's a lot of "green" rhubarb in the mix)
> 2 Tablespoons flour
> 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
Let the rhubarb mixture sit while you prepare the pastry. Stir it occasionally to get the juices all mixed and gooey.
2. Make and roll out pastry for double-crust pie.
3. Line pie pan with the dough, fill with rhubarb mixture, dot with a little butter, and then put top crust on. Pinch and flute the edges. Carve a steam hole in center. (Today we carved it in the shape of pi, so Desiree can celebrate Pi Day (3/14; pi = 3.14) tomorrow with her nerdy Science Olympiad Buddies.) Cover pie crust edges with foil.
4. Bake at 400°F. The pie is finished when the filling is bubbly and gel-like through the carve hole, and the crust is browned. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour.
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| Rhubarb and flour mixture. It is initially dry, but after sitting while making the pie dough, and stirring the rhubarb occasionally, it will become a little gooey. |
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| Bottom shell is filled with rhubarb mixture and dotted with butter. |
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| This rhubarb pie is ready to bake. The "pi" symbol was carved out for the vent hole. To find a symbol for pi, go to Google Images and print out a pi symbol to use as a reference. |
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| Here is a finished rhubarb pie, right out of the oven. Note the bubbly juices coming out of the vent holes in the top of the crust. There's a brown spot in the crust that could have been prevented by covering it with a little piece of foil when it started turning brown...but I was too busy updating my recipe blog and didn't catch it on time! |
