Rhubarb Pie

 

So exciting, rhubarb just arrived at the farmer’s market. I was so excited the guy selling me the rhubarb was a bit taken aback. Poor thing. And if you’re not into pie, here’s a great recipe for rhubarb and strawberries that’s super easy.

This uses the same crust recipe as the Tarte Tatin (pate brisee which you can do in a food processor, for that recipe, click here) in an earlier post, and you can bake in anything you’ve got - springform cake pan, pie pan, etc… Pictured here is in a tarte pan.

Put in a medium bowl: 2 1/2 c flour (about 11 ounces if you’re weighing)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks of very cold unsalted butter cut up into pretty thin slices (as many as you have patience for)

It helps if you’re in a room that’s cool to cold (ie. NOT hot) and your hands are also not hot… what you do is mix up the flour with the butter, and start pinching the butter between your thumb and forefinger and middle finger. The idea is to be quick about it, so you’re only mixing the butter, not melting it. You do this until the mixture is crumbly and further pinching just starts to stick together big clumps of already mixed butter and flour (like this).

I added chopped pecans to this dough which is a nice addition to any fruit filling… about half a cup unchopped… add this after you finish pinching, and before you add water so you can mix more easily throughout the dough.

Then have 5 tablespoons of iced water handy… sprinkle that on this mixture. Dump it out onto a long (2 ft) sheet of plastic wrap - and mold quickly into a ball or as close as you can get to one.

Mash it down with a rolling pin until it starts to resemble a thick pancake. Put in the fridge for at least 1 hour, more if you have a bar fridge like me. This gives the dough a chance to rest, otherwise it will shrink a lot during baking - and no one dies but your tarte is not as pretty. 

 

Meanwhile, chop rhubarb into 1/2 inch thick or 3/4 inch slices until you have 4 cups worth. Add to a bowl with 3T flour, 1 cup raw sugar, 1 egg and a pinch of salt. Mix until the rhubarb is coated. 

Now that your crust dough has had time to shrink/ rest in the fridge. Take it back out and start rolling out. If you either turn your dough or the rolling pin slightly to the left after each time, you’ll get a more even crust. Once your dough is rolled out, I put the pan on top just to make sure I have enough dough for the edges.

Pictured here on the left is nearly done, I rolled a bit more just to be sure. Then take away the cling film from one side and carefully flip the dough into the pan.

You want to position the dough so it’s evenly on top of the pan, with enough for the sides, before you start pushing down the dough into the corners of the pan (where the bottom meets the sides). At this point, you can put back in the fridge to let it settle for another 20-30 mins. 

 

Once back out, you can push back the edges so they hang over the edge of the pan. Then, run the rolling pin across the top of the pan - which gives you a nice even edge. Pre-heat the oven at this point to 350F.

If you collect the excess dough, you generally will have enough to make thin lattices across the top of the pie - just ball up, put between two sheets of cling film and roll out again (if you have time, refrigerate for 20 mins, it’ll make the dough easier to handle). Cut the small piece of flat dough you have, peel off each strip, and lay on top of the pie. That’s your lattice.

If you don’t feel like making a lattice or don’t like how it looks/ tastes, you can also make a crumble topping with oatmeal: melt 1/3 cup of butter. Then mix with: 1/2 cup of flour, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 1/2 cup of raw or brown sugar. Sprinkle this on top of the pie.

Dot the pie with 2 Tablespoons of butter (cut up into little pieces). I forgot to dot before the lattice, so rather than taking it off and making a mess, I just dotted in the open spaces.

Bake for 40 mins… if the lattice or crumble is not brown enough, you can broil for 2 or 2 1/2 minutes until you get the desired browness. Serve warm or cold… with ice cream or as is. 

Enjoy!