Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
This quintessential springtime pie is a classic for good reason! Sweet, juicy strawberries and tart rhubarb pair together perfectly in a buttery, flaky pie crust for a delicious dessert.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
For the crust
- 3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 22 tablespoon cold butter, cut into ½ inch pieces (2 ¾ sticks, or 1 ⅜ cups)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 9 tablespoon ice water
For the filling
- 1 ¼ lbs fresh rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces (about 4 ½ cups)
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered (about 3 cups)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 egg, beaten with a small splash of water
- 1 tablespoon coarse sugar
Instructions
Prepare the pie dough
- Add flour and salt to a large bowl and stir with your (clean!) fingers to combine. Add the cubed cold butter, tossing to separate pieces and coat with flour. Use your fingertips to mash the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that looks mostly like coarse cornmeal, but with some larger pieces of butter still intact.
- Drizzle in the vinegar and ice water while stirring gently with your other hand to evenly distribute the liquid. Knead in the bowl with your hands just until a shaggy ball starts to form, then turn it out onto your work surface and use your hands to gently bring it together into a disk.
- Cut the disk into 4 pieces, stack the pieces on top of each other and press down with your hands to flatten and combine, patting any straggler dry pieces back in. Cut again into two pieces and form each into a disk about 1 inch thick. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Roll out the pie dough
- Let chilled pie dough sit on the counter for about 10 minutes to slightly soften before rolling. Starting with one disk, roll out on a well floured work surface until about ⅛" thick, frequently rotating the disk as you roll to prevent it from sticking to the counter and to help minimize large cracks on the edges.
- Carefully roll it up around the rolling pin to help you transfer it into a deep 9-inch pie plate (this will be the bottom crust). Gently ease the dough into the pie plate by lifting up the edges of the dough with one hand and lightly pressing it into the corners of the pie plate with your other hand. Put the dough-lined pie plate back into the fridge.
- Roll out the second disk the same way you did the first. Carefully roll crust up around the rolling pin to help you transfer it to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (this will be the top crust). Put the baking sheet back into the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Make the filling & put it together
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly to combine. Transfer mixture to a large colander, set colander back inside the mixing bowl to catch the juices, and let it sit and macerate for about 15 minutes.
- Add cornstarch to the rhubarb/strawberry mixture and mix thoroughly to combine. Transfer mixture to the prepared pie plate and smooth the top into an even layer. Top with the chilled circle of pie dough and press lightly around the rim of the pie pan to adhere the top and bottom together. Trim excess dough around the pie, leaving about a ½ inch overhang. Fold the edges up and under to seal and going around the perimeter of the pie, and use your thumb and index finger on one hand and your index finger on the other hand to crimp the edge of the pie.
- Brush top of pie with the egg and water mixture, sprinkle the top with coarse sugar, and use a sharp knife to cut a few vents in the top. Place the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375°F, rotate the baking sheet 180 degrees, and bake for an additional 45 minutes, checking the pie a few times to make sure the crust isn't getting too brown. If it is, cover it with strips of tin foil.
- Allow the pie to cool to room temperature (3-4 hours or preferably overnight) before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- When working with the crust, keep everything as cold as possible. This helps it get flaky and tender instead of tough and greasy. Pie crust gets its desirable flakiness when the fat (i.e. butter, which has a high water content) in the dough melts in the oven and creates steam.
- This is also why we start the initial baking temp high and then drop it - the fat melts more quickly at a higher temperature, creating that steam that helps with the flakiness. We then lower the temp so the bottom crust & filling has a chance to cook without the top burning.
- If at any point the dough feels too soft when you're working with it, pop it back in the fridge for a few minutes.
- This recipe does call for a lot of sugar - but a fair amount of it drains off while the rhubarb and strawberries macerate.
- Put the egg wash and sugar on BEFORE you transfer it to the foil-lined baking sheet. If there are sugar granules all over the baking sheet, they will burn in the oven.
- Check on your pie a couple times throughout the baking process, if it looks like it's getting too dark around the edges, cover them with strips of foil.