I Love Pie: Strawberry Rhubarb

By Nora

As the title of this post clearly states, I love pie. I make it as a dessert for almost every major holiday, and if it's in the house it almost always gets eaten within a few days (usually by me). I haven't been all that adventurous when it comes to baking pies, however, but I was inspired during last week's trip to the grocery store by the blushing red stalks of rhubarb in the produce section.

On the spot, I decided that it would be a very spring-y thing to do to bake a strawberry rhubarb pie for Easter, even though I had no previous experience with the curious rhubarb. In fact, I had to look it up on Wikipedia to find out if it was a fruit or vegetable! The verdict: "Rhubarb is usually considered to be a vegetable; however, in the United States, a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties." So there ya go.

So I used my handy dandy new All Recipes app on my iPad to search for Strawberry Rhubarb pie recipes, and came across this one, which, simply put, TOTALLY BLEW MY SKIRT UP. It was the perfect combination of tart and sweet, and the crumble topping complemented the texture of the filling so well that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Believe me when I say this was absolutely the best homemade pie I have ever tasted. In fact, it was so good that i'm going to try to branch out and bake some other types of pies i've never attempted before, so I'll report back to you on the results over the next few months. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Pie

1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 lb fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pint fresh strawberries, halved
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell or ready-made pie crust

Crumb Topping

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup cold butter
1 unbaked pie shell 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg. Add the sugar, flour and vanilla; mix well. Gently fold in the rhubarb and strawberries until combined. Pour in pie shell. For the topping, combine flour, brown sugar, and oats in a small bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the pie filling and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes more or until golden brown and bubbly.

 

The pie before I covered it with crumble topping and put it in the oven. 

A slice with whipped cream just before I shoveled it down my pie hole.

Comments

[Elissa]

Wow, that looks so delicious. I love pie and I love rhubarb. Just noticed some rhubarb at my farmer's market this week, so I need to get baking!

[Mama Bub]

This is a pie that I might actually attempt. Except that I'm going to have google rhubarb so I can find it.

[Caitlin]

I LOVE pie! And my husband does too. So much so that at our wedding we had wedding pies instead of cake.

I drooled over this picture. Strawberry rhubarb is one of my favorites! My grandmother always grew rhubarb in the garden, and so I ate a lot of these pies growing up. In fact, I have a cutting from her rhubarb plant in my garden and expect to be using lots of it this summer and I'll have to try this recipe. Now if the farmers' markets would just hurry up with their offerings already!