What's For Dessert: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

{the delicious (if I do say so myself) strawberry-rhubarb pie}

I've seen rhubarb in the grocery store lately ('tis the season!) and all of a sudden I got quite the hankering to try to my hand at making a strawberry-rhubarb pie. The rhubarb in our local grocery stores looked pretty sad, so I decided I'd check out the offerings at the "local" farmer's market in Fort Collins on Saturday. I was in luck -- there were a lot of gorgeous stalks of rhubarb for sale.

{rhubarb!}

I scooped up several stalks and then went to Whole Foods to pick up a pack of strawberries. Back at home, I tucked my fears of pastry away and set to make a pie crust. My first attempt didn't quite work out as the recipe I followed was for a 9-inch pie crust, and of course, I didn't check to see what size of pie pan I had (whoops, 10 inch!) until after I made the crust. So . . . back to the drawing board -- I doubled the recipe and this time had plenty of crust for my pie dish. Crisis averted. The rest of the pie-making process was pretty straight forward. I opted to make a crumb topping as (a) it's much easier and (b) the last time I made a lattice-topped crust it ended up a little cattywampus.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie 

makes 12 servings

For the fruit mixture:

6 stalks rhubarb, ends removed and chopped into 1/4" pieces

2+ C strawberries, rinsed, hulled, quartered, and sliced

2 T cornstarch

3/4 C raw sugar

1. In a large bowl, mix together the rhubarb, strawberries, cornstarch, and sugar. Set aside. (Let sit for at least 15 minutes before pouring into the pie crust.

{strawberry-rhubarb mixture}

For the pie crust:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon raw sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

4+ tablespoons ice water

1. Add the flour, sea salt, and sugar into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times to mix the ingredients together.

2. Add the small pieces of butter. Pulse until the ingredients look like coarse meal.

3. Add 4 tablespoons of ice water, pulsing in between additions. When the dough comes together in your fist, it is ready. Otherwise, continue to add water in tablespoonfuls. (I probably added about 8 tablespoons due to our elevation/dry climate issues.)

4. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface. (I used a large cutting board.) Knead a couple of times to bring the dough together. Form into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

For the crumb topping:

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons raw sugar

pinch of salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1. Mix together the flour, sugars, and salt with a whisk. Add in the pieces of butter. Work the mixture with your hands until pea-sized crumbles form. Cover and place into the fridge until you are ready to use them.

{ready for the oven}

To make the pie:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. (If you are using a metal pie plate, heat the oven 25 degrees higher, or 400 degrees.)

2. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Place on a floured piece of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a 14-inch (or so, I didn't measure!) circle. Carefully place the rolled-out dough into a glass 10-inch pie dish.

3. Fit the dough into the bottom of the dish. Use kitchen shears to trim off the excess dough. Flute the edges (by pinching) if desired.

4. Pour the strawberry-rhubarb mixture into the crust.

5. Top the pie with the crumb mixture.

6. Decrease the oven heat 25 degrees -- 350 degrees for glass pie dishes; 375 degrees for metal pie plates.

7. Bake for about an hour and a half, or until the topping is browned and the crust is lightly browned.

8. Let cool completely before serving the pie. (Martha suggests letting it sit overnight -- we did mainly because I didn't get the pie out of the oven until after 9p.)

(adapted from this Martha Stewart recipe)