Tom Douglas

Rhubarb Pie/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

For the first time since planting it last year, I cut stalks off my rhubarb plant (the start for which I got from a rhubarb grower at a Little Tastes event at Dahlia).  Leaving my rhubarb plant with only 3 leaves, I harvested just enough stalks (well, almost enough, I bulked it out with some strawberries) to make one pie for a Sunday night dinner at our friends’ house.

Here’s my recipe:

Your favorite pie crust recipe for a double crust 9 inch pie (my favorite is the all butter pastry recipe on page 256 of Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen.  That recipe will yield about 3 ounces more dough than you need for a double crust pie, which you can cut off and freeze or toss before rolling out the rest of the dough. Also, when making the dough, remember that you’re adding ice water “as needed.”  Don’t worry if you need a bit more water than the 1/2 cup specified in the recipe. Use enough so the dough just holds lightly together when clumped in your hands.)

1 pound plus 4 ounces of rhubarb, sliced or diced plus 8 ounces of strawberries, hulled and sliced or roughly chopped if large (or just use 1 1/2 pounds of rhubarb)

a scant 1 cup sugar (plus a little more for sprinkling on top)

1/4 cup flour

For the egg wash: 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons of milk, cream, or water

In a bowl, combine the rhubarb and strawberries (or just rhubarb) with the sugar and flour.

Divide the dough in two pieces, one a bit smaller than the other. On a floured board (I like using a large silpat mat) with a floured rolling pin, roll the larger disk of dough and place it in your pie pan.  Add the fruit to the pie pan. Roll out the smaller piece of dough to cover the top of the pie. Trim excess dough and crimp edges.  Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash and sprinkle with a little sugar. Cut a few slashes in the top of the pie to release steam.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Then turn the heat down to 375 degrees and continue baking another 45 to 55 minutes, until the crust is golden and you can see liquid bubbling in the cuts on top of the pie.

Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool for at least an hour before serving- with vanilla ice cream of course.

Happy Memorial Day!!!  If we can’t have any sunshine for our BBQs, at least we can have pie!

May 31st, 2010