I have a lot of strawberry and rhubarb pie recipes, but this one's the oldest. It's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Streusel, and it can be made with frozen rhubarb or fresh.
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Fresh Rhubarb vs Frozen
In the beginning I always made this pie with frozen rhubarb because the fresh type was hard to find. Rhubarb lovers appreciated it, but I didn't care much for the pie because I didn't like the texture. That changed when I finally started using fresh rhubarb. The texture was less mushy and celery-like. So my advice is to go ahead and use frozen if you know you like rhubarb, but if you a trying to introduce rhubarb pie to someone or are picky about textures, it's best to start with fresh.
This strawberry rhubarb pie, which I cobbled together after looking at pies from Edna Lewis, King Arthur, Allrecipes.com and Epicurious, is just perfect. It has a complex, tart flavor and isn't a bit runny.
The key thickener is flour, and all you need to do is toss it with the rhubarb and strawberries. Edna Lewis sprinkles a little bit of the flour/sugar mixture over the pie crust as well, which I believe might absorb some of the juice and stave off sogginess.
Now that I've discovered fresh rhubarb I'm sure I could go back to frozen, but if frozen rhubarb is all you can find, I think it would still work very well.
One last thing. For the crust I just used a basic 3-2-1 crust recipe. Use whatever crust you feel like, be it homemade, refrigerated Pillsbury or deep dish frozen. Don't ever let worrying about the crust prevent you from making a pie -- especially one that's as easy as this.
Recipe
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients
Filling:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups diced rhubarb 1 pound
- 2 cups sliced and trimmed strawberries
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
Crumb Topping:
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar golden okay too
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Set a foil lined rimmed baking sheet on the middle rack.
- Stir together the sugar, flour and salt. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of the sugar mixture over the bottom of the unbaked shell.
- In a large bowl, stir together remaining sugar mixture, rhubarb, strawberries and orange zest; set aside while you make the topping.
- Mix the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Combine melted butter and vanilla and pour over mixture. Stir until crumbly.
- Spoon the rhubarb mixture into the pie shell, then sprinkle topping evenly over the pie to cover completely. Set the pie on the hot baking sheet and put it in the oven.
- Bake the pie at 400 for 25 minutes, then reduce heat to 375. Lay a sheet of foil loosely over the pie and continue baking another 40 minutes. Remove foil after 40 minutes and if crumb topping isn't brown enough for you, bake for another 10.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack. Do not cut into the pie until it is completely cool or it will be runny. For best results, let cool completely and re-warm.
Anna says
Ground up tapioca is a great thickener! I've used it before in cherry pie. Unfortunately, I didn't have any tapioca and forgot to buy it so I just went with flour. After debating between cornstarch and flour, I was happy I'd chosen the flour. Thanks for the raspberry tip!!
KATM says
Strawberry rhubarb is one of my favorites. I grew up in NE and we had a ton of it in our garden. Unfortunately a little hard to find here in TX. My mom would make compote and we'd have it on ice cream or pancakes and sometimes it didn't make it from the pan to a jar because we ate it all. For strawberry rhubarb pie I've always used ground up tapioca as a thickener rather than flour. I find the filling ends up with a better texture and doesn't have the cloudy, pinkish color that you end up with when you use flour. For family with allergies I've also replaced the strawberries with raspberries which turned out to be a great combination. In the fall I use up any frozen rhubarb in apple and rhubarb crisp. Good stuff!
Anna says
Sue, I'm with you on the baked strawberries. Surprisingly, the strawberries kind of blended in with the rhubarb and I didn't get that weird baked strawberry texture.
Sue says
I grew up with rhubarb too and have always loved it. We have rhubarb plants in our backyard so we are well supplied. I grew up with rhubarb custard pie and it is one of my favorite pies. I'm not wild about baked strawberries so the rhubarb strawberry combo has never interested me. Maybe I should give it another try when the rhubarb is big enough to cut. Your pie looks wonderful.
Kate | HappyForks.com says
Rhubarb compote is a taste of my childhood as well - with pieces of orange peel, cloves and sugar or honey to taste. Rhubarb in fact may be a great way to introduce more vegetables to a diet. Although most of the times rhubarb is treated and eaten as a fruit - yes, in fact it is vegetable! It contains only 21 kcal and almost 2 grams of fiber in each 100 g. I wish rhubarb was available all year long.
Nance Koning says
Just went to The Girl and the Goat last night, was suppose to be for Valentines day but my husband made reservations first of January and we finally got in yesterday. I had the tres leche dessert. As a kid I loved to eat raw rhubarb with my Morfar,
We sat at the chefs table so I watched her make it. It was RAW rhubarb and strawberries maserated with pink peppercorns.........it was amazing,
That said I cook quarterly to fill my FIL's freezer and the number one item I have to make is Strawberry Rhubarb pie........now I will make this next time to get out of the rut Taksa Mychet for posting
Anna says
Carol, thanks for the compote tip. I have a couple of stalks leftover and might try that. Interesting that people aren't as excited by pies. I'm finding that as I get older, I like pie more and people seem to appreciate it more than cake. When we were all younger we liked cake, but now pie is more interesting. Maybe it has to do with all the varying textures? Not that I don't still love cake....
Carol says
I lived in Illinois my first 32 years and we had rhubarb in our yard growing up. My mom made some compote or something with it that included sugar and strawberry jello. I was one of the few that would not eat it. I have made my parents a rhubarb custard pie a few times and my Mom said it was one of the best pies she ever had. The ultimate compliment that it was coming from my own mom! I will have to look for it and make it the next time I see them. I love making pies but most people don't get as excited by them as I do.