Strawberry Rhubarb pie

My kids helped me make a special breakfast for Father's Day. Pancakes with strawberries, mangoes and homemade whipped cream... yum! But instead of a simple pint of strawberries, I was tempted by the giant Crate o' Berries at Costco so I had lots and lots of berries that would be getting too ripe by tomorrow. What to do, what to do...

While browsing through the yard (looking for a child who had escaped into the neighbor's yard) I remembered that we have rhubarb growing under the lilac bushes. Having forgotten about the plant since we moved in, I was surprised to find that the stalks are about yay big:

They looked perfect to harvest so I snapped off a few and brought them inside. As much as I wanted to have many people fan me with the leaves and feed me grapes, I resisted (warning, don't eat the leaves either, they are poisonous). Here is the recipe for your own strawberry rhubarb pie.

Crust...
1 1/2 cups flour
pinch salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 sticks butter, very cold (freeze it if you have time) and cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
3-4 tbsp ice water
if you are making a fruit pie, you can add the zest of 1 lemon, lime or orange

Filling...
1 pint strawberries
3 stalks rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping...
1/2 cup butter (I used Can't Believe It's Not Butter and it turned out OK)
1/2 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
Handful slivered almonds

1. The trick to this crust is not to be heavy-handed. Pulse the ingredients as few times as possible. The less you handle the crust the flakier it will be. Combine all dry crust ingredients in your food processor and pulse a few times. Add butter and pulse until everything looks crumbly. Beat egg slightly and add it slowly as you pulse a few more times. Then drizzle water in slowly, still pulsing, until everything starts to pull together.

2. Pinch a bit of the crust in your fingers - it should stick together but not be "sticky". Roll it all into a ball kneading to combine anything that hasn't been already.

3. Roll crust out and place in your favorite pie pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.


4. Wash rhubarb and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Wash, cap and slice strawberries, watching for any little sneaky hands that will steal your fruit.

5. Toss fruit with flour, sugar and vanilla. Pour into par-baked pie shell.

6. At this point, if you want to be just like me, you can toss a full container of oatmeal on the floor where it will cover the kitchen and go down the heat vents (I guess we'll see what happens with that come winter). Feel free to skip this step if you want.

7. Combine all topping ingredients and mash together. You can use a fork, a pastry cutter or just your hands. Crumble the topping over the fruit.

8. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until juices start to bubble. Let cool to room temperature before serving - if you can wait that long!

I can't even tell you how good this was! The crust was light and flaky and perfectly done. The strawberries were sweet with the occasional tart bite of rhubarb. The almonds in the crumb topping were fantastic, they added even more crunch. Try it with walnuts or pecans if you want. The pie was perfect at room temperature and didn't ooze juice all over. Serve with whipped cream, crème fraîche or some vanilla ice cream!

love, etc.
jeri