It was Monday afternoon and I was at home, waiting for my love to return many hours later from a week in Memphis. I had a sturdy bundle of deep red rhubarb and a pint of the sweetest-smelling strawberries the crisp March sun had ever grown in my kitchen. I had a jar of whole wheat flour and too much butter and this incredible need to make a pie-- an action I crave always yet am usually to intimidated by the thought to start. But here we were; strawberries, rhubarb, flour, butter and I with an afternoon free to knead and slice and chill and lattice to my heart's content.
I didn't grow up with pie and I definitely didn't grow up with Strawberry Rhubarb pie. Having spent my childhood as a German-Italian transplant living in the foothills of Colorado, I couldn't believe my luck at going over to friends' homes for dinner. My eyes would grow enormous with excitement at the site of "real Italian" spaghetti & meatballs, with the sauce on the side and Parmesan from a green-capped shaker. And ranch dressing! That they put on pizza! And the snacks! Oh, the snacks. The pantries I gazed longingly at overflowing with fruit-roll-ups and twinkies and gushers!
I can imagine now how my friends felt having dinner at my house. Gnocchi with Gorgonzola? Weird. Prosciutto and sweet melon? "Is that meat cooked?" But then the tiramisu. I'm sure any weirdness was forgiven after the tiramisu. Having lived in Colorado for a solid 15+ years now, I rarely have that reaction to food anymore. I've grown out of the wonder and into the appreciation for the variety of cooking I experienced. Until I tasted Sarah's Strawberry Rhubarb pie. My god, it was as if America had been lying to me all these years. The tartness of the rhubarb dancing with the warm sweetness of the strawberries and then something about tapioca! What! Mind blown. But I lost the recipe. A dummy, I am.
So on Monday, I made pie. I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe as a basis and spun it my own special way. If you want to make this, don't be intimidated to make your own pie crust. It's so damn simple, you won't believe you'd ever bought store-ready crust.
So here we go.
Super Simple Pie Crust
(adapted from Smitten Kitchen's All-Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough)
Makes enough dough for one double-crust pie with dough to spare.
{2 1/2 cups whole wheat unbleached flour (I used Bob's Red Mill brand but pretty much any wheat flour will do)
{1 tablespoon organic cane sugar
{1 teaspoon fine table salt
{1 cup organic unsalted butter, very cold (I like to chop mine up and then put it back in the fridge until I'm ready for it)
{1 cup ice-cold water
In the bowl of a mixer you want to hand-whisk the flour, sugar, and salt. Set bowl in mixer and add butter, tiny piece-by-piece, with mixer on lowest speed. Once all butter has been added (take your time!), set the mixer speed to 1, or just barely faster than the minimum speed. Watch closely. As soon as the butter pieces look smaller than pea-sized turn the mixer off. Visible butter means many lovely buttery layers!
Very slowly begin adding 1/2 cup of very cold water, with mixer on low speed. Add more water very slowly if dough is too dry. When it looks ready to knead, stop the mixer and get your hands in the bowl. You don't want to actually knead it. You want to smush it once or twice to incorporate any loose bits and the form two balls. Wrap these in plastic wrap and chill in your fridge for at least one hour. Overnight is ideal but who wants to wait that long for pie?
When the time's up, pull out one ball and roll it into a circle to fit your greased pie dish. When your crust is filled, roll out the other ball of dough and either drape over the filling or, using a pizza or pastry cutter, slice into strips and lattice. There! You did it! You made your own pie crust! Isn't it easy?
Now for the fun part.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
{1 recipe Super Simple Pie Crust
{1 1/2 pounds rhubarb, in 1/2-inch thick slices
{1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
{3/4 cup organic cane sugar
{1 tablespoon raw turbinado sugar (optional)
{juice of one organic lemon
{1/4 teaspoon salt
{1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca pearls
{2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
{1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
First off, prepare your pie crust and place it in your pie dish. Pop this in the fridge for now! Then, wash, trim, and slice rhubarb and strawberries and combine into one big bowl.
Add sugar, lemon juice, salt, and tapioca to the bowl and mix very well. Spoon this into the pie crust. Dot the filling with little itty bitty bits of butter.
Roll out top crust and cut holes for ventilation or slice to lattice pie. Trim edges to even with the dish crimp edges to make them pretty. I like to gently squeeze the overhanging dough (no more than a 1/2 inch) between my thumb and pointer & middle finger to make a cute wave around the edge.
Beat one large egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of cold water for a pretty egg wash. Gently brush this mixture over entire top crust.
Bake for 20 minutes. Then, decrease the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until you see the crust getting golden and the sweet guts bubbling.
Let cool on a wire tray so the juices gel up really nicely.
Eat up! Be proud that you made something so delicious! I know I was.
I have so many more delicious things to share with you so stay tuned!
Much love,
Marta
