It's been a while since I'd made any sort of pie, and I had a less than ideal strawberry rhubarb pie yesterday. I wanted to wash that memory away with a better pie. (I am still convinced strawberries should never go anywhere near a cooked pie -- why ruin perfectly good in-season strawberries? I'm really grossed out by cooked strawberries in general though. The texture is too much like rotten strawberries.)
I've made rhubarb pies a couple of times in the past, each one a little different. This time, I finally had my own home-grown rhubarb! However, the challenge this time was that I only had enough butter on hand for a single crust pie and the one I liked that I made before had two crusts, and I didn't want to run to the store, so I needed to look for something else. I stumbled upon Sarah Kate Gillingham's recipe for rhubarb crumble pie on The Kitchn and rather liked the idea of a crumb top. I share her opinion on pies with rhubarb -- you don't need to add anything crazy to them to make them taste good. Rhubarb is sour, yes, but also really quite nice on its own.
"Don't wait for strawberries. It's May and it's time to celebrate. Make pie now."
Notes and substitutions:
- I used rhubarb that I grew and cut from my own garden, and 1 3/4 lb ended up being 8-9 large stalks about 1 inch thick and ~15 inches long.
- I REALLY like the flavor of this pie crust. Normally I just replace any rolled pie dough in a recipe with Smitten Kitchen's because it's my go-to and I know I like it, but I am really glad I gave this one a try. I also liked how easy it was to work with and roll. Absolutely no problems with breaking or cracking.
- I chilled the pie shell in the freezer for about 20 minutes instead of in the fridge for 30 minutes because I hadn't realized that it needed to be chilled until I got to that step into the directions. Hooray not reading the recipe all the way through before starting!
- I used coconut oil instead of butter in the topping because I used all the butter I had for the crust. It worked fine and it tasted better than I expected it to. The texture probably would have been a little better and more varied if I'd used butter, but the coconut oil thankfully was still solid enough to do the job. If you go this route, try to get one that doesn't have a strong coconut taste, and work it into the mixture with a wooden spoon instead of your fingers because the heat from your hands is enough to melt it completely. It may work even better if you chilled the coconut oil in the fridge or freezer first (I did not have that foresight).
- It ended up pretty juicy on the inside, but the bottom crust was cooked and not soggy on the outside. Next time I will not mix together the filling ingredients until immediately before putting it in the shell and see if that helps. I also might have measured the corn starch incorrectly and ended up with too little, so make sure you measure it accurately. It definitely got hot enough in the oven to activate the corn starch because the filling did thicken some and didn't taste like uncooked cornstarch.
Verdict: I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this and I'd make it again. If I made it again I might try to sprinkle in some vanilla and cardamom next time to see what happens because I love how it tastes with rhubarb.
RECIPE: Rhubarb Crumble Pie
