Rhubarb Pie

Marilyn's Rhubarb Cream Pie

Every spring, Mom picks rhubarb from her backyard garden and makes this recipe from the original red-and-white-check-covered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. She starts watching her rhubarb in March, hoping it will grow enough by Mother's Day to make a pie. When I call her, she updates me on the progress of the rhubarb in the spring.

When my sisters and I became mothers she began inviting us for a Mother's Day lunch and would make this pie for dessert.

Her pastry is from the recipe on the Maple Leaf Tenderflake Lard box and the pie always tasted best when baked in her old aluminum pie plate. She's now give the pie plate to me, so now I'm always watching the rhubarb in my front yard, planted under the Tulip tree, hoping the rhubarb grows enough  to be picked by Mother's Day.

When you pick fresh rhubarb, make sure you leave the main stem. Cut the leaves off right in the garden and put them around the plant as mulch, to deter insects.

Mom's original recipe needed 5 cups of fresh rhubarb and had a solid pie crust top.

If you don't have enough rhubarb or pastry, try the recipes that match the quantity you have.

Original Recipe using  5 cups of Fresh Rhubarb:

• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 2 large eggs
• 5 cups cut-up rhubarb stems

1. In a bowl, blend sugar, flour, nutmeg and butter.
2. Add lightly beaten eggs, beat smooth.
3. Put chopped rhubarb in a pastry-lined pan.
4. Pour batter over rhubarb.
5. Top with pastry round, flute edges of crust.  Prick top of pastry with fork.
6. Bake 10 minutes in a preheated 450 degree F oven.
7. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and bake 30-40 minutes more till done.

Lattice-Top 9" Pie using 4-1/2 cups of Rhubarb

This recipe is from the June 2003 Chatelaine magazine. 

• Pastry for a 9-inch two-crust pie
• 4-1/2 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb, rinsed and dried.
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Roll out a round of pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a 9-inch pie plate. Don't prick the crust. Set aside.
3. In a medium-size bowl, whisk 2 egg yolks with melted butter.
4. Stir sugar with flour and then stir into yolk mixture to form a paste.
5. Stir rhubarb into egg mixture and turn into pastry in pan.
6. Roll out remaining pastry dough and cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) wide strips.
7. Weave strips over filling to form a lattice pastry top.
8. Gently press edges to bottom crust and flute.
9. Bake pie on bottom rack of 425 degree F oven just until edges start to brown, about 10 minutes.
10. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F and bake until rhubarb is tender, 40-45 more minutes.
11. Remove pie from oven.
12. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Lattice-Top 10" Pie using 4 cups of Rhubarb

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3 beaten eggs
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 4 cups cut-up rhubarb
• 1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

Beat eggs slightly, beat in milk.

Mix sugar, flour and nutmeg together. Stir into egg mixture.

Mix in rhubarb.

Pour mixture into 10 inch pastry lined pie plate and dot with butter.

Cover with lattice top pastry.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes

Lattice Top 9" Pie Using 3 cups Rhubarb or Sour Cherries

• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 3 cups cut-up rhubarb or sour cherries
• 2 tsp butter

See instructions for Lattice Top 10" Pie.

NOTE: If pastry is browning too fast, turn temperature down to 375 degrees F.

             

Rhubarb Butter Crust Pie or  4" Tarts

This recipe is from the May, 2014 issue of Chatelaine Magazine. It has a butter pastry crust, made in a food processor, with a lattice top, and the filling is flavoured with vanilla.

Pastry

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 to 5 Tbsp ice-cold water

Whirl flour with 2 tsp granulated sugar and salt in a food processor.

Add butter.

Pulse until finely crumbled.

With machine still running, add water, 1 Tbsp at a time, through the spout.

Continue whirling until a ball forms, 30 seconds.

Divide pastry in half.

Form into 2 discs.

Wrap each with plastic and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Filling

• 7 cups chopped fresh rhubarb, about 750g
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp coarse sugar

1. Combine rhubarb with 1 cup granulated sugar in a large saucepan and set over high.
2. Boil, then reduce heat to medium.
3. Cook, stirring often, until  mixture is very thick and reduced to 2-1/2 cups, 20-35 minutes.
4. Time will depend on water content of rhubarb.
5. Stir in vanilla and cool slightly, 5 min.

Assembly

1. Position oven rack in lower third of oven.
2. Preheat to 375 degrees F.
3. Beat egg with water in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 pastry disc into a 13 inch circle.
5. Lift onto a 9-inch metal pie pan set on a baking sheet.
6. Press dough over bottom and up sides of pan, leaving 1-inch overhang.
7. Scrape rhubarb mixture into pastry.
8. Brush overhang with egg wash.
9. Roll out second pastry disc into a 12 inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick.
10. Cut into twelve 3/4 inch strips.
11. Lay 7 pastry strips vertically across pie.
12. Fold back every other strip, then lay a new strip horizontally.
13. Straighten folded strips back across pie.
14. Fold back alternate strips, then place a new strip horizontally above the first one.
15. Repeat until pie is completely covered
16. Fold overhanging pastry over lattice strips to seal.
17. Crimp edges inside the pan.
18. Brush lattice and overhang with egg wash.
19. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
20. Bake in lower third of oven until golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes.
21. Transfer pie to a rack to cool completely, 1 hour.

To Make Four 4-Inch Tarts

1. Make pastry as above but divide pastry into thirds.
2. Shape one-third of the pastry into a cube.
3. Divide remaining two-thirds of the pastry into 4 discs.
4. Wrap each with plastic and chill 30 minutes.
5. Roll each disc into a 7 inch circle.
6. Press pastry into four 4-inch tart pans (1-1/4 inch deep) set on a baking sheet, leaving 1 inch overhang.
7. Brush overhang with egg wash.
8. Divide rhubarb mixture among the four pastry shells.
9. Roll out the pastry cube into a ten-inch square, about 1/8 inch thick.
10. Cut in half, making three rectangles.
11. Cut each rectangle crosswise into twelve 3/4 inch strips, creating 24 strips 5 inches long.
12. Lay 3 strips vertically across each tart.
13. Follow instructions for lattice top as in the pie, above.
14. Bake in lower third of oven until golden brown, 40 to 50 minutes.
15. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.