I know it’s rare for me to offer two very similar recipes back-to-back, but I so enjoyed the bumbleberry pie the other day that I wanted to see if I could create a strawberry/rhubarb pie using the same basic principles.
It turns out that I can, with a little tweaking.
But the real question here is why did I want more pie? Truth is, I wanted to bake some more. A person very dear to me passed away late last week, a person renown for her own baking skills, and I wanted to…what’s the word? Connect? Pay tribute? Neither seems quite correct. I guess I wanted to be comforted, and getting into the kitchen seemed the best way to do it.
It’s odd how even the acts of baking and cooking can console.
- 3 cups AP flour
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and diced int o1/4 ” pieces
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
- 1/2 cup water, cold (near freezing, if possible)
- 2 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced
- 2 1/2 cups rhubarb, sliced into 1/2″ pieces
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsps. lemon juice
- 1/8 tsp powdered ginger
- 1/8 tsp cardomom
- 1/3 cup AP flour
- 2 Tbsp butter, chilled and dice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon/Sugar
To make the dough, combine three cups of flour, the tablespoon of sugar, and the teaspoon of salt. Using your hands, mix in the butter and shortening, working with the dough until it becomes almost sand-like in its consistency. Work in the water, two tablespoons at a time, until the dough becomes one solid form. You may not need the entire half cup of water, depending upon your taste. Place the dough in the refrigerator.
After chilling in the refrigerator for one hour, divide the pie dough into two pieces. Place one of the two pieces in the freezer (wrapped in Saran wrap), the other roll into roughly a thirteen inch circle in order to place it into a 9 1/2″ pie pan.
Place the pie crust in the freezer. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine the strawberries and rhubarb, sugar, ginger, cardomom and lemon juice, folding together. When the sugar has been thoroughly incorporated, add the 1/3 cup of flour and also fold into the filling. Pour the filling into the now chilled pie shell, and smooth it level with a spoon. Dot the top of the filling with the several pieces of butter.
Take the first half of the pie dough that you had put in the freezer and grate it with a box grater over the filling, as if it were a huge chunk of cheese. Use a fork if you have to distribute the dough gratings evenly. Once done, sprinkle the top with the vanilla sugar.
Place in the oven and bake for thirty minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and rotate the pie 180 degrees, so an even baking will occur. Bake for another 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 2 hours.
Serves 8
