Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
June is strawberry season in Oregon. After making Strawberry Pavlovas we were in the mood for more reasons to celebrate the local berry harvest. I picked up a flat of freshly picked berries from a local berry farm, a variety called Shuksan. They are, without a doubt, the most flavorful, delicious strawberries I have ever eaten! Perfectly ripe and as sweet as can be, they taste like summertime. I pondered what I might make with them and, having been a pie maker all of my life, realized I have never made a strawberry rhubarb pie. With the 4th of July around the corner, I thought, “What a perfect pie for the 4th! A classic American summer pie.”
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
You can’t go wrong with the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie recipe from the New York Times. I followed their recipe for the strawberry rhubarb filling only, but made approximately 1.25 times the recipe, since I used a deep dish pie pan. I made my own favorite recipe for a flaky pie crust the women in my family have been making for 5 GENERATIONS! I’ve shared this much loved recipe below. It is perfectly flaky and tender. Using shortening is the key to a light and flaky crust (or lard, if you can procure it).
Strawberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
Since you absolutely must eat pie with ice cream, I bought enough fruit to make No Churn Strawberry Rhubarb Ice Cream, an easy recipe from Sarah Kieffer found here. I loved how simple this recipe is. I think it’s genius to use freeze dried strawberry powder to tint the ice cream a soft pink naturally (I did not add any food coloring) as well as whipping the cream, so the final concoction freezes in it’s creamy state, rather than separate slowly while sitting in the freezer. My mom freeze-dried the fresh strawberries, but you can purchase them at places such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or Amazon.
Make the ice cream several hours before you plan to serve the pie so it has time to freeze completely.
Flaky Pie Crust
[Makes a double crust for a deep dish pie pan]
Ingredients
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1-1/3 cups + 1/4 cup shortening (or 1-1/3 cups lard)
1/2 cups ice water
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Instructions
With pastry blender or fork, combine dry ingredients, then cut in shortening. Sprinkle water in and mix with fork. Make into a ball, flatten slightly into a thick disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough until ready to roll. When ready to use, roll it between 2 pieces of waxed paper (a tip that makes it is a breeze to unpeel paper from the dough and place in pie dish). I roll out my crust into a large circle slightly thicker than 1/8″.
Place one rolled dough round in the pie dish. Fill with the fruit filling and dot with the butter. Make a lattice top with the second rolled round of dough. Cut dough into 3/4″ strips. Place across length of pie, leaving 3/4″ of space between strips. Weave the strips into a lattice design, following the simple instructions shown here. Crimp pie crust edges. Brush top of crust with milk, sprinkle with sugar and bake according to the pie recipe directions here.
When pie has set for at least 3 hours (or overnight) serve with the strawberry rhubarb ice cream.
