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Passport & Plate - Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

USA | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
For the crust:
2 cups flour, plus some for rolling out dough
½ tsp kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into chunks
½ cup vegetable shortening, cold, cut into chunks
1-5 Tbl ice water

For the filling:
4 cups rhubarb, cut into a half-inch dice
3-4 cups strawberries, sliced
1 cup sugar
3-4 Tbl cornstarch

1 egg
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Note: As is often the case with pastry type dough, the colder it is and the less you handle it, the better. I like to keep my shortening in the freezer so it is very cold, and the butter in the fridge.

 

How to prepare this recipe
To prepare the pie dough, combine the flour and salt in a food processor, pulse to distribute. Add the butter, pulse until evenly combined. Add the vegetable shortening, and do the same, pulsing until evenly combined. Your dough will start to clump together, but will still have loose flour. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the dough comes together. Dump dough out onto floured surface and form a ball, cut in half, and form two discs (roughly 1-1 ½ inch thick). Wrap discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 min and up to 2 days. You can also freeze the dough for later use.

To prepare the filling, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, and sugar in a large bowl. The amount of cornstarch you add will be based on how juicy your fruit is – for example, if you bought your strawberries at the farmer’s market in the height of strawberry season, you’ll want to add more, whereas if you bought them at a big box grocery store in December, you won’t need as much. Stir to evenly distribute the cornstarch. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly butter and flour a 9-inch pie dish. Roll out your pie dough until it’s a circle about 11 inches wide. I like to set the plastic wrap that the dough was wrapped in underneath when I roll it out, as it helps lift it into the pie dish. Be warned, this dough is delicate, and is wont to fall apart! Transfer your dough to the pie dish, and fill with the strawberry-rhubarb filling. Roll out the second disc of dough, and cover the pie. Trim off excess dough, and pinch together the edges. In a small bowl, beat the egg, and brush the pie sparingly with egg wash. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar, and cut vents in the top of the pie. Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil, and then into the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 50-70 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 2 hours.

 

The story behind this recipe
Growing up, my father was a produce aficionado. He snacked on radishes like they were popcorn, and his perfect dessert was a bowl of the ripest berries. My dad’s love of fresh ingredients got me excited about food at a young age, and cooking became a pillar in our relationship. It still is – every time we talk we brag about dishes we’ve made, cookbooks we’re itching to buy, or restaurants we’ve tried.

When I was in high school, we decided to spend a summer on a quest for the perfect strawberry-rhubarb pie. We read hundreds of recipes, and baked a pie a week. In the crust we experimented with vodka and leaf lard. To perfect the filling we adjusted our ratios and tried different spices. We refined our technique to roll out the dough, and watched through the oven door as juices bubbled through cracks in the crust. After cooling on the counter for hours, the first bite was exhilarating. When we finally landed on the recipe, it was obvious as soon as we tasted it - the crust was tender and flaky, the filling was soft pink dotted with strawberry seeds, and there was a perfect balance between sweet and tart.

Five years later, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and went through a trying year of chemotherapy and surgery. It was hard to see someone who loves food barely able to eat, much less enjoy eating. The day he asked me to make him our strawberry-rhubarb pie, I knew he was back.

These days, I like to think that strawberry-rhubarb pie is my specialty. I need no recipe; I know it like the back of my hand. Making this pie is relaxing, almost therapeutic. Slicing up the fruit, rolling out the dough - all of it is a ritual that I treasure returning to each summer. Not only do I love making this pie, but it’s representative of my relationship with my dad and the things we both value: sharing delicious food with the people we love the most. It will always remind me of him, and the time we spent on the hunt for the perfect pie.