Recipe: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
Among one of nature’s most wonderful harmonic convergences, there is rhubarb and strawberries coming into season at the same time. It’s not true every spring but it is this year. Rhubarb has been available at my local farmers’ market and co-op for a few weeks and this week, the first local strawberries arrived. When that happens, there is only one thing to do: bake pie.
Baking is chemistry and precision. I like cooking, throwing in a handful of this or that until it comes together. None of that with baking. But as so many did, I watched the Great British Baking Show. I thought, “Wow. That looks hard. I want to try it.”
It should also be mentioned that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But because it is my nature to make things as challenging as possible for myself, that fact didn’t much figure into it. And challenging it has been.
I come from a family lineage of fine bakers, pie in particular. Our family has collectively swooned over many a pie crust at family gatherings, and I even inherited my grandmother’s pie crust recipe. It is not a talent, I am sad to report, that is genetically passed on.
Over the last year or so, I’ve been adding some dessert baking into my kitchen adventures. I am fortunate to live in a happily neighborly three-apartment building. I don’t think they mind my experiments when I send half of the results (successes only!) to the apartments above and below me.
I subscribe to far too many cooking magazines and have more recipes that I would like to try than time or energy to do so. But when the May/June 2015 Cook’s Illustrated arrived boasting “Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Perfected,” I knew I was going to tackle that one promptly to see if that claim was true.
It was.
The pie was terrific and, upon aforementioned neighborly sharing, I learned that it is a favorite of one my neighbors. And that her birthday just happens to be during rhubarb and strawberry season. Well. Birthday Pie it shall be. It’s not always delivered on or even near her birthday; rhubarb season dictates the timing. But this year, we’re spot on.
A few things about the recipe, which you can find here. The pie crust includes a ¼ cup cold vodka, which sounds really weird, but it adds moisture that makes the dough easier to handle and it all evaporates when it bakes; I’ve seen recipes that used vinegar in a similar fashion, but the vodka leaves no trace of flavor. I find it makes the pastry much more forgiving but certainly use any pie crust recipe in its place or just use the filling with a ready-made crust. Also solved is what seemed to be the perennial problem of a too-watery filling that ended up being really mushy. I have made it at least once each spring since that issue arrived, and it has been consistently delicious each time.
When cooking down the syrup, pay more attention to reducing the volume to 1 ½ cups rather than how long it’s on the stove top.
A tip from who-knows-which cooking magazine; after wrapping your dough in plastic wrap before chilling, roll the disc on its edge. It keeps the edges from getting paper-thin when rolling it out later.
Also, if you’re able to find local strawberries, do it. The difference between what you find in the supermarkets and what can be found locally is not to be underestimated.
There was an interesting article some months back in The New Yorker, How Driscoll’s Reinvented the Strawberry, the brand of berry you generally see in supermarkets year-round; according to the article, the company “controls roughly a third of the six-billion-dollar U.S. berry market.” I would add that they have pretty well shaped what we consider a strawberry to be. One bite of a local berry may change your mind about that.
In any event, I would encourage you to search out local produce while it’s available; not only to support local growers but the quality of the ingredients is so far superior, you may find it hard to go back.
Now–I have some Birthday Pie to deliver.
P.S. For Mother’s Day brunch, I made a rhubarb coffee cake that is easier than this and quite delicious. If you’re in the mood for rhubarb and have no patience for a pie, you might want to try Melissa Clark’s Rhubarb “Big Crumb” Coffee Cake.