A pie that takes-the-cake

Here’s my recipe for Rhubarb-Strawberry-Rosemary Pie. It won the pie contest at the Saranac Lake Rhubarb Festival last Saturday. If you still have some rhubarb in the garden or freezer – give it a try!

I used Ina Garten’s pie crust recipe and won’t mess with perfection. I tweaked it by adding a tablespoon of orange zest.

Some tips from Ina: First, the butter, shortening, and water must all be very cold. Second, let the dough sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before rolling (bakers call this “relaxing” the dough). Finally, don’t stretch the dough when you’re placing it into the pan.

12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening

1 tablespoon orange zest

6-8 tablespoons ice water (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:

1. Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.

2. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.

3. Add the butter and shortening.

4. Pulse about 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas.

5. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.

6. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.

7. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

8. Cut the dough in half.

9. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board.

10. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan.

11. Repeat with the top crust.

Okay, now my recipe for the rhubarb, strawberry, rosemary filling:

3 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces

3 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and diced

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup minute tapioca

1 tsp orange zest (yes, there’s some in the crust, too)

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the
filling ingredients, tossing to coat the rhubarb and
strawberries with sugar. Let this mixture amalgamate while you
prepare the pie crust dough. I used a ten inch, deep-dish
glass pie pan. (Put any extra dough and filling into ramekins
for rhubarb potpies!)

Roll out the bottom crust layer and drape it over the pie pan.
Let it extend about a ½ inch over the rim.

Fill the pie with the rhubarb, strawberry, rosemary mixture.
Brush the edge of the bottom crust with beaten egg so the top
crust will adhere. Top with the second crust and crimp the
edges along the outside. Brush the entire top with egg wash
and sprinkle with sugar. Cut four or five slits in the top crust.

Bake for about an hour until the crust is browned and juices
begin to bubble out.

Tags: adirondacks