Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Summer is finally here, which means. . . fruit pies! Is there anything I love more than a fresh fruit pie? No. No, there is not. Yesterday I baked a strawberry rhubarb pie. Delicious! Sweet and tangy. As LCBF noted, "rhubarb is magic" (not the leaves though--those are poisonous, don't eat them). This pie is also very healthy since it contains both fruit (strawberries) and vegetables (rhubarb). That's how it works, right? I had some for breakfast.

*Revised* Recipe after the jump:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Two 9" pie crusts
Filling:
(Adapted from this recipe)
~3 1/2 c. rhubarb, chopped into 3/4" pieces (~1 lb)
~3 1/2 c. sliced strawberries (I used a bit more than a 16 oz. container)
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar + 1/4 c. for macerating
1/4 c. corn starch
~1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk mixed with about 1 tsp. of water to make an egg wash for the crust (optional)

Step One: Preheat oven to 400F. Oven should be evenly heated, so preheat well in advance of baking.

Step Two: Prepare rhubarb by cutting stalks into 3/4-1" pieces. Trim any stringy bits. Slice strawberries.

* Revised Step Three: Mix rhubarb and strawberries with about 1/4 c. white sugar in a large bowl and let sit for 30 min. to an hour to macerate. Drain fruit into a colander and dispose of excess liquid. Place fruit back in bowl.

Step Four: Combine fruit with brown sugar, 1/2 c. white sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, and salt in the large bowl. Allow to sit for 10 min. or so.

Step Five: Fill bottom pie crust.

Step Six: Place second pie crust over filling, crimp edges, cut steam vents, and brush with egg wash. *Revised, improved alternative: use a lattice crust on top! Lattice tutorial here.

Step Seven: Bake on a foil-lined rimmed cookie sheet (v. important for avoiding huge mess on oven floor) for 20 min. at 400F, then lower temp to 350F and bake for another 40-50 min. until crust is golden and filling is visibly bubbly. If edges start to over-brown, cover with foil ring (or a fancypants pie shield).

Step Eight: Cool on wire rack. You can eat it warm (which is delicious--especially with vanilla ice cream), but the inside will be soupy if it doesn't have time to set completely. This is what we wound up doing last night. We waited three hours and then had . . . pie soup:

To be honest, though, it still hadn't really set up by this morning when we had breakfast pie, so I think to really get a non-runny pie I'd need to replace the cornstarch with quick-cooking tapioca. Next time. It was still awesome and delicious though.

Mmmm . . . Pie Soup.

Update: When I went for my slice of afternoon pie just now, I found it had indeed set up nicely . . . a mere 20 hours after baking. So if you have the superhuman ability to wait nearly a full day to enjoy a freshly baked pie, then a firm interior can be yours.

Update #2: I gave this pie another try upon LCBF's request for Strawberry Rhubarb Birthday Pie and made a couple changes. I used about 1/4 c. or so of extra sugar and macerated the fruit filling for about an hour, then poured off the extra juice before continuing with the recipe as written. I also used a lattice crust to help the extra liquid evaporate and let the pie cool overnight before cutting. The results were perfect:

Lattice!

No Pie Soup here . . .

Or here!

I've revised the recipe above to include these changes.