Recipe: Rhubarb Raspberry Pie

PIE-A-DAY #1

1. People will eat anything if it’s well intentioned enough, especially work colleagues. Bless you KCRW office inhabitants!

2. Repetition really IS the road to mastery, or at least getting to a more delicious place in the road then you were when you started.

3. There’s just something about Pie that’s all warm and cozy.

So expect another summer of a daily celebration of our favorite all American dessert. I peeked at a few of the upcoming posts from local bakers, pastry chefs and all around great cooks and I’m incredibly intrigued. Even after four years we still haven’t fully explored the genre. That first year I talked all about my pie process but I didn’t actually post recipes, so I’ll be going back and filling in some posts. Meanwhile take this simple offering from me. Why Rhubarb Raspberry? Well that’s a story for another day.

Rhubarb Raspberry Pie

1 pie plate prepared with dough ready for filling (waiting in the refrigerator)

Prepared Crumble topping (see below)

4 cups red rhubarb, cut crosswise into 1” pieces (approx 1 ½ lbs), well washed

¾ – 1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon kosher

1 tablespoon or a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons cornstarch

2 pints raspberries, unwashed

Preheat oven to 400º.

Combine the rhubarb, ¾ cup sugar, salt and lemon juice. Toss together in a bowl and let marinate in refrigerator for an hour. Remove from the refrigerator, toss again and taste the juices that have collected. If the juice tastes too sour add the additional ¼ cup of sugar.

Add the cornstarch and toss well so that it is completely mixed in. Add the raspberries and gently stir to mix them in trying to keep them as whole as possible.

Remove dough lined pie plate from the refrigerator and add your filling. Top with prepared crumble topping. Put in lowest rack of oven and cook for 20 minutes.

After twenty minutes move pie to a rack in the middle of the oven and turn down the heat to 375º. If the pie is browning too quickly then cover it with foil.

Cook for an additional 25 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft when pierced with a paring knife and the juices have thickened. Remove the foil for the final 10 minutes or so to get a nice deep golden on the crust and crumble.

Crumble Topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar, or mixture of white and brown

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 lb. butter (1 stick), softened

In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and mix together until crumbly. You can make the crumble using just your fingertips, a pastry cutter, in a mixer with a paddle, or by mixing all ingredients in a food processor with a steel blade. The mixture should hold together when you grab a handful and make a fist. It freezes beautifully so you’re always prepared.