Rhubarb Pie

Lattice crust rhubarb pie

Fresh rhubarb pie with a lattice top crust from scratch! Laborious and time consuming, but amazingly good.

For the crust:

All Butter Crust
from SimplyRecipes

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 to 6 Tbsp ice water

1 Start by cutting the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes and placing in the freezer for at least 15 minutes or longer so that they become thoroughly chilled.

2 In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar, pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready, if not, add a little more water and pulse again.

3 Remove dough from machine and place on a clean surface. Carefully shape into a discs. Do not over-knead the dough! You should still be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These bits of butter are what will allow the result crust to be flaky. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

4 Remove the crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, use a metal spatula to check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. Add a few sprinkles of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Gently fold in half. Place on to a 9-inch pie plate, lining up the fold with the center of the pan. Gently unfold and press down to line the pie dish with the dough.

5 Add filling to the pie.

6 Roll out second disk of dough, as before. Gently place onto the top of the filling in the pie. Pinch top and bottom of dough rounds firmly together. Trim excess dough with kitchen shears, leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold the edge of the top piece of dough over and under the edge of the bottom piece of dough, pressing together. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with a fork. Score the top of the pie with four 2-inch long cuts, so that steam from the cooking pie can escape.

Instead of a normal top crust, we followed SimplyRecipes instructions for a lattice top crust:

1 Before starting the lattice top, roll out half of your pie dough and line your pie dish with it. The dough should extend beyond the rim of the pie dish by about half an inch. Put it in the freezer to chill while you work on the lattice. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the other half of your pie dough to the same extent as the first half (about 3 inches beyond the diameter of your pie dish). It’s easier to work with the dough if it is chilled, so if it the dough has softened too much, put the rolled-out piece on a flat cookie sheet and chill it in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes.

2 Cut the dough into even strips, 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch wide, depending on how thick you want your lattice strips. You can use a blunt knife with or without a ruler or straight edge to guide you, or you can use a pizza wheel or a pastry wheel if you have one.

3 Fill your pie shell with the pie filling. Lay out 4 to 7 parallel strips of the pie dough, depending on how thick your strips are, on top of the filling, with about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch space between them. Fold back every other strip.

4 Place one long strip of dough perpendicular to the parallel strips as shown. Unfold the folded strips over the perpendicular strip.

5 Now take the parallel strips that are running underneath the perpendicular strip and fold them back over the perpendicular strip, as shown. Lay down a second perpendicular strip of dough next to the first strip, with some space between the strips. Unfold the folded parallel strips over the second strip.

6 Continue this process until the weave is complete over the top of the pie.

7 Trim the edges of the strips flush with the dough of the underlying pie dish, which should be about half an inch over the sides. Fold back the rim of the shell over the edge of the lattice strips, and crimp to secure.

For the filling:

Fresh Rhubarb Pie
adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Cover with top crust.
3. Put some foil around the edges to prevent over browning. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Rhubarb Pie

Review: I made this pie with a friend. This was the first time making rhubarb pie and making pie crust for both of us. We are definitely pleased with the results even though it took quite a long time. The pie took hours only because of the dough. We had to freeze and refrigerate the butter and the dough. The rolling proved very difficult as well, and the lattice was not difficult but it does take extra effort. It looked fantastic when it came out, and the crust didn’t blacken or burn. Just the right amount of oven time. The crust is delicious. It had to be with all that butter, but I think it was worth it. Not something to do often, but for special occasions, this is the tops. The rhubarb filling is very easy, and the original recipe calls for butter, but that is not necessary at all. Both our mothers tried it and loved it as well. Highly recommend both recipes.

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