Rhubarb Pie: How We Missed You!

Nothing says “spring” like rhubarb pie, especially after the ##$$&*$&$%(%^&U! winter we’ve had here in D.C. And even though this alluring fruit popped up uncharacteristically early this year, it couldn’t have come a second too soon. When I spotted the reddish green stalks at my wonderful little market last week, I practically burst into tears. The winter’s really over! It’s spring!

That’s why this month’s Pie of the Month Club selection had to be rhubarb pie. Not strawberry rhubarb (sorry, Tina); straight-ahead, unvarnished, man-up-and-endure-the-tartness rhubarb. The biggest blast of spring I could muster. 

Now don’t let that scare you. I do put enough sugar in there to fend off any major attack of the puckers. But I will acknowledge, freely and fully, that my rhubarb pie teeters on that delicious, dangerous knife’s edge of sweet and tart. In my book, just perfect. (My biggest rhubarb pie fans are applauding here; you know who you are, Shaiy, Charlie…)

So I’ll cut to the chase and walk you through the recipe. Because you can’t tarry. You’ve gotta go. You’ve gotta go now. Or tomorrow, at the very latest. Go get yourself a couple pounds of rhubarb and make a rhubarb pie. (Okay, if you must, throw in some strawberries. But only as a Chapter 1 to your full induction into the real society of rhubarb lovers. Next time, take it straight.)

This is one of the easiest pies around, so take a breath here. The recipe’s below, starting right from rolling out your dough. But since my photos focus on the filling, I’ll walk you through that part here.

With your crusts rolled out and chilling, cut up your rhubarb into pieces of about

Fresh nutmeg

3/4 inch to 1 inch big. Drizzle the lemon juice or artisan apple cider vinegar over the rhubarb pieces. Measure out all the dry ingredients and heap them on top, but don’t mix them in yet.

When you are ready to put the pie together, get the two crusts out of the refrigerator and lay one in a 9-inch pan, easing it in and trimming the edges. 

Now it’s time to mix the filling. Give it a few turns with a big spoon. You’ll probably see that the dry ingredients aren’t clinging to the fruit at all. They form a big pile of something that looks like powdery snow, and it keeps falling to the bottom of the bowl in a big heap.

Powdery texture

Now if you spooned this filling into the pie crust, what would happen to all that powdery stuff? It would likely form a gooey mass somewhere in your pie when the juices from the fruit start running out in the hot oven. What you want is for the sugar, flour, nutmeg and salt to be in a pretty uniform mix that clings to the fruit. Juicier, wetter fruits (think apricots, strawberries) make this happen naturally. But rhubarb needs a little help.

So call me crazy, but give it a little moisture; just enough to get the dry ingredients to go from being powdery to looking a bit damp-sandy, and coating the rhubarb. I do this by running my kitchen faucet in a thin stream, wetting my fingers, and shaking droplets of water into the mixture just until I get to that damp-sandy stage (no further!). See if you can tell the difference in the look of the mixture in the photo below, compared to the powdery one above.

Damp-sandy texture

Once you get to damp-sandy, you can pour the rhubarb mixture into the bottom crust and complete your pie. All those directions are in the recipe below. Enjoy your rhubarb Ode to Spring!