Cabin Baking: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - Oh My!

Eating seasonally from my garden is fun. This month, the Powell River Living Magazine (a free publication available all over town and on the ferry) had a wonderful insert called Home Grown. It highlights local farms, markets and backyard gardens. The common theme is the bounty of produce available in our home town.

Right now my garden has a bumper crop of strawberries and my experiment of growing a rhubarb plant in a barrel is working out well. I decided to combine the two to make my first ever strawberry rhubarb pie.

8" Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

3 cups combined rhubarb and strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Cut rhubarb stalks into 1/4' pieces. Discard any leaves, they are POISONOUS. Hull strawberries, cut larger ones in half. Measure fruit after prepared into a bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, flour, salt and toss until coated.

Prepare dough for a two-crust 8" pie. I used the recipe from my Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup cold water

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut the shortening in with a wire whisk until it is crumbly. Stir in cold water a tablespoon at a time until the dough forms into a ball.

Work it as little as possible. Wrap and chill in the refrigerator. I tried Crisco for a change and was really pleased with the quality of my crusts. And an added benefit for cabin living, I don't need to refrigerate it. The stick variety will last even opened about 6 months on the shelf.

Roll out half the dough and place in an 8" pie pan. Trim the edges to 3/4". Fill the uncooked shell with strawberry-rhubarb mixture. Dot with bits of cold butter. Roll out the other half of dough and cut into 1" strips. Weave the strips of dough over the fruit filling into a lattice top. Crimp together, then flute the edges.

Sprinkle the top with sugar for a sweet flourish.Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees then reduce to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until the fruit filling is soft and the crust brown and crunchy. Let it cool and the juices thicken before serving with whipping cream.

Don't throw those dough scraps away! Sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon and cook them while your pie is baking. They are ready to eat hot out of the oven in about 15-20 minutes. -- Margy