Rustic Rhubarb Pie Recipe

Rustic Rhubarb Pie Served with French Vanilla Ice Cream
Rustic Rhubarb Pie Served with French Vanilla Ice Cream

The rhubarb is at its prime on PEI right now and, of course, I am busy making the usual repertoire of my favorite recipes while the rhubarb stalks are at their best.   Used too early before they have some maturity and the stalks won’t have much flavour; left too long and they go woody and lose their flavour.

It’s always a spring-time boost when I start to see the rhubarb shoots poking their way through the ground and, within a short period of time, they grow into very large plants.  We have two rhubarb crowns and, with leaves, they measure a little more than three feet tall with stalks that are about 20-22″ long.  It doesn’t take many to make a pie!  For the pie below, I used 2 1/2 stalks.

Rhubarb Plants

The photos below show how to harvest rhubarb which is done by giving the stalk a good tug and pulling it from the crown, not cutting it off.

Harvesting Rhubarb
Harvesting Rhubarb

Today, I made a fresh old-fashioned rhubarb pie.  Nothing fancy, just plain and simple – rhubarb, sugar,  flour, and a sprinkle of salt all encased inside a double-crusted pie.  Here is what you will need to make this pie:

Ingredients:

Pastry for a double-crusted 9″ pie (click here for recipe)

4 cups rhubarb (roughly 1 pound), cut in 1/2″ pieces

1 1/2 – 1 2/3 cups white sugar (depending on how tart or sweet you like the pie)

1/3 cup flour

dash salt

Method:

Wash and dry the rhubarb stalks.  Chop rhubarb into apx. 1/2″ pieces.  Place chopped rhubarb in a large bowl.   Set aside.

Whisk sugar, flour, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl.

Add dry ingredients to the rhubarb and stir and toss to coat.  Allow mixture to sit for approximately 20 minutes to allow the sugar to start to dissolve.

Meanwhile, roll pastry to desired thickness.  Line bottom and sides of a 9″ pie plate with the pastry.  Spread the rhubarb mixture into the pastry-lined pie plate.

Roll pastry for top crust.  Dampen top edges of lower pie pastry and transfer the top crust to the pie.  Using the tines of a fork, press top and bottom edges of crust together to seal.  Cut slits in top crust or prick with fork tines to allow steam to escape as pie bakes.

Bake at 400F for 50 minutes.  (Tips:  I line a pizza pan with tin foil and place the pie plate on the pan as fruit pies tend to bubble out and can make a sticky mess in the oven.  If the edges of the pie crust start to brown too quickly, loosely place a piece of tin foil over the pie as it finishes baking.)

Rustic Rhubarb Pie
Rustic Rhubarb Pie

This makes a wonderful spring-time treat, especially when served with a dollop of French Vanilla ice cream as I have here with my own homemade ice cream.

Be sure to also check out my recipe for Rhubarb Marmalade.

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

Join My Island Bistro Kitchen on Facebook
Follow the Bistro’s tweets on twitter @PEIBistro
Find the Bistro on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”
Follow along on Instagram at “peibistro”