Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (Duchess)

We made yet another delicious summer dessert this week, from the bountiful rhubarb and strawberries we’re getting in our market boxes from this farm. What caught my eye in this recipe, were the flavourings: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, rosewater. Also, it calls for an easy mixer butter-shortening pie crust, something I haven’t made in a while.

For years, my go-to recipes for pie dough, have been the Cook’s Illustrated vodka pie dough, or the version that Kenji Alt describes that is an all-butter pie dough. Anyhow, using shortening, like in this recipe from the Duchess Bake Shop cookbook, makes for an extremely flaky dough. I made the full recipe (three 9” crusts), and blind-baked one of them. I only did the first bake (without pricking and then baking again).

Most, if not all, rhubarb recipes, require pre-cooking the filling. This one combines the fruit with the sugar and dry spices, some cornstarch for thickening, and a bit of lemon juice, then calls for cooking the mixture until it is very thick. Adding the fresh sliced strawberries and rosewater loosens the filling.

The crumble topping isn’t anything unexpected: oats, flour, sugar, butter, etc. There was just barely enough to cover the bottom.

This pie wasn’t too juicy, and did not spill over the edge by the time it was done (or maybe I just pulled it as soon as it started to bubble). The edges of the crust browned very nicely without burning.

Some of us couldn’t wait for the pie to fully cool before digging in, so the slice above didn’t hold together, but tasted hot and delicious.

The photo above was taken the next day, after the pie had been kept at room temperature, so it looks tidier.

This is not a diner-style, mile-high pie that shows well in photographs. But it’s a very good pie. The crust was dry and crisp, even under the filling, but I wouldn’t call it flaky. I absolutely loved the subtle flavours in the filling, but they were too much for Dr. S who noticed all of the “odd” tastes immediately.