Old fashioned strawberry rhubarb pie made with tart rhubarb and sweet strawberries in a homemade pie filling. Tart, juicy and simply perfect for spring.
If you’re not in the mood for rhubarb cake, this homemade strawberry rhubarb pie with cream is the perfect dessert to share on late spring evenings. We love to sit on our porch in the cool breeze and enjoy a slice among friends. Not only are strawberries and rhubarb in season simultaneously, but the sweet of strawberry and the tart of rhubarb seem as if they were made for each other…yet it was not always that way!
When rhubarb found its culinary home in 18thcentury England, the vegetable stood alone. Cooks made tarts by boiling rhubarb pieces in hard cider and baking them into short crusts. When Americans experimented with rhubarb a century later, we added strawberries to make it sweeter – are we surprised? 🙂 Now, our version of the pie is so beloved that every year on June 9th we observe National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day!
Today, I’m going to share my all-time favorite strawberry rhubarb pie recipe just in time to celebrate. I stumbled across this recipe in a 2014 Food Network magazine and pretty much follow it to a “T”. It’s sweet, tart, juicy, and well…perfect. The traditional way to present a strawberry rhubarb pie includes a lattice top, so I will demonstrate how to make that as well. It’s so much easier than it looks!
Are you ready to make a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie with me?
Come on in to my kitchen!
How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
First, assemble your homemade pie crust. Unlike this crumbly topped rhubarb pie, you will need enough dough to make both a bottom and top crust, so be sure there are at least 2 cups of flour in the recipe.
Divide your pie dough into two with one selection slightly bigger than the other. Flatten the dough into discs and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling
Gather your fresh strawberries. Late May thru June is peak season here in NW Ohio, but if you can’t get your hands on fresh picked, try to buy the ripest berries that you can. Look for a deep red color and avoid strawberries with white or anemic patches on them. This picture shows exactly one pint of strawberries. We need two pints for the recipe.
Prep your Rhubarb. Rhubarb can be found at farmers markets or most any grocery store in late spring. Remove the green leaves and keep the stalks refrigerated until ready for use. This recipe calls for 1 ¼ pounds of rhubarb. This is where a kitchen scale comes in handy! I cut the stalks into 6 inch pieces and weigh them out.
Preheat your oven to 425˚ F. Hull the strawberries and divide or quarter them, depending on size. Coarsely chop the rhubarb into ½ inch pieces. I prefer larger cuts in my pie. Size them smaller if you prefer a finer filling.
Stir in your sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and fresh lemon juice. Mix it well and set aside.
Assemble the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Remove the pie crust discs from the refrigerator and roll the larger pie dough section out into a 12 inch circle. Gently press the dough circle into a 9-10 inch pie plate and tuck in the edges instead of trimming them. Again, this recipe can show you in more detail how to do this! Set your dough lined pie plate aside.
With the smaller selection of dough, roll it out into an 11 inch circle and cut 1 inch strips with a knife or decorative cutter form your lattice top. Set them aside just for a minute.
Spread your strawberry rhubarb pie filling into the bottom crust. Don’t worry if it looks like too much for the pie plate. The filling will cook down.
How to Make Lattice Pie Crust For Pie
Place six dough strips horizontally across the pie, about ¾ inches apart. Be sure to reserve your longer strips for the middle section and your shorter strips for the edges.
Working from the right side, peel back strips 1,3 and 5 and place a new strip vertically across the pie on the far right side. Lay the peeled strips back over, covering the vertical strip. Next, again working from the right, peel back strips 2, 4 and 6 and place a new strip vertically across the pie next to the other vertical one. Lay the peeled strips back over. Repeat this process twice, working your way right to left.
Tuck in the edges of the pie dough lattice (trimming where necessary) into the folded edge of the pie.
Bake the pie on the center rack for 20 minutes at 425˚ F. After the 20 minutes, turn down your heat to 375˚ F and bake another 50 minutes.
Pro Tip: Be sure to put a pan on the bottom rack to collect the juices. Makes for an easier cleanup! Also, if the edges of the pie begin to darken too much during the last 10 minutes of baking, place a pie crust cover or strips of foil over the edges of the pie.
Do your best to cool the pie completely before cutting. I waited two hours and it was still a little warm, but we couldn’t resist waiting anymore! Anyway, I’m a warm pie kind of gal 🙂 We enjoyed ours with homemade whipped cream and the neighbors had their pie with generous scoops of strawberry ice cream. Delicious!
Whomever you share this pie with, it is a wonderful way to bless others with the seasonal bounty of fresh strawberries and rhubarb while you catch up from winter on the front porch.
….Yet another reason to love this time of year. Bring on National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day!!
Enjoy 🙂
More Pie Recipes
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients
- 1 homemade pie crust
- 2 pints ripe strawberries
- 1 1/4 pounds rhubarb
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make or purchase a pie crust - enough for a bottom and top crust.
- Divide the dough into two balls; one ball slightly bigger than the other. Flatten the balls into discs and refrigerate them for at least 30 minutes.
- Hull and Slice the strawberries. Remove the green leaves and slice the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and lemon juice in a large bowl. Mix well.
- Preheat your oven to 425˚ F.
- Remove the dough discs from the refrigerator and roll the larger one out into a 12 inch circle. Gently press the circle into a 9-10 inch pie plate and tuck in the edges instead of trimming them. Set aside.
- Roll out the smaller disc into an 11 inch circle and cut 1 inch strips with a knife or decorative cutter. Set aside.
- Spread your strawberry rhubarb filling into the bottom crust.
- Place six dough strips horizontally across the pie, about ¾ inches apart. Working from the right side, peel back strips 1,3 and 5 and place a new strip vertically across the pie on the far right side. Lay the peeled strips back over, covering the vertical strip. Next, again working from the right, peel back strips 2, 4 and 6 and place a new strip vertically across the pie next to the other vertical one. Lay the peeled strips back over. Repeat this process twice, working your way right to left. Tuck in the edges of the lattice into the folded edge of the pie.
- Brush the top of the pie crust with cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar (optional)
- Bake the pie on the center rack for 20 minutes at 425˚F.
- Decrease the temperature to 375˚ F and bake an additional 50 minutes.
- Cool completely before cutting. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Notes
Nutrition
Comments & Reviews
Just wondering if the salt is really needed. My husband is on a very restricted salt diet. I know just a little salt can have hundreds of MGs of sodium. Thank you in advance for your opinion about leaving out the salt.
Hi Judy!
Since the recipe only calls for 1/4 tsp., you can certainly leave it out. No biggie 🙂
This is an absolutely delicious pie! The flavors are wonderful and I loved that it had just the right tartness to it! Mine turned out rather soupy though and I’m wondering the best way to remedy that for next time. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Shirley!
I am so glad that you liked it! Sometimes my pie comes out a little more soupy too if I’m using home grown berries. Can add an extra Tablespoon of flour 🙂