Rhubarb Pie with Pat-a-pie Pastry and Recipes

red and richly priced--$3.99/lb

Rhubarb Pie is one of my absolute favorites. If you don't know what rhubarb looks like, I can tell you--it looks like red celery stalks. If you don't know what it tastes like I can tell you succinctly. If you like the sweet tartness of lemonade, that is the same taste of rhubarb--sweet and tart.

I would never defile rhubarb with strawberries or any other fruit. No, I would not use Jello, either in my rhubarb pie. A bit of sugar is all it needs!

From the selection above, I chose 5 stalks, hoping there would be enough. I paid $5.51 for my selection. Yikes, using my Pinecone Research money, I could pay for it. Can you see why I am so desperate to find some rhubarb or seeds? Baker Seeds was out. They were too expensive anyway.

five stalks-$5.51 cents!

I washed all five stalks and cut them into 1/4 inch pieces. Recipe books say to cut them in 1/2 inch pieces. You can put the pieces in a pie, raw like an apple pie, but someone told me how to cook it when I first made one 40+ years ago, so I did. I wanted 4 cups of chopped rhubarb this time, but did not buy enough.

3.5 cups chopped rhubarb

Recipe I used from my head:
3.5 cups chopped rhubarb (should have been 4 cups)
less than 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup water
glob of butter, maybe 2 inches off the stick, probably a little less

Put all this in a pan or pot and cook until is still a bit firm but almost mush. Then, eat a cup of the rhubarb with a glass of milk.

If you put the sugar over the raw, chopped rhubarb and let sit overnight, you could use 1/4 cup water. Don't let it scorch.

Here are a million gillion rhubarb pie recipes. The first one should be a good one, nearly like mine. The rhubarb is 4 cups and put in the pie raw. Follow the directions exactly about putting half the sugar flour mixture in the bottom of the crust and then some on the top of the fruit.
Okay, I have my mixture cooked up. The next step is to fortify myself for pie crust making. I suggest you do the same. I took one cup of the hot mixture with flour/sugar/butter and put it in a cereal bowl. Along with a glass of icy cold milk, take it to your favorite chair and eat slowly, savoring every bite, following bites by cold milk.

Back in the kitchen, I made a crust that requires no rolling. It was my son's favorite. I remember him asking when he was about three-years-old, "Do you have any more of the cookie left?" He ate the rhubarb pie and occasionally made faces over the too sweet rhubarb. Okay, maybe it was a little tart. But, we all liked it.

The crust recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook that my mother bought for me when I went off the college in 1964. Four students lived in a college-owned, single-family dwelling along with a dorm mother who as only 21.

Better Home and Gardens recipe

my ancient sifter--1966 model

the only one I have ever owned

There was no milk in the house, so I used water. I used a bit more sugar than the recipe called for. Somehow, there was not enough crust.

flour mixture ready to pat into pie pan

pat-a-pie crust is patted

It's not really pretty, but I don't care since my back was hurting so.

ugly but delicious pie

This was delicious, but so thin because I did not buy enough rhubarb. The next time I have rhubarb pie, I will either take out a bank loan or grow my own rhubarb. 

Usually, this is a decent looking pie. I am not sure what happened, but I believe I must have used self-rising flour years ago. There should have been more rhubarb, but at the exorbitant price, I would have had  $10 pie!  The cup of cooked rhubarb would have helped...lol. The rhubarb to crust ratio was too heavily weighted toward crust. I enjoyed every mouthful. Thankfully, exbf did not like the one taste he took!

I failed in the beauty contest for pies, but this is a winner for taste! Have you ever made this crust?

Your turn

Does anyone raise rhubarb? Do you like rhubarb pie? I am on a quest for rhubarb so I can have somenext year! Got any rhubarb stories? Baker Creek seeds is out of rhubarb seeds. Got any seeds you will sell?