Oh, rhubarb. You ubiquitous late spring presence, you vegetable of desserts. I can never resist you when I see you at the farmer’s market, all brightly colored and stalky and tempting. I’ve done rhubarb pie before on this ‘blog, but I was thinking it might be delicious to do something slightly different than the standard combination of strawberry and rhubarb. Don’t get me wrong; I adore strawberry rhubarb pie, but decided to mix raspberries with my rhubarb instead, just to mix things up a bit. I know, it’s crazy, but everything turned out all right in the end, I promise. Won’t you come along for the ride?

crusty times

We had plans that weekend to go to Tanveer and Kelly’s place for a dinner party, so I did the crust in the morning. I started in on my go-to flaky pie crust recipe (adapted from Tartine), with some of the delicious pastured cultured butter I’ve been so enamored with lately (furnished to us by the wonderful folks over at Organic Valley). I pulsed the butter with some flour, added water and salt, and bam! Into the fridge with the whole lot. After the crust had cooled and firmed up sufficiently, it was time to do the filling. I chopped up the rhubarb, mixed them with the raspberries, and then added some sugar, cinnamon, egg, honey and lemon juice (to bring out the flavor of the fruit).

Then it was rolling time, which always makes me a little fretful; I’ve never quite developed the technique (or strength) to roll out the dough quickly and efficiently enough to stop the fat from warming up and starting to melt by the time it’s in shape to go in the tin. But I did my best, coaxing the dough into shape with the rolling pin and scooping it, gently, from work surface to pie tin. I let the bottom crust cool in the refrigerator for a few minutes while I reheated the oven. When the crust was ready to go, I dumped the filling in and rolled out the dough for the top crust, again getting myself a little anxious over the rolling and transferring. I ended up accidentally poking a hole in the top of the crust and having to patch things together with a slurry, but it ended up being okay, if not entirely aesthetically perfect.

And then baking time finally came to pass. After coating the top crust with an egg wash, I slid the pan into the oven and waited while the smell of gooey, baking fruit filled our tiny apartment. And eventually, magically, the conglomeration of dough and fruit became a pie. It turned out marvelously, golden brown and fragrant and shiny and crusty. When it had cooled off a bit, we wrapped it up for travelling and headed to the party.

roof time, pie time.

In case you’re wondering, it’s actually quite difficult to transport a pie-laden tin on foot from one end of Greenpoint to the other. Kenan and I had to switch off pie-holding duty several times during our travels, but eventually we made it to our destination, sweaty and ready for food and good company. And after we’d had some lovely dinner and waited for dessert time to happen, we bit into the pie. And oh, my goodness, gosh wow. Flaky crust on the outside, sweet and tangy and refreshing on the inside, gooey and sticky but not too rich. I was, needless to say, quite happy with my efforts. And folks at the party seemed to like it, too; it disappeared in fairly short order. And then we sat around on the roof some more, digesting and letting the air finally cool off around us, which was really quite a lovely fashion in which to finish off a summer day.

raspberry-blackberry rhubarb pie!

raspberry-blackberry rhubarb pie.

for the crust: In a small bowl, mix together the salt and water and refrigerate until ready to use.

If you’re using a food processor, place the flour in the work bowl of the processor. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and scatter over the flour. Pulse briefly until the butter is in small pieces roughly the size of peas, about 15 seconds. Add the water and salt mixture and pulse for several seconds, until the mixture starts to come together in a shaggy mass. You should still see some chunks of butter in the dough.

If you’re making the dough by hand, place the flour in a large work bowl. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and scatter over the flour. Using a pastry blender or two small-ish knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture starts to form large crumbs and some of the butter is still in pieces about the size of peas. Drizzle the water and salt mixture on top and mix with a fork until the mixture starts to come together. Mix until the dough comes into a ball that is not completely smooth.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 2 equal balls. Shape each ball into a disk 1 inch thick. Wrap well in plastic and chill well for at least 2 hours or (preferably) overnight.

for the filling: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove one of the dough rounds from the refrigerator and roll out to fit a 9-inch pie tin. Transfer the dough to the pan and pierce several times with the tines of a fork.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, tapioca flour or quick cooking tapioca, egg, and salt. Add the rhubarb and berries and toss to mix well. Turn the fruit mixture into the pie tin and cut bits of butter over the top. Roll out the crust for the top and place the crust on top of the filling. Trim and flute the edges and then cut a few vents in the top for steam to escape.

Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake until the juices are bubbly and top is golden brown, about 30-40 minutes longer. Remove from oven and let stand for 15-20 minutes before serving. Hooray, yum, hooray.

photos by the intermittently sunny and perpetually lovable kenan.