The combination of strawberries + rhubarb is fantastic, and when you bake it in a homemade crust with a brown sugar crumb topping, it’s pretty much the most amazing pie ever! Plus, you can make this into a gluten-free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, by omitting the crust and substituting Paleo Baking Flour for the all-purpose flour in the brown sugar crumb topping!
I was all dialed in on making a lattice crust for this pie, until the idea of a crumb topping came to mind, and I’m so glad that it did. It was perfect with the strawberry and rhubarb filling. It so happened that we had a lot of house guests at our cabin last week and were in a hurry as usual. Accidentally I started pouring some of the crumb topping mixture in with the fruit filling mixture instead of the sugar and cornstarch. Oops! But, no worries … it turned out to be wonderful mistake. I was able to scoop most of it out from the fruit filling, but what remained added fun element to the amazing flavor of the pie filling and thickened it up a bit, in the process.
Where normally, we add flour as a thickening agent for the fruit, I didn’t think that would work so well with the strawberries, so instead, we used a few tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken the filling and it worked like magic.
If you’ve ever worked with rhubarb before, then you know the outside layer of the stalks can be pretty tough and stringy. So we like to remove that very outermost layer of the stringy skin. This way, once it’s baked into the pie, you won’t get bites of tough rhubarb, but rather nice tender pieces. If you haven’t tasted rhubarb before, you’re in for a real treat! The tangy flavor complements the sweet berries and adds such a fun element to the pie.
I love rhubarb raw, too, but it is tart! As a kid, I used to crawl under the fence into our neighbor’s yard, and snitch stalks of her rhubarb plant and just eat them right then and there. So good! I don’t recommend stealing your neighbor’s rhubarb, but do give it a taste when you pick up your rhubarb for the pie.
Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Pie
Equipment
- 1 9-inch pie dish
Ingredients
Flaky Pie Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 6 oz. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces (1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp. cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup ice water 1/3-1/2 Cup (+/-) you will just have to see how the dough is coming together. Add a little water at a time.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling
- 2 cups sliced rhubarb strings and tough skin removed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 7 cups fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced
- 4 tsp. cornstarch
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup of the brown sugar crumb topping (recipe below)
Brown Sugar Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. cardamom Can use 1/2 tsp. If you love cardamom like we do!
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 4 oz. butter, chilled and cut into small pieces (1 stick or 1/2 cup)
Instructions
Flaky Pie Crust
- Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. With a pastry cutter, or clean, cold fingers, crumble the butter into the flour until well integrated and the butter is the size of small peas. Sprinkle cider vinegar over the mixture and stir in well with a fork. Add ice-cold water, a little at a time, and blend with a fork until the dough is moist enough to roll into a ball, but not too wet. Roll into one large ball for the bottom pie crust and a smaller ball for mending the crust edges or for cinnamon pie dough roll-ups!
- Roll dough out into a 15-16 inch circle. Fold dough into quarters and move into the pie dish. Spread the dough circle out into the dish and roll the edges in toward the center to form a crust edge. Flute the edges with your fingers or crimp with a fork. Refrigerate crust until ready to add filling and bake.
Brown Sugar Crumb Topping
- Place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Cut butter into the dries using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside 1/4 cup for the pie filling and set the remaining aside or refrigerate until ready to assemble the pie.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Filling
- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- Clean rhubarb and remove strings and tough edges using a sharp knife or a potato peeler. I like using a knife best. Slice into 1/4-inch slices.
- Clean strawberries and remove stems. Slice berries into 1/4-inch slices.
- Add rhubarb and strawberries to a large mixing bowl. Blend brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch until integrated, and then gently toss it into the fruit mixture, making sure to coat the fruit well. Stir in 1/4-cup of the brown sugar crumb topping.
- Pour filling mixture into the prepared pie shell.
- Evenly distribute remaining Brown Sugar Crumb Topping (recipe above) over the top of the pie.
- Bake pie for approximately 45-55 minutes, or until the top is turning golden-brown and fruit filling is bubbly. If the crust looks like it’s golden brown, but the filling isn’t yet bubbling, lay a piece of foil over the pie and continue to bake until the filing is bubbling.
- Serve warm or cold with a big scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream!
