Remembering Rhubarb Pie

[mbarker]

I happened to be exchanging recipes with someone this morning, and had to dig this out of my PDA... So just to make it easily findable, here's the pie recipe I used -- straight out of Betty Crocker.

Utterly simple...

Pie Crust

1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3-4 tablespoons cold water

Mix the flour, salt, and oil. Then add 3 tablespoons cold water and mix. I usually did this by hand. It's really stiff, but don't add too much water. Just work it.

Betty Crocker suggested using waxed paper -- one sheet on the bottom, one on top -- and rolling out the dough in between. So I would divvy up the mix into two chunks, then roll each one out. One makes the bottom, hold the other on the side for now (if you leave it in a ball, that's fine -- but maybe put a sheet of waxed paper over the top to avoid drying out)

Rhubarb

1 2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 cups rhubarb -- skinned and cut into small chunks -- maybe an inch?
2 tbsp butter

Hum -- not in the recipe, but I swear I usually put in some cinnamon? Just a half-teaspoon or something. I also liked mixing up the sugar -- brown sugar adds a bit more taste for me?

Mix the sugar and flour. Dump about half the rhubarb into the pie shell. Dump about half the sugar/flour on top. Dot about a tbsp butter around. Then add the other half rhubarb, the rest of the sugar/flour, and butter.

Now take the other half crust and top. Cut slits to let the steam escape. I usually used a fork to seal the edges together?

Again, Betty Crocker suggested taking strips of foil and covering the edges for the first stage of baking. So I would take little 2 inch strips and mold them around the edges of the pan.

Hum -- 425 30/15? I think that meant bake in a 425 oven for 30 minutes, then strip the foil, and bake another 15 minutes.

My wife always said it was too much sugar, but rhubarb is pretty tangy. And I never noticed that anyone refused to eat.