Rhubarb Pie

This past Saturday marked the beginning of the farmers market here in Syracuse...kind of.  Our farmers market is actually open year round, and Steve and I do try to go every Saturday, but during the winter it's definitely lacking.  Not surprising considering nothing grows in upstate New York during the winter months.  Saturday though, marked the 1st day of the summer season at the market and you could tell.  Every building was open, every booth was occupied.  You had to constantly watch where you were going lest you trip on a basket of flowers or stumble into a booth of produce.  I love going to the farmers market and finding exciting new things to try, so it made me really happy to see it full and busy Saturday.

We ended up with lots of yummy things including a huge loaf of artisan bread, a bunch of artichokes (for $1!!), and some rhubarb.  Rhubarb seems to be an overlooked piece of produce.  You never see it in the grocery store, and you never hear people exclaiming about how they can't wait for rhubarb season, and I'm not sure why.

 Growing up we had a rhubarb plant in our back yard, so rhubarb crisp made an appearance in our home every so often.  As much as I like rhubarb crisp I decided to use this rhubarb to make a pie.

 Rhubarb is a very tart fruit but as long as you pair it with just the right amount of sugar you will have a wonderful dessert.  It's important to not overpower it with sugar and remove all it's tartness, so take the time to play around and find just the right ratio.  I'm very happy with how this pie turned out, sweet yet you can still taste the tangy tartness of the rhubarb. 

I encourage everyone to go out and try and some rhubarb if you've never done so, I think you'll be in for a very nice surprise.


The recipe comes from Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book

Crust ( makes 2 9'' crusts)


Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 4 tbsp water

Mix together flour and salt.  Cut in shortening  then sprinkle water on top.  Gather the dough into a ball with your hands.  Cut in half and roll out  your dough.

I didn't have quite enough dough to cover the top of mine which is why I did the cut outs instead.

Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 to 2 cups sugar - This depends on the tartness of your rhubarb.  I used 1 1/5 cups.
• 6 tbsp flour
• 4 cups cut up rhubarb
• 1 1/3 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 425.
Mix the sugar and flour together.  Cover the bottom of the pie crust with this mixture and then set some aside.  Add the rhubarb to the remaining mixture and toss until the rhubarb is coated.  Sprinkle the mixture you set aside on top.  Dot with butter and then cover with remaining pie crust.   Cook 40 - 50 minutes until top is golden brown and juices are bubbling.