Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Photo Courtesy of King Arthur Flour
Spring comes late to Vermont, so now in late, late May the gardens are full of rhubarb. My neighbor Frank dropped off a bundle, so my thoughts immediately turned to pie. Sure rhubarb is poisonous, but you only use the tender greeny-red stalks, which are perfectly safe and make a hell of a pie. Strawberry season is still a month away, but reliably good ones start showing up about this time in the grocery stores, trucked in from ever closer points south, until at last it's pick-your-own season here in early July. Any sweet berry pairs deliciously with tart rhubarb however.
I don't have a preferred recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb pie, which is a shame, because it is Robert's favorite! But I think with any good fruit pie, very little fuss needs to be made. You just need good quality fruit and time. So I used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, because after my last trip to their awesome flagship store in Norwich, Vermont, I picked up a product I had never used before: ClearJel. A product they make for thickening fruit pies, it is a modified corn starch which stands up to higher temps. I was anxious to try it, so I followed their recipe pretty much to the letter:
Tossed in sugar and ClearJel, dotted with butter, almost ready for the oven!
Stars for the top crust
Not bad! The ClearJel made all that delicious juice stay put!
So... off I go. Pie for breakfast beckons...
