Mama’s Rhubarb Pie

Let me start by saying I have the best mum in the whole world. Let me say next that she makes the best rhubarb pie in the whole world. And let me say NEXT that she surprised me by sending me a package Halloween day with fresh-cut rhubarb from her garden two states away along with goodies like a movie and candy. She sent it that morning and it came that afternoon. I couldn’t believe it. Totally surprised me. She’s always sending me pictures and telling me she’s baking a rhubarb pie or crumble and I’m always unhappily drooling in Colorado (she lives in California). SO, I have rhubarb (a lot of people curiously don’t even know what this tart food is) and it really doesn’t require many more ingredients. It’s an easy recipe, but I called my mum a few times to make sure I was doing it right.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Baking Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 cups rhubarb (roughly)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 piece pie crust

Directions

• Thaw out the pie crusts (if you’re doing frozen) by leaving out for at least 15 minutes
• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F
• Chop up the rhubarb into 3/4 inch pieces (roughly) and toss them in a large bowl

• In a small bowl, mix the sugar and flour together
• Now, toss the sugar/flour mixture with the chopped up rhubarb in the big bowl. Mix it around so that the sugar is evenly distributed among the rhubarb

• Put that sugar-coated rhubarb in the first pie tin

• Now, this is probably the trickiest part: getting the other crust to come down evenly on the bottom crust. So the rhubarb should be a little heaping in the bottom pie tin. Thus, you want to flip that second pie crust so that its bottom is on top.
• Press upon the bottom crust and rhubarb. Use a fork to press and bind the two crust together all away around the edges. You will get some extra dough so get a sharp knife and slice around the edge to get the rest. Use the extra dough to make shapes or faces!

• Make three small slits in the pie to let it breathe
• Now this next step is to ensure that the pie crust doesn’t burn: get some tin foil, fold it in half and just cover the edge of the crust. It may take a few pieces of foil. Nobody likes a burnt crust!

• Put it on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake it for 15 minutes at 450 degrees F. Then turn it down to 350 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes. It should be golden brown on top and you should be able to go through those slits cleanly

And that is it! This pie isn’t as fun to make without my mum because I have nobody to tell me not to eat the sugar-laden rhubarb and smack my hand. But it still turned out pretty well. Actually, it turned out to be delicious. The rhubarb was still tart but balanced off with the sugar, and the crust didn’t get burned at all! Maybe it’s in the blood. I’m glad I didn’t botch this one! Thanks, mum! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

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