Strawberry Rhubarb Topped Pie

I bought quit a bit of rhubarb on sale and realized I needed to use it up quickly. I saw the most beautiful pies on instagram and wanted to emulate it. I showed B these instagram pies and he said, “Ha! Have fun with that!”

I started chopping the rhubarb into matchsticks, and it was horribly tedious; it took an hour to chop and arrange the pie design. I regretted it, but I had come to far to give up.
B while on his computer told me that “hearing you chop it for an hour was tedious to my ears”.

I originally wanted a zigzag design, but the rhubarb was too uneven despite my valiant efforts to make it uniform. So I made it into a starburst pattern instead because it was the easiest.

Another issue was not having tapioca flour, so the pie was watery after baking. I poured out the excess liquid and the filling consistency was good after that – but if you look closely at the crust, you can see part of the edge is darker than the rest due to the strawberry juice coloring.

Finally I tented the pie crust edges with foil to prevent overburning, and I tented it too long. The crust stayed pale and looked totally unbaked. So I had to do some quick browning with the oven set to broil, and then the top rhubarb got burnt (which I had to pick off because that’s not attractive at all).

I’ve shared both pre and post baked pies, and luckily the pattern held up. Overall a pretty frustrating pie to make, and it’s a good thing my income doesn’t depend on instagram worthy pies. Adapted from Food Network.

Ingredients
1 pie crust (I used pre-made here)
5-6 stalks red rhubarb
3 cups largely chopped strawberries
1 cup sugar, plus additional for dusting
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 425F

Optional: Cut and thinly slice the rhubarb into matchsticks (otherwise, roughly chop them, which saves a lot of time)

Mix the chopped strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, flour, lemon juice, dash of cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well in a large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Arrange the rhubarb in your desired pattern on top the of strawberries. Dust the top of the rhubarb with sugar.

Cover the edges with foil and bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling. Let cool before serving.