Along with Memorial Day comes a summer full of picnics, cookouts and other assorted outdoor get-togethers, and we couldn’t be happier. Of course, pie makes the perfect sweet ending to a day of salads and grilled items, but let’s break free from the stereotypical apple. Apple gets all the glory when it comes to patriotic desserts, but the fruit isn’t even in season. Of course, with the year-round availability of all fruits at the supermarket, we’ve forgotten that the real window for apple pie is a few weeks in the fall. Our apple trees just finished blossoming around here, and need a few months to soak up summer sun and grow their fruit.
So this summer, be the talk of your picnics by baking up seasonally appropriate fruit pies, starting with rhubarb, which is just hitting its peak in May and June.
I snagged some organic, local rhubarb at the very start of the season from Kolb’s Farm Store. Having never cooked with it before, I did a little research before going, knowing to look for redder stalks (for sweetness). I ended up grabbing 6 hefty pieces, and it turned out to be just shy of the 4 cups chopped rhubarb called for in the recipe. I made up for it by adding a few extra strawberries, but in retrospect, I could have added even more of both to create a “fatter” pie, as the filling really cooked down.
Because the filling is so easy to throw together—just a bunch of chopping and then toss with sugar and cornstarch—I went all out with a lattice crust. Lattice really is a showstopper, as it looks super impressive but actually isn’t too tough to pull off. It helps if your dough is sturdy, which this one from Food Network is. (I swear I’ll use a different crust recipe next month, but this one is just SO dependable.) Another bonus of lattice crust? Extra dough to make pie fries. What are pie fries? Egg wash, cinnamon and sugar turn extra dough into the perfect nibble to have with coffee while you’re waiting for your pie to cool.
Rhubarb is a highly contentious ingredient—is it fruit? A vegetable? You can argue for both, and its bitterness throws people off. It’s almost always paired up with strawberries to balance out the flavor, though a distinct tartness should remain in a great pie-filling blend. I’m going to take advantage of the local bounty by whipping up another pie and washing it down with some soda (or cocktails!) made with this rhubarb syrup. Yum!
Modern Farmer’s simple strawberry-rhubarb pie:
Mix together 4 cups chopped rhubarb, 1 pint sliced strawberries, ¾ cup of white sugar and 4 tablespoons cornstarch. Fill pie and cover with crust. Brush with egg wash. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, lower to 350 and bake for an additional 30–40 minutes.
- Photography: Melissa Woodley
