I made my first double crust pie last month. It was an auction pie - the bidder wanted a rhubarb pie, no berries and she told me that she didn’t want crumb topping and that the only appropriate way to have rhubarb pie was as a double crust, served with vanilla custard. What I didn’t tell her is that in all my time pie baking, I never made a double crust pie. I decided I just needed confidence that I could do it!
But first, the rhubarb drama. If you have ever bought fresh rhubarb, you know it has a fairly short season. I had known in April that I would be baking this pie, but it wouldn’t be delivered until June. I had been keeping an eye out for rhubarb when I went to the grocery store. Not everywhere carries it, but I did find it at the Smart & Final near me in May. And then it was gone. I looked and called stores that usually carried it, but no one had it. The pie was set to be delivered June 9th and in late May, no one had rhubarb. I was headed to Washington for a girl’s trip the first weekend on June, so I told my friends that we needed to go to some farmer’s markets to look for rhubarb. Apparently Washington grows a lot of rhubarb. So we hit up the farmer’s market in Leavenworth, WA and found beautiful rhubarb! So, I brought home a rhubarb haul to southern California.
Of course, since this was an auction pie, I didn't get to try it, but the dough scraps baked up great and were delicious. I was also told that the pie was very good! I was really happy with how it turned out.
How I Baked the Pie
Although I made a strawberry rhubarb pie last year, I've never baked a pure rhubarb pie. I read a few recipes and interestingly enough Erin McDowell didn't recommend cooking the filling in her Book on Pie, which surprised me. When I read Smitten Kitchen's recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie, she had mentioned that the rhubarb can make for a really wet filling and soggy bottom. Since my access to rhubarb was limited, I needed this to work out the first time! I did some research and found a blog that recommended both macerating and cooking the filling. So I macerated for 30 minutes and cooked the filling very quickly, just for about five minutes.
I decided not to egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar because while it can look really beautiful, the bake requires a lot more diligence to ensure the sugar doesn't burn. I think it still looked great! 😍😍
Michelle- This looks wonderful. I can’t wait to try this, especially now that the pie season is approaching! 🙌🏼