Measure Free Hippie Cook

Grandma-GK’s Rhubarb Pie

There’s the clump of rhubarb Grandma planted out back. Then there’s decades of listening to Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor talk about how Beebop-A-Rebop Rhubarb Pie “takes the taste of humiliation out of your mouth.” Between Grandma and Beebop-A-Rebop, I had to give a nod to the institution of rhubarb pie.

Recipe Note

Use a ratio of two parts flour to one part fat for your crust. In this case, I used two cups of unbleached white flour and two or three pinches of salt to two cubes of cold butter pared off in bits with a small knife. That way the butter’s fairly easy to work into the flour by pressing the bits flat with your fingers. Then little splashes of ice water, using your hands to help the dough come together gently. All the recipes I consulted call for glass, nonreactive pie plates for rhubarb, so I used one, although as you can see, I set it in a giant cast iron pan to help the cause of getting the bottom done.

A couple pounds of chopped rhubarb—or enough to mound nicely into one large pie shell—takes a little less than a cup and a half of sugar and around a third cup of thickening like tapioca flour or just regular flour. Use a nonreactive bowl to keep the rhubarb from darkening. Then a little bold spice is fun. I used allspice that I ground fresh in the coffee grinder. And once I got the lattice on and painted with a wash to make it shine—an egg white stirred up with a little water—I sprinkled more allspice on the crust as well.

Bake in a hot, 425 degree oven for ten minutes to jump start the bottom crust. Then back the heat off a good hundred degrees for a slow cook on the fruit and the top crust. Check your pie fairly often and turn it, since if your oven’s like mine it’s hotter at the back.  Pies are done when the tip of your sharp knife signals soft fruit within.

~When I worked at My Mom’s Pie shop way back, I’d make pies during my off hours and take wedges into the owner, Jean McLaughlin, for critique. Her main tip was to not get up tight about working the fat into the flour perfectly.  And I did find that my crusts got flakier when I trusted the dough and myself more.

~I started getting two thumbs up from Jean as well, who wondered aloud at one point if I was planning on opening my own pie shop and turning into her competitor. I didn’t do that, but I kept up with the pie making, even learning to flatten the rim of the crust some after you crimp the top and bottom crusts together. That way the edges won’t burn and there’s no need for those strips of aluminum foil some want you to mess with.

~This pie is the only one I’ve made in decades without using 100 percent whole wheat pastry flour. That’s because the person I was making it before had a delicate tummy that required pasty things instead of whole grains. So, if you’re in the whole wheat or other whole grain flour groove, know that pies turn out great without a speck of white flour.