Simple Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe

Strawberry rhubarb pie is a fruit pie featuring rhubarb—nicknamed "pie plant"—and sweet strawberries, both coming into season in the spring. The sweetness of the strawberries balances the tartness of the rhubarb, and the colors and textures blend beautifully. Strawberry rhubarb pie can feature a double-crust with a lattice top or a simple crimp on the bottom crust, or it can be made as a free-form galette.

Follow these tips for making strawberry rhubarb pie:

• Rest your pie dough. Be careful not to overwork your dough. Once your dough has just come together, it's time to give it a rest. After mixing and rolling out your dough, allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least two hours. This allows the fat to cool and solidify and the gluten molecules to relax, so you have a soft, flaky crust.
• Macerate the strawberries and rhubarb. To keep your pie filling from leaking out of the pie crust, macerate the strawberries and rhubarb, or toss the cut fruit with sugar and let the mixture sit at room temperature until the juices run out. Just drain the liquid before assembling the filling. (You can use the leftover juice to flavor lemonade or seltzer or drizzle it on vanilla ice cream.)
• Use a thickener. Strawberries and rhubarb can release a lot of moisture during cooking, even after maceration. To combat this, mix the fruit with a bit of thickener, such as cornstarch, tapioca flour, or all-purpose flour.
• Place your pie plate on a baking sheet. Even after you've macerated your fruit and combined it with a thickener, there's still a chance of leakage. To avoid a mess in your oven, simply bake your pie on a rimmed baking sheet.
• Blind bake your pie. Fillings, by nature, contain a ton of moisture—fruit-based ones, especially. When they bake, they release all those delicious juices into the nearest vessel at hand: the dough. In order for your crust to withstand that moisture, it’s crucial that you blind bake. Blind baking—the process of pre-baking the bottom crust in a pie pan using pie weights, dried beans, or sugar, gives you a headstart on creating a base that will stand up to a wet filling.
• Bake until the pie is golden. Nobody likes a soggy, doughy pie. Wait until your pie is a deep golden brown before pulling it from the oven.

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