Rhubarb Custard Pie

This is a recipe that I’ve been trying to get up for a year. The problem: this isn’t a pretty pie, so I’ve had a hell of a time trying to get a decent picture of the finished product. That doesn’t matter though, because this is, hands down, my favourite pie. All credit goes to my Nana, who’s recipe this is.

That’s right. Forget apple, or cherry, or even lemon meringue. I would take this pie over any of them. It’s such a great combination of tart and sweet, and it is so easy to make. Like, the easiest pie ever to make. Don’t believe me? Watch.

First, get yourself some rhubarb (thanks again to Nana, this is straight out of her garden). Give it a good wash.

Slice it into bite size pieces, about half an inch thick. You need 4 cups for the pie, so if you’ve got extra, freeze it for next time. The best way to freeze fruit is like this: Place the fruit in a single layer on a metal, rimmed baking sheet. Place the sheet, uncovered, in the freezer for an hour or two, until frozen, then transfer fruit to a zip lock back. Zip the bag up 90% of the way, put a straw in the opening, and suck the remaining air out of the bag, then quickly seal. Sucking the air out of the bag guarantees you no freezer burn, and pre-freezing them on the baking sheet means that they won’t all freeze together, so that you can just scoop out what you need down the road.

Now for the rest of the filling, you just need a couple eggs, some white sugar, milk, and cake and pastry flour. If you don’t have cake and pastry flour, here’s your substitution: scoop out the half cup of flour you need, then remove one tablespoon of it. Replace the missing tablespoon with a tablespoon of cornstarch.

Give the eggs a quick beat.

Add the sugar and milk, whisk.

Add the flour, whisk.

Filling is done. That’s it.

Get your first disk of pie dough out of the fridge (just use any recipe you like)

Roll it out.

Drape it over your pie plate and trim the edges. Note: I did this backwards. The bottom crust should have been trimmed flush with the edge of the pie plate, and the top crust trimmed half an inch longer to fold under the bottom crust before crimping. Oops.

Dump in the rhubarb.

Pour the filling over top of the rhubarb, then dot with tiny pieces of butter.

Roll out your second piece of dough. Remember, I did the crust backwards… didn’t change how great it tastes though, so who cares.

Fold the long edge over the short edge and crimp. Then just poke a knife through the top crust in a few spots to let out the steam.

After 50 minutes in the oven.

And voila. I totally didn’t eat two giant slices of this last night.

It’s may not be the prettiest looking slice of pie, but it is one of the tastiest.

 

Here’s your printable:

Rhubarb Custard Pie

Yield: 1 pie

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

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Ingredients

• 4 cups rhubarb pieces (roughly ½" wide)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• ½ cup cake and pastry flour
• 1½ cups white sugar
• 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 recipe for double crust pie dough

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425ºF
3. Line a 9" glass pie plate with pie dough. Fill with rhubarb.
5. In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the milk and sugar, whisk to combine, add the flour, which until creamy and uniform. Pour over the rhubarb. Dot with pieces of butter.
7. Cover with top crust, crimp the edges, and poke a few holes in the top with a knife to let out steam.
9. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Notes

This recipe freezes exceptionally well. Freeze the unbaked pie (covered well with two layer of foil). Bake from frozen, simply extending the baking time as necessary.

If you don't have cake and pastry flour, substitute ½ cup flour - 1 tbsp. Replace the missing tbsp with 1 tbsp of corn starch.