Guest Post: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

This is a guest post by my sous chef and better half, Chris. "Somehow" he found himself with far to many strawberries, so he's going to tell you how he dealt with them.

I am the kind of person who thinks about strawberry season all year long. When I was a kid I used to eat so many strawberries I'd get hives. Unfun as the hives were, they were a small price to pay for the juicy, delicious enjoyment of fresh local strawberries.

The other day, I stopped by a strawberry u-pick and was a little overzealous with my picking. The result was a kitchen full of strawberries slowly losing their freshness. I froze most. I made freezer jam (see tomorrow's post) with many others. And I also made this pie.

I've never made a lattice top pie before. I found this helpful clip for weaving the dough. In the video, the host rolls and pinches the excess around the edges. I too rolled and pinched, but it turns out I should have cut some of that excess because the resulting crust was big and dense.

I brushed an egg/water mixture on top to help it brown and watched excitedly as it did. I learned after that this makes for a tough crust.

The pie crust recipe is from Chef Dennis. It was quick and easy and worked well. Only after I had completed it did a notice his comment, "...my pie crust was not quite up to standards..." Oh well. The filling comes from Epicurious.com. Overall, we really enjoyed this pie.

Pie Crust
From More Than A Mount Full

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup chilled butter
1/4 cup chilled shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
5-6 tbsp of ice water

Instructions:
1. Cube the butter and shortening and keep cold.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor and pulse twice.
3. Add the butter and shortening and pulse a few times until crumbly.
4. Add 5 tbsp of ice water and run processor until dough forms. Add more water if the dough is too dry.
5. Form a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. The less the dough is handled the better. Refrigerate for one hour.
6. REPEAT RECIPE FOR TOP CRUST (or just double it the first time if you're braver than me)
7. Roll on a floured surface and transfer to pie plate.
8. Keep dough cold until you are ready to fill it.
9. Roll second dough thinly on a floured surface and cut into strips and weave onto the top of the pie.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Filling
From Epicurious.com

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb
3 1/2 cups halved strawberries
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Toss gently to blend.

2. Brush glaze over crust. transfer pie to baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
3. Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about 1 hour 25 minutes.
4. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Pairs nicely with an over-abundance of strawberries.