Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe

Summer is coming, and with summer comes barbeque and picnic season. An easy to make homemade strawberry rhubarb pie recipe! Fresh sweet strawberries are paired with tart rhubarb and tapioca. A solid rhubarb strawberry pie filling surrounded by a flaky homemade pie crust.

You can bake it as a regular pie, or as parchment wrapped hand pies. Whether served as dessert after dinner or as part of a picnic basket its a delicious way to celebrate summer.

This rustic strawberry rhubarb pie recipe. My boys always loved rhubarb from when they were very little. I would make the dessert and give them the leaves to play elephant with, and enjoy watching them peel around the back yard. Eating outside is fun outing and this strawberry rhubarb pie recipe is designed with picnicking in mind.  You can either make a large rustic pie to cut and serve on the deck or bundle some smaller individual hand pies in parchment paper for your picnic basket.

The strawberry rhubarb pie starts with your favorite pie crust recipe. Here is my traditional pie crust recipe. It shows all the steps for mixing and rolling pie crust. Or use your own.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling

This strawberry rhubarb pie filling is easy to make and the rhubarb adds so much flavour without alot of sugary sweetness. The colour of the strawberry rhubarb pie filling is really striking and appealing as well.

Wash your strawberries, remove the stems and slice.  Place in a medium size saucepan.

Wash and cut the rhubarb into 1-inch chunks,  place in the saucepan.

Add the sugars to the saucepan and stir until all the fruit is coated.  Add the minute tapioca (I prefer it). If using cornstarch refer to later in the instructions)

Add the salt and combine.

Place over medium heat and cook until soft, stirring regularly.  This will take about 20 minutes.   

If using cornstarch once the fruit is cooked take 1 cup of the filling out, stir in the cornstarch very well and return it back to the saucepan.  Cook until very thick (about five more minutes).

Remove from heat and add the butter in little bits.   Just letting it melt on top. Set aside while you roll the pie dough.

Assembling the Rustic Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

To make the rustic pie. Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll our your pie crust into a large round about 16 inches across. Place the pie round on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Fill the central 8 inches of your pie crust with the cooked strawberry rhubarb pie filling.

Fold the edges of the pie crust leaving a six inch gap in the middle of the rustic pie.

Brush cream or milk on top of the pie crust and sprinkle with sugar.

Place in the oven at 375 F. Bake until the crust is golden about 30-35 minutes.

Once baked allow your pie to cool for at least 3 hours in the fridge before serving. It needs time for the filling to thicken.

Strawberry Rhubarb Hand Pies

Hand pies are made exactly the same way as the rustic pie.  

Preheat your oven to 375F, line a sided cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Roll the crust out on a lightly floured surface a bit thicker than you usually do.   Cut the pie crust dough into a six-inch circles.  I cut mine using a pot lid, so much easier than cutting each round with a knife.

Note:  These pies are rustic, if you have a cutter that is larger or smaller than six inches, go ahead and use it.  Just remember to adjust the amount of filling.
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Lay your pie crust rounds out onto the parchment lined cookie sheets before filling them.  It’s much easier to fill the pie crust once its on the parchment, then it is to move filled pies.

Filling the Individual Strawberry Rhubarb Hand Pies

These little hand pies are rustic, they are meant to be rather flat with little tucks of dough around the outside.    Using a measuring cup fill each pie crust round with 1/3 cup of the strawberry rhubarb pie filling.
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Fold the pie crust over the filling, and gather into a bundle, pinching the pie crust together.   Perfection is not required.
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Bake at 375F for 20- 25 minutes.   While still hot sprinkle with sugar.  Let cool before serving.

You may find that some of the hand pies bake flat.  I had this happen to two of my pies, but its super easy to fix.

While the pies are still hot,  use a teaspoon to fold over the edges if needed.  I took pictures of the most open of the pies.
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Let the hand pies cool for a couple of hour before wrapping.

Wrapping and Storing Hand Pies

These pies were stored and then served in tea towel lined bread pans.   The bread pans were the right size to line up a single row of the hand pies.  Of course if you have a better transportable container, line it with a towel or napkin to make it pretty and then transport it.

Cut parchment paper squares at least ten inches square.    Fold the top corner down. Place the pie on top.  Fold the bottom corner over and then wrap upwards over the pie.  Finish the bundles by folding and tucking the final two corners.

Line up the parchment bundled pies in the bread pan, tucking them in to be pretty.  Then wrap in the towel.  If you want to freeze them you can, by wrapping the entire thing very well in plastic wrap.    I did not freeze these, I took them to family in BC.
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The pies traveled 450 miles in a picnic cooler and transported really well.   For a picnic just place the strawberry rhubarb hand pies in the top of the cooler so they don’t get crushed.

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To serve the hand pies, just unwrap the tea towel and let people dig in.  If there are bees around use the towel to recover the hand pies. 

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