Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

The best strawberry rhubarb pie! This double-crusted strawberry rhubarb pie is sweet, tart and totally delicious. A flaky crust garnished with fresh sweet strawberries, tart rhubarb, and lemon zest filling. The recipe includes tips & tricks, such as how to avoid a soggy bottom.

There’s this famous expression, “as easy as pie”.

What?

Making pie is definitely not easy!

Fruit pies are especially tricky as they release a lot of liquid during baking. For my first double-crusted pie, I went all in with some of the juiciest fruit around: strawberries & rhubarb.

It was a challenge. It took me four attempts until I got a result I was happy with.

Let’s see:

Attempt #1: A real disaster! The bottom crust was completely raw and swimming in a pool of strawberry juice. The very definition of a soggy bottom. The pie still tasted great though!

Attempt #2: Second attempt. To make sure the pie was thoroughly cooked through, I moved it to the bottom part of the oven (rather than in the middle) and increased the baking time to 2h30. I was worried the pie would overbake, but it turned out perfectly cooked and the filling remained moist despite the longer cooking time. Not a bad result, but it’s a long wait.  The top crust collapsed/caved in for some reason the day after the bake. Some more tests are needed.

Attempt #3: To prevent the dough from collapsing again, I increased the amount of fruit in the filling. I also lowered the cooking time to 1h20. However, I forgot to also increase the amount of cornstarch, which resulted in somewhat liquid result (but still better than attempt #1).

Attempt #4: Success at last! I increased the cornstarch and also decided to add it after draining the fruit to avoid draining the starch along with the juice. This time the filling set perfectly.

Verdict? Delicious. I like my strawberry rhubarb pie to be tart. If you prefer yours sweeter, add some more sugar to the recipe.

Tips & tricks

1) Chill, chill, chill

Pie making takes time and patience. The pie dough will need to be chilled at different points in the recipe. You cannot rush this process.

Why?

Refrigerating the dough relaxes the gluten, making it less elastic and easier to roll. It also firms up the butter, which softens and melts as you work the dough. This will cause your dough to stick to the surface, forcing you to add more flour and making the crust tougher and less flaky.

Simply put, the colder the ingredients, the flakier and prettier your pie will be.

Used chilled ingredients

Butter should be kept refrigerated until used and you can add ice cubes to the water used to form the pie dough.

Prepare the dough ahead of time

Prepare the dough a day ahead and chill it overnight, so it can absorb all the liquid. If not possible, prepare the same day and chill for at least 1h.

Chill the dough again after rolling it out and lining the pie pan.

This will help relax the dough and prevent it from shrinking in the oven. If you’re making a double crusted pie, roll out the top crust on a tray and chill for 30 minutes.

Chill a last time once the pie is assembled

This will make it easier to cut nice vents.

2) Avoiding runny fruit pies

Strawberries are made up of 90% of water. They will release that water during baking, which is why you often end up with a puddle of juice and the infamous “soggy bottom”. Getting the pie to set properly is really the main challenge when making this pie.

Through my different attempts, I found that the following worked for me:

Macerate and drain the fruit

Drain as much of liquid as possible from the fruit before baking: place the chopped fruit in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Let sit for at least 30 min. Discard the resulting liquid.

Add the thickener after draining the fruit

Adding the thickener at the same time as the sugar means some of that thickener will be drained off with the liquid, and the thickener is crucial for the setting of the pie. I therefore recommend to add it once all the juice has been drained from the fruit.

Let the pie cool before cutting it

The pie will set as it cools down. If you cut into it too early, it will not have had time to do so and you will end up with a soggy mess. Let it sit for 2h-3h before cutting it. If you prefer to eat your pie warm, you can reheat it in the oven before serving.

3) Place the pie on a tray lined with parchment paper

As the fruit starts to cook, the filling will start to bubble and potentially even splatter. By placing the pie on a lined tray, you will have to spend less time cleaning up your oven!

4) Bake the pie long enough

The baking time will really depend on your oven and the fruit you choose.

Bake at 220°C (400F) for 20 min, then reduce the heat to 180°C (375F) and continue to bake for 60-80 min, depending on your oven. This might seem like a lot, but my different tests showed me that you cannot overbake the fruit! Even after 2h30, the fruit was still moist.

The only thing to look out for is to not over brown or burn the crust. If the top of the pie starts to get too brown, cover it with aluminium foil.

5) Bake on the lowest oven rack

Baking the pie on the lowest oven rack will help prevent a soggy bottom. I left mine on the lowest rack for the whole baking time, but some people also like to move it to the middle. See what works for you!

6) The pie is ready when…

The pie’s juices must be bubbling thickly through the vents. This is required so that the cornstarch can absorb liquid and thicken the filling.