I’m pretending it’s summer with a blueberry rhubarb pie made with all frozen fruit! Just in time for March 14 or Pi Day!
I’m so happy it’s finally March and the end of winter is in sight. I’m fast-forwarding to summer in my kitchen, however, with this blueberry rhubarb (or bluebarb) pie. I made it using local fruit from last summer that I froze for just such an occasion.
You can bake pie with frozen fruit, whether you froze it yourself or bought it at the store, but it requires a few extra steps to ensure that your filling isn’t too soupy. First, thaw the fruit either overnight in the refrigerator or out on the counter. And then drain it.
If your thawed fruit, especially berries, aren’t juicy, don’t think you are out of the woods. My advice is to macerate the berries in some sugar and lemon juice for 20-30 minutes and then drain them. For example, my frozen blueberries, even after thawing, were not giving off any juice. But after I tossed them with sugar and lemon juice and let them sit, they released 1/3 a cup of juice, which I poured off. That’s a lot of extra juice that I was just as glad not to have in my pie.
If it seems that I am obsessed with avoiding a soupy filling, well, I am. That is my fruit pie pet peeve. I know I don’t have any pictures of the pie after I cut it, so you will just have to take my word for it that all my tricks worked and the filling was not soupy. But it really wasn’t! I was so pleased.
If you are worried about a pie filling being too liquid, opt for a lattice top crust, as I did here. The openings in the lattice allow for more evaporation than a closed crust with only a few holes for venting. Also, a lattice crust allows the beautiful filling to peek through.
The eye-catching magenta color is one reason that blueberries and rhubarb make such an appealing combination. Another is that the tartness of the rhubarb ensures that the sweet berries won’t be too cloying. Lastly, blueberries are a very soft, liquidy fruit. Rhubarb, by contrast, is firm and high in pectin, which will help achieve a more set filling.
What a special treat it is to eat a pie with a luscious fruit filling in the middle of winter! I’m so happy that I had the foresight to freeze this fruit when it was in season. If you have local fruit stashed away in your freezer, there is no better time than now to use it.
And March 14 is Pi Day. 3/14. Get it? Hey, any excuse to eat pie, right?
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cold, unsalted European-style butter, cut into pieces
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup ice water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
- 3 cups blueberries (thawed and drained if frozen)
- 3 cups sliced rhubarb (thawed and drained if frozen)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 TB butter
- Pinch salt
- 1 egg beaten
- Demerara or Turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Combine the lemon juice or vinegar and ice water and add six tablespoons of the mixture to the ingredients in the food processor. Pulse several times until combined. Pinch a bit of the dough and if it holds together, you do not need to add more liquid. If it is still dry, add more of the liquid, one tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough to a bowl or a well-floured board.
- Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Divide the dough into two and wrap each half well in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least a half-hour but preferably overnight.
- Begin by rolling out the bottom crust: remove one of the balls of dough from the refrigerator. If your dough was chilled for longer than thirty minutes, allow to soften for ten to fifteen minutes before rolling it out.
- Prior to rolling out the dough, strike it with your rolling pin to flatten. This will soften it further.
- Preheat the oven to 425 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.
- Liberally dust a pastry board or mat and your rolling pin with flour.
- Roll the dough out, rotating it and turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is the size of your pie plate and between ¼ and ⅛ of an inch thick.
- Carefully center the pie dough in the plate and press it into the bottom and sides. Trim or fold over any excess dough around the edges.
- Sprinkle the bottom of the plate with the sugar and flour mix prevent the filling from making the crust soggy.
- Chill the dough in the pie plate 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Combine the blueberries and rhubarb in a large bowl and toss with 1/2 cup sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss and set aside for 20-30 minutes. Drain any accumulated liquid.
- In a small bowl, rub together the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch and add the mixture to the fruit. Add the lemon zest and juice and ginger. Toss to combine.
- Place the filling in the pie plate on top of the bottom crust and spread evenly. Dot the top with butter.
- Prepare the lattice top by rolling out the second dough ball as described above.
- Using a paring knife or fluted pastry wheel, cut even strips of dough about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.
- Create a lattice top by laying out strips of dough horizontally, using the shorter strips on the edges and the longest strips for the middle.
- Fold back every other strip and lay down one vertical strip of dough. Unfold the strips of dough. (The one vertical strip should be woven over and under the horizontal strips.)
- Fold back the strips you did not fold back the first time and lay down a second vertical strip of dough. Unfold. Repeat with remaining strips of dough to create a woven lattice.
- Trim any excess that hangs over the edge and then crimp together the edges of the bottom and top crusts.
- (If time permits, chill the pie prior to baking. Pie can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to a day at this point.)
- Mix the egg with a tsp of water and beat together. Brush the egg wash over the top and edges of the crust.
- Sprinkle with the Demerera or Turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until crust is browned. Cover the edges of the crust with tin foil or use a pie crust shield to prevent them from burning.
- Reduce the heat to 375 and bake an additional 40-50 minutes until the filling is bubbling.
- Cool on a rack completely (for several hours) before slicing to allow filling to set.
