It’s really, really good.
I’m so happy to finally share a solid strawberry rhubarb pie recipe with you. This is actually a recipe I played around with a few days ago and while I have weeks of content stored in my drafts, I couldn’t hold off on sharing this one.
How awesome are rhubarb desserts? It’s taken me years to warm up to them. Things like strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb crisp, crumble, cake, the whole rhubarb shebang. To be honest, strawberry rhubarb pie never stood a chance when I was growing up. Mom always had it around and while everyone else seemed to rave about it, I couldn’t get on board with… magenta celery pie. I mean when you’re 12, you’ll pretty much convince yourself anything and if rhubarb looks like celery, I’m certainly not eating it for dessert.
MY MY MY. Look how the tables have turned. Never did I imagine myself saying the words “my favorite strawberry rhubarb pie” and never did I imagine myself writing about it on the internet because the internet ties up mom and dad’s landline and I want to be a dolphin trainer when I grow up.
Also, what is a blog?
18 years later, magenta celery pie is at the top of my list. Let’s get right into it because I have a hankering this will be your favorite recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie too. It might even make the list of your favorite spring dessert recipes.
Strawberry and rhubarb are meant to be because the sweet flavor of strawberries balances out rhubarb’s tart/sour bite. Rhubarb is fantastic in pies, crumbles, crisps, and the sort because it needs all the sugar it can get. I like to use an almost equal amount of strawberries and rhubarb in the pie filling: about 3 cups of chopped rhubarb to 2 and 1/2 cups strawberries. Strawberries let out so much juice, so I like to have a slightly lower amount.
If you’ve never cooked or baked with rhubarb before, have no fear. It’s sold in the grocery store without its leaves (they’re toxic!) and can be prepped the same way as celery. Give the stalks a good wash, cut off both ends and slice. You’ll want 1/2 inch slices for this pie.
One common issue with strawberry rhubarb pie is the whole “mushy puddle” situation. Bottom line: the filling is known to be a soupy mess. I asked around and found that instant tapioca is usually the fix. I didn’t have any tapioca in my cupboards and wasn’t about to show my face in the grocery store AGAIN that day, so cornstarch was my choice. It was perfect—every time I tried it. I didn’t have a sloppy problem when cutting into the pie using cornstarch, which is exactly what I was hoping for. To combat the mushy puddle situation, I simply spooned the filling into the crust—leaving all the pooled liquid behind.
Also in the filling: orange juice. Just a smidge of it—1 Tablespoon. It pairs so wonderfully with strawberry and rhubarb. Mom likes to use a mix of brown and white sugars, which tugs at my heart strings. All hail brown sugar’s flavor!
Also: pats of butter to make things rich, just as we do with peach pie.
I haven’t even mentioned the pie crust yet! I always use my standard pie crust recipe because it’s the best of both worlds: flaky and buttery. A mix of shortening and butter produce the absolute best texture. I won’t get into too much detail today but shortening helps create that flaky, melt-in-your-mouth texture. Butter gets us that unparalleled flavor. Make sure both of these fats are cold. When the fat melts as the pie bakes, its steam helps to separate the crust into multiple flaky layers. You won’t get that with warm butter and warm shortening.
I used a lattice pie crust topping because it’s classic and beautiful. It’s my go-to way to decorate a pie and you can also see it on top of my blueberry pie and triple berry pie. You can also use any overhanging pie dough to crimp and flute the pie crust edges.
By the way, do you SEE those flaky layers in the crust? I want to bake 50 pies this summer just so I can eat this pie crust as much as possible.
Add coarse sugar on top for a little pie sparkle.
You can switch up the pie’s topping. Maybe you want a crumble topping like from my apple crumble pie? Go for it.
My only request is that you finish her off with a pile vanilla ice cream. There’s no other way to eat magenta celery pie, ok?
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours
- Yield: 1 pie
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This recipe turned me into a strawberry rhubarb pie fanatic! The pie holds together nicely and the homemade pie crust is phenomenal.
Ingredients
- homemade pie crust (my recipe makes 2 crusts; 1 for bottom 1 for top)
- 3 cups (about 300g) sliced rhubarb (1/2 inch pieces)
- 2 and 1/2 cups (about 380g) chopped strawberries
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (32g) cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- optional: coarse sugar for garnish
Instructions
- The crust: Prepare my pie crust recipe through step 5.
- Make the filling: Stir the rhubarb, strawberries, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, orange juice, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. Set filling aside as the oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Roll out the chilled pie dough: On a floured work surface, roll out one of the discs of chilled dough (keep the other one in the refrigerator). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle 12 inches in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9-inch pie dish. Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Spoon the filling into the crust, leaving all of the excess liquid in the bowl (you don’t want that in the filling—discard it). Dot the pieces of butter on top of the filling.
- Arrange the lattice: Remove the other disc of chilled pie dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough into a circle that is 12 inches diameter. Using a pastry wheel, sharp knife, or pizza cutter, cut strips 1/2- to 1-inch wide. Carefully thread the strips over and under one another, pulling back strips as necessary to weave. Press the edges of the strips into the bottom pie crust edges to seal. Use a small knife to trim off excess dough. Crimp the pie crust edges with a fork, if desired. (Alternatively, you can simply cover the filling with the 12-inch pie dough circle. Cut slits in the top to form steam vents. Trim and crimp the edges. Or a crumble or streusel topping would be great.)
- Lightly brush the top of the pie crust with the egg/milk mixture. Sprinkle the top with a little coarse sugar, if desired.
- Place the pie onto a large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Keeping the pie in the oven, turn the temperature down to 350°F (177°C) and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes. After the first 20 minutes of bake time, I place a pie crust shield on top of the pie to prevent the edges from browning too quickly. The pie is done when the filling’s juices are bubbling all around the edges.
- Allow the pie to cool for 3 full hours at room temperature before serving. This time allows the filling to thicken up. Cover leftovers tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: This a great pie to make 1 day in advance since it is so juicy – the filling will have time to set overnight. The pie crust dough can also be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Baked pie freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving. Prepared filling can be frozen up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Rolling Pin | 9-inch Pie Dish | Pizza Cutter or Pastry Wheel | Pastry Brush | Baking Sheet | Pie Crust Shield | Coarse Sprinkling Sugar
Reader Comments and Reviews
This has become my goto recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb pie. I increased the corn starch from 1/4 to 1/3 cup as I found the pie a little too juicy with only a 1/4 cup.
Great recipe! I made it twice this weekend and both pies turned out amazing. I will say, the quality/age of rhubarb makes a difference. 1st time I cut the rhubarb right from a friend’s garden and it was perfectly sweet. Today at home we were craving it so went to store and purchased rhubarb. It was stringy and tougher to cut; using the same sugar/everything in the recipe, the 2nd pie turned out more tart and sour. I actually like it that way – reminds me of childhood. Guessing we were using larger, more mature stalks back then. Great recipe either way!
Hi! Am i able to use frozen rhubarb and strawberries for this recipe?
Hi Madison, For best results, we strongly recommend using fresh strawberries and rhubarb in this pie. Frozen will add too much moisture to the filling.
My freezer is filling up with this recipe…
great recipe! Had no orange juice, put in 1 tsp vanilla instead of 1/2 tsp and everyone loved it!
First off, I have to say that I have been using your recipes for the last few years and everything has been spectacular! So, thank you! I was planning on baking your strawberry rhubarb for my husband (his fave), but decided to mix it up a bit. Since we had a ton of fresh blueberries, and I had also just seen your blueberry pie recipe, I mixed the two ideas. I used your all butter crust, with almost even proportions of rhubarb (2 c.), strawberries (2 c.) and blueberries (1 3/4 c.). I used lemon juice instead of orange, with white sugar, flour, cornstarch and a dash of cinnamon, raised the temperatures just a bit and watched it closely, keeping in mind your wonderful advice in all three recipes. The results: amazing! Rave reviews from everyone, easy to serve and not at all soupy or dribbly. It worked out to be a delicious and festive Fourth of July treat for our family. We are tentatively calling it StrawRhuBlueberry Pie.
This pie was soooo delicious!! I made it for my high school friend visiting from Kentucky!! Everyone loved it!!
Can I substitute lard for shortening?
Hi Doug, we haven’t tried but, but other bakers have reported success using lard in our pie crust recipe. Let us know if you give it a try!
Loved this recipe but I am really looking for the best rhubarb pie (no strawberries). Do you have one?
Hi Pat, we haven’t tested an all-rhubarb pie, but it would need some adjustments to the amount of sugar to account for more rhubarb and no berries, because rhubarb is so tart. This recipe on allrecipes, for example, uses 4 cups of rhubarb and 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar.
For a pretty good recipe for rhubarb only pie, i have found and made this one (several times), In Midwest living i found Peoria Rhubarb Cream Pie… its pretty good and my hubby loves it almost as much as Sally’s strawberry Rhubarb pie https://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/pies/peoria-rhubarb-cream-pie/
We loved this recipe! This was my first time ever making a pie and crust from scratch, and I have to say that it wasn’t nearly as difficult as everyone makes it out to be. The only change I made – I poured the extra liquid from the rhubarb and strawberries into my pie filling, and I had no issues. (It was only a couple spoonfuls). The filling firmed up after a few hours out of the oven. Delicious!
Hi Sally & team! Would you tweak this recipe at all to turn this pie into hand pies?
Hi Rachel! You could definitely use this filling for hand pies. We recommend pre-cooking it a bit so it’s softer and easier to spoon into the hand pies. For a little guideline, here’s our apple hand pies recipe.
Strawberry Rhubarb is my favorite pie. This was a new recipe for me and I tweaked a couple things. One I used about a 1/3 tsp of orange zest because I had no orange juice. Two I used King Arthur Flour instant clearjel instead of cornstarch. The pie came out awesome, like I knew it would, because all your recipes are outstanding. The right blend of not too tart, not too sweet. The clearjel worked like a dream and the pie wasn’t runny at all. The only thing that would have made it better was me making my own crust. I didn’t have time and used Pillsbury. Good in a pinch but never as good as homemade!
Rhubarb pie is a family favorite – but looking for a strawberry-rhubarb, I tried this variation. The texture is fine, but I feel like the brown sugar and vanilla dulled the bright tang of the rhubarb – that even the orange juice couldn’t get back.
Thanjks for the great recipe! Your instructions and walk through for both the pie and the crust are very good, explaining and easy to follow. My wife loved the pie! 🙂 But i still think I need to improve.
My crust and pie bottom did not become golden brown and well cooked even though I used the exact temp settings and baked for about 55mins. Could it be that I put too much water in the dough and made it overly wet? When making it, I felt like it did not come together. So I panicked and put about 1,5x water of what recipe says.
Also my wife loves the tart and sour taste but for me it could use a bit more sugar.
It does sound like the amount of water in the crust could be the culprit. You’ll want to add just enough to get the crust to come together, so if you need more we recommend adding only a tablespoon at a time so that it doesn’t become overly wet. Thankfully that’s an easy fix for next time! Thanks so much for giving this one a try!
Great recipe, especially the use of brown suger– I never thought of that. I always make a deep dish 10″ pie; so I had to significantly adjust quantities. I used relatively speaking a little more white nad brown sugar; but that is personal preference. I suggest using tapioca: it is much more predictable and reliable than corn starch. Nonetheless I used corn starch because I forgotto buy a new box of instant tapioca. Theseare all quibbles– it was great!
In order not to discard perfectly good strawberry-rhubarb juice, I first added only 100 g sugar on the chopped rhubarb and strawberries, let them sit until the juice came out, drained it, and only then added starch and the remaining 40 g of sugar – which I think solved the common complaint about not enough sugar in this recipe. I skipped salt for the filling because it seemed unnecessary. The filling came out really mild, but in a good way, not tart, and not too sweet. Meanwhile, I mixed the filling juice with the orange juice which I already had at had for the recipe, and with water so it’s not too sweet, and it made a lovely drink.
My pie used previously frozen, thawed rhubarb that I got moisture out of before using. (We don’t have fresh rhubarb where I live.) I think it still worked out great. Overall I like this recipe a lot, but I have another recipe that I prefer because it calls for more sugar. I like pie on the sweeter side. 🙂 I could not taste any salt like other commenters have suggested.
I need your strawberry rhubarb recipe for a pie contest this weekend, and I won first prize! I’ve never won anything for baking. The judges said it was no competition hands-down I had the best pie! I also used your piecrust recipe. Thank you so much. If I could send a photo on this I would have the pie and ribbon and excepting the award. of the pie and ribbon and excepting the award!
Congratulations, Ruth! We’re so glad the pie was a hit. Feel free to send us a photo at sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com — we’d love to see it!
This recipe is perfect!! Absolutely delicious. I wish I could post a photo of how beautiful it is . We found it to be perfect amount of sweetness, but I guess can depend on the sweetness of the strawberries and rhubarb you start with.
Thought it was a bit too tart still. Or my rhubarb measurement was off!
I agree mine was sour and salty. Another recipe I have calls for 1 1/2 cups sugar.
Also too much salt can taste it. I am sad.
Sadly, I wasted all the ingredients. No where near enough sugar. Not sweet at all and sour.
What happens if you forget to put the butter inside the pie? Oops!
Hi Jeanne, it should still be okay!
I’m going to make this strawberry rhubarb pie and use your pastry crust recipe! Do you recommend blind baking the crust? I don’t see that as a step in your recipe, but I’m worried about a “soggy bottom” outcome. Thanks for your delicious recipes. You are my ‘go to’ for baking advice and inspiration. And recipes!
Hi Bette! No need to blind bake the pie crust for this recipe.
Can you use frozen strawberries? Thaw and then cut or leave whole and add in frozen? Suggestions?
Hi Sandy, For best results, we strongly recommend using fresh strawberries and rhubarb in this pie. Frozen will add too much moisture to the filling.
I made this yesterday and it is excellent! what would I do if i only wanted to make just a rhubarb pie? same ingredients except strawberries? how much rhubarb?
Hi Ann, we haven’t tested an all-rhubarb pie, but it would need some adjustments to the amount of sugar to account for more rhubarb and no berries, because rhubarb is so tart. This recipe on allrecipes, for example, uses 4 cups of rhubarb and 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar.
Love your recipes, and trying this one today! I do a lot of pies, but have never done strawberry rhubarb! I have a hack for lattice work: I actually roll out the top layer FIRST, arrange the lattice on a sheet or tray, and put it in the freezer while I roll out the bottom and put the filling in. The little bit of freezer time firms the lattice arrangement together, and then I use a pizza peel to move it onto the pie. It holds up intricate designs without too much fuss!
Love that tip! Thanks, MJ!
Great recipe just can’t believe that you toss the liquid! Agree 100% with commenter who suggested the advice from the peerless Rose Levy Birenbaum who suggested cooking that liquid. It takes seconds and you add to the drained fruit. I’ve done that for years and always have compliments on my s/r pies. I also start mine at 425 for fifteen minutes then turn the heat down never burned a pie yet!
This is the perfect recipe for s-r pie! My husband has to have his with a scoop of full fat cottage cheese! Old family tradition!
AMAZING – Whenever I need a recipe this is the site I search. This is one of the best pies I’ve ever made!