Old-Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

LFN#035: The Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe + About the Filling and the Crust, A Little about the Sugar and Nutrition, and A Few Sewing Project Pics ... (Right here, keep scrolling 👇)

Welcome to this week’s installment of Living Fully Nourished, where I’m sharing what Dear Hubby and I think is the best strawberry rhubarb pie recipe! It’s an old-fashioned recipe inherited a few years back. In this article, you’ll read more about my challenges with it. So, let’s get to it!

The Perfect Pie for Spring and Early Summer!

Can you believe how busy the weeks have been lately? Or am I the only one feeling this?

It’s probably just because it’s Spring, but I can’t believe how quickly the weeks have passed lately. Still, while time flies by, I am pretty excited about the warmer weather and the weekend!

Annnd…with the weekend in mind, although this installment of LFN is a little later than yesterday when I planned to hit publish, I wanted to be sure to get this new (actually kind of old) recipe with all my extra notes out for you for the weekend.

Here’s the recipe link for How to Make Old-Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, where you can also print out the recipe card.

About this Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling

The pie filling is adapted from a few hand-scrawled notes I found in an old recipe box I inherited from my grandmother’s kitchen a few years back. Without a recipe name, her handwritten note only said, “Pie Filling,” simply listing ingredients with measuring references just for the salt, orange juice, and pure vanilla extract with “pure” underlined in pencil. The notation, I’m only guessing, to delineate pure vanilla extract from vanilla flavoring.

I derived the rest of the recipe amounts from studying other strawberry and rhubarb pie recipes, experimenting until everything baked perfectly without being too sweet or tart in taste or a soggy pie mess when finished. It’s a recipe effort that I’m genuinely happy I spent time on, and I hope you find it delightful to your tastes, as we have. So, please let me know in the comments below.

Notes About the Crust

You’ll notice I've made this pie with a traditional lattice crust. From what I’ve seen in cookbooks and through web searches, that’s the conventional way to make it. While a lattice crust requires some extra fuss, I think it’s worth it for this pie’s extra eye appeal. Though, in full disclosure, you need to know I’ve taken a shortcut, using a pastry lattice cutter to make the upper crust as attractive as it is lick-your-lips good!

Of course, you could also use a pastry wheel, sharp knife, or pizza cutter to cut strips 1/2 – 1 inch wide and carefully thread them over and under one another, pulling back strips as necessary to weave the lattice top.

Then again, if making a lattice top seems too fussy, you might cover the filling with the 12-inch pie dough circle after it’s rolled out. Rest assured that if you do, it will still be delicious. Remember to cut slits in the top to form steam vents, and naturally, you will trim away the excess overhanging crust and crimp the edges with a fork or your fingers to finish it off.

I like to brush a lattice or traditional circle pie top with milk before baking it to help the top become golden brown. Then, sprinkle coarse sugar for a professional baked touch—it melts as it heats to form a slightly crackly texture with sparkle and crunch on top of the crust.

Alternatively, adding a crumble or streusel topping would also be great. My instructions for making an easy crumble topping are in the kitchen notes on the printable recipe card.

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A Little About the Sugar and Nutrition Relating to This Recipe …

Because I always prefer to use natural sugars whenever possible, in one reiteration of my recipe trials, I replaced the granulated sugar with honey and the brown sugar with maple syrup, which didn’t work out so well. Even when I increased the starch, the pie became way too runny. The taste was too far from what I thought it should be, overtaking the sweet fruit and tart vegetable flavor. Think more icky-sweet and “maple-tasting” rather than balanced with a slight caramel or toffee-like flavor. Therefore, I circled back to equal 1/3 cup parts of light brown and granulated sugar. I guess Grandma knew best…

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