I grew up reading and re-reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” series, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized that the pie plant she uses to make a pie for the field workers was actually rhubarb. (I think I imagined it to be eggplant, which we never ate as a kid.)
While we always had rhubarb in our house growing up, it usually got made into squares or stewed with sweet dumplings and after acquiring a pretty huge bunch a couple of weeks ago, I considered a pie. Turns out most of the rhubarb pie recipes I have are sour cream-based, which is odd to me. They’re probably good, but I dunno, something just doesn’t sound right. Greg always likes the strawberry rhubarb pie, although I am not a fan – I find it too mushy and wet.
Fate decided for me, as I was at the grocery store bagging apples and dropped a bag of half a dozen Empires. I felt too guilty putting them back and taking unbruised ones, so apple-rhubarb pie it was.
And it turned out great. I used about 2 cups of sliced apples and 2 cups diced rhubarb with a good amount of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger plus about a cup of sugar and some flour. We ate a couple of slices and put the rest in the freezer, along with a 4-cup container of diced rhubarb for a similar treat next winter.