Rhubarb deserted garden

I drive my bike to the shop weekly past forgotten gardens.
Today, I stopped by a house with a splendid rhubarb bed. Knocked, asked of they use all of it. "No, would you like to have them all"?

Blessed day.

Have you ever made Rhubarb Custard Pie? I think it's my son's favorite (although he's pretty keen on Pumpkin Pie also)!

Jay, you can't just casually mention "Rhubarb Custard Pie" and leave it at that. Recipe please!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Jay, you can't just casually mention "Rhubarb Custard Pie" and leave it at that. Recipe please!

Hmmm... I guess you don't realize it is a family tradition handed down through hands on-training and memorization?
After all, Great Grandmother never attended school, so never learned to read or write and didn't own measuring cups etc.

Good thing I wasn't willing to put up with that.
"Mom, you put what you "think" is the right amount in this bowl, and I will measure and record it."

Well, sort of... good luck defining a "large" pie plate - we go for deep dish pies in glass pie plates. Rhubarb is very acidic, so no metal plates allowed. Outside max diameter is about 11".

Grandmother's Rhubarb Pie

Spread 1st layer of rhubarb in pie plate - sprinkle flour over it.
Spread 2nd layer of rhubarb in pie plate - if it feels moist, sprinkle flour (if the weather's been quite wet)
Sprinkle ground nutmeg over the top.
My large plate takes about 5 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb.

Sauce - in a bowl
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 Tablespoon of flour
2 very large eggs
mix the flour into the sugar, then add the eggs and beat with a spoon
add a tsp of vanilla
Pour this sauce over the fruit in the pie plate. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and cook another 45 minutes. If it's not quite set, turn off the oven, but leave the pie in for another 15 minutes.

See what I mean??? This makes total sense to me, but there's still a lot of wiggle room to muck it up when you haven't been watching mom make for as long as I can remember! It is *really* yummy! Good luck and report back!

IMPORTANT edit to add: You need to put *pie crust* in the pie plate as the first step - sorry to leave out such an important fact! It's one of those automatic first steps of pie making in my family!

I have a recipe that I use for making enough pastry for 4 pies - do I need to post that also? It might be on the web somewhere, as it's called "Madam Benoit's Lemon Tang Pastry" - assuming my mother wrote down the original name...

Jay, all recipes are like that.
The instructions only make sense to cooks.

I know because I tried to make a very detailed recipe for someone who doesn't know how to cook, and he ended up ruining it. XD

Jay Angler wrote:

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Jay, you can't just casually mention "Rhubarb Custard Pie" and leave it at that. Recipe please!

Hmmm... I guess you don't realize it is a family tradition handed down through hands on-training and memorization?
After all, Great Grandmother never attended school, so never learned to read or write and didn't own measuring cups etc.

Good thing I wasn't willing to put up with that.
"Mom, you put what you "think" is the right amount in this bowl, and I will measure and record it."

Well, sort of... good luck defining a "large" pie plate - we go for deep dish pies in glass pie plates. Rhubarb is very acidic, so no metal plates allowed. Outside max diameter is about 11".

Grandmother's Rhubarb Pie

Spread 1st layer of rhubarb in pie plate - sprinkle flour over it.
Spread 2nd layer of rhubarb in pie plate - if it feels moist, sprinkle flour (if the weather's been quite wet)
Sprinkle ground nutmeg over the top.
My large plate takes about 5 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb.

Sauce - in a bowl
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 Tablespoon of flour
2 very large eggs
mix the flour into the sugar, then add the eggs and beat with a spoon
add a tsp of vanilla
Pour this sauce over the fruit in the pie plate. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and cook another 45 minutes. If it's not quite set, turn off the oven, but leave the pie in for another 15 minutes.

See what I mean??? This makes total sense to me, but there's still a lot of wiggle room to muck it up when you haven't been watching mom make for as long as I can remember! It is *really* yummy! Good luck and report back!

Interesting.  No sugar mixed with the rhubarb itself?  My plants are dying down but I may give it a shot this weekend.  Thank you!

Morfydd St. Clair wrote: Interesting.  No sugar mixed with the rhubarb itself?  My plants are dying down but I may give it a shot this weekend.  Thank you!

I think it's the eggs that seem to balance the acid and make this yummy without too much sugar. However, the sauce is very thick and I try to pour it over the fruit in a spiral so that it covers a large area.

It will be interesting to get an outside opinion of this pie. Although my friend's family, who are notoriously fussy, will eat it and ask for seconds, #2 Son's girlfriend hasn't yet acquired a taste for it - she's my new Canadian who was raised in India, so she'd never tasted rhubarb until meeting us.

Jay Angler wrote:

Morfydd St. Clair wrote: Interesting.  No sugar mixed with the rhubarb itself?  My plants are dying down but I may give it a shot this weekend.  Thank you!

I think it's the eggs that seem to balance the acid and make this yummy without too much sugar. However, the sauce is very thick and I try to pour it over the fruit in a spiral so that it covers a large area.

It will be interesting to get an outside opinion of this pie. Although my friend's family, who are notoriously fussy, will eat it and ask for seconds, #2 Son's girlfriend hasn't yet acquired a taste for it - she's my new Canadian who was raised in India, so she'd never tasted rhubarb until meeting us.

My rhubarb is dead for the year so I can't try it until next year but it sounds intriguing. Can you post a picture of what it should look like so I my mouth can water even more?

Jenny Wright wrote:My rhubarb is dead for the year so I can't try it until next year but it sounds intriguing. Can you post a picture of what it should look like so I my mouth can water even more?

Sorry, we're in a major drought, so our season is over also. You'll have to remind me next year!

Jay, your rhubarb custard pie recipe started haunting me (just like Anne’s pudding thread did) and I had to try to make it.

I chopped the rhubarb straight to the glass dish so I have no idea how much there was, but in my mind I was making a half recipe.

I started making the sauce and noticed I was out of brown sugar. Noooooo! The oven was already on so after feeling depressed for a while I just continued with white sugar.

It’s in the oven now. Obviously it wont be the same other than probably the consistensy. I’m really interested in it though as I have never made anything like this before. I think I’m going to try it again when I get some brown sugar. My rhubarb is huge and I haven’t made too many things of it this year.

Saana, I will await the taste test!

I don't suppose you had some molasses? A tiny bit of molasses stirred into white sugar will "fake" brown sugar in a pinch. https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-make-your-own-brown-sugar-995823

Jay Angler wrote:Saana, I will await the taste test!

I don't suppose you had some molasses? A tiny bit of molasses stirred into white sugar will "fake" brown sugar in a pinch. https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-make-your-own-brown-sugar-995823

It was quite good, but definitely too ”white sugarish”. It’s just too.. sweet? The tartness of the rhubarb did make my face go a bit wonky at times but I have a feeling that switching to brown sugar will make it balance better. I’m going to try again soon and report back!

And nope, I had no molassis or dark syrup. I looked alll over the kitchen cupboards for brown sugar or dark syrup three times but nope, they didn’t just magically appear there..

Here’s a pic!

Saana, from your picture, I think it needs more egg.
Yes, per volume, white sugar is sweeter than brown, if I recall old Home Economics class correctly! But the brown sugar seems to interact differently as well.

If you've got lots of rhubarb, not much lost trying again! If you don't want to make actual pastry for the bottom, I've used a biscuit recipe and just squished it thinly into the pan with the back of a fairly flat spoon. Some of the gluten free grains are best treated to the "squish" method rather than rolling. A friend used an almond flour recipe that way as the bottom of a pumpkin pie and raved over it.

I’m trying not to wake up my daughter by laughing too hard at the moment..

A pie crust. So the recipe is just the filling of a pie?

As I said, I have never made anything like this and the recipe didn’t say anything about a crust, just to put things on a pie plate.

Okay so next time.. Add an egg. And a pie crust.

Saana Jalimauchi wrote:I’m trying not to wake up my daughter by laughing too hard at the moment..

A pie crust. So the recipe is just the filling of a pie?

As I said, I have never made anything like this and the recipe didn’t say anything about a crust, just to put things on a pie plate.

Okay so next time.. Add an egg. And a pie crust.

Oh! I totally did not assume there was an unspoken pie crust to be put in the pan first. I would have made it the same way. I assumed it made it's own bottom crust somehow. There are recipes that do that.

Good to know it wasn’t just me!

I have a raspberry cheesecake planned for tomorrow but after that one is devoured I will try the rhubarb custard pie again.

Jay, you mentioned your pie crust recipe that makes four crusts in the edit you made on your previous post. Could I freeze three lumps of dough for later if I made it? If so, I would be very much interested in your recipe!

Saana, a simple shortcrust pie pastry can be made in the food processor with a 50% butter to flour ratio - 90g butter, 180g flour.

Chop cold butter into squares, pulse with flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs and drizzle in cold water until small beads form in the pastry. Don't add too much water, it ought to be firm and as you keep mixing, it will bind together.

I have a couple of glass Pyrex dishes, some ceramic, some metal & even pottery pie dishes and depending on whether I need a top, wing the amount of flour.

Err on the generous side, the pastry can always be frozen and there are always a few rounds in our freezer.  

Once I accumulate enough, I defrost and roll it all out together. If it's not enough to bother freezing, I roll it out, bake and feed to the chooks.

Another lovely simple and versatile recipe for rhubarb is a slice, made in a pot and baked in a small square tin, glazed or cast iron pan.

1 cup each flour, coconut, sugar and fruit. Melt 4 oz butter in a pot, cool and beat in two eggs. Add dry ingredients and any combination of fruit - rhubarb and crystallised ginger, blueberry and apple, choc chip and banana, apple, sultanas.

Bake at 160c 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

When freshly baked, it is crisp and after a couple of days, goes soft and chewy.

Jay, your rhubarb pie sounds delicious - almost a clafoutis with a pie crust.

I also make a rhubarb compote, 25% weight of rhubarb to sugar, julienne ginger, grated orange zest and no added water cooked on low in a crock pot or baked in low oven overnight, 125c.

Any excess I bottle and water bath for making a crumble. The crumble topping is good with brown sugar and rolled oats. We use ramekin dishes for individual small serves.