Category: Desserts

Nellie’s Rhubarb Raisin Pie

Here is another recipe from Nellie, my brother-in-law’s stepmother. Her rhubarb raisin pie is the basis of Patsy’s strawberry rhubarb pie, and both use crackers as part of the thickening and flavoring agents. Both pies are delicious and are worth being added to the list of things you bake for family and friends.

Even better, both pies are simple and virtually foolproof to make. Here is what you do.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups rhubarb
1/2 cup raisins
1 large egg
1 cup white sugar
8 soda crackers
1 T flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 T butter
A little sugar to dust the top crust

PROCEDURE:

Start by making the dough for the crust. Here is my recipe for plain pie crust. Roll out half the dough and line the bottom of a nine-inch pie plate.

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Wash and chop the rhubarb into half-inch pieces and put them into a mixing bowl with the raisins. Crush the soda crackers into fine crumbs and mix them with the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl, then mix the dry ingredients with the rhubarb until the pieces are covered. Beat an egg until it is lemon yellow and stir it into the rhubarb. Keep stirring until the dry ingredients are all moistened.

Fill the crust with the rhubarb mixture, roll out the top crust and seal it to the bottom. Use a sharp knife to cut some slits in an attractive pattern to let steam escape from the baking pie. Dust the top crust with a little granulated sugar.

Set the pie on the center shelf of your oven and bake it for about an hour. After thirty minutes or so, cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent them from getting too brown.

Bake the pie until the filling bubbles and the top crust begins to turn a golden brown, an hour or a little longer.

NOTE: This pie is especially good with a scoop of ice cream.

Patsy’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My brother-in-law Patrick is a pretty darned good cook. Besides teaching Boy Scouts how to bake cakes in the wilds of northern Wisconsin, he turns out some great soups and roasts and bakes a mean strawberry rhubarb pie. When I asked him where he got the recipe, he said I should ask my sister Patsy who happens to be his wife. She told me that she had created it by changing her mother-in-law’s recipe for rhubarb raisin pie. The result is a winner.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups rhubarb
1 1/2 cups strawberries
8 Ritz crackers
1 cup granulated sugar
1 T all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 large egg
1 T butter
1 tsp. sugar to dust the top crust

PROCEDURE:

Clean and chop the rhubarb stalks into half inch pieces. Wash and quarter the strawberries and set the rhubarb and chopped berries aside while you make the crust. Here is my recipe for an easy and good plain pie crust.

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Crush the crackers fairly fine and stir them into the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix the rhubarb and strawberries with the dry ingredients. Beat an egg until it is lemon colored and stir it into the mixture. The egg and liquid from the fruit will moisten the dry ingredients as you stir.

Roll out half the pie crust dough and line the bottom of a nine-inch pie plate. Fill the crust with the strawberry rhubarb mixture. Dot the filling with small pieces of butter, roll out the top crust and seal it to the bottom.

Use a sharp knife to cut a pattern of small holes in the top crust to let steam escape. Bake for about an hour until the top crust begins to turn golden brown.

After thirty minutes, cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent them from getting too brown.

NOTE: Nellie, Patsy’s mother-in-law used ordinary saltine crackers in her recipe, but I think that Patsy’s substituting Ritz crackers was an inspired thing to do. I like the buttery flavor. Try it both ways. There should be plenty of rhubarb and strawberries for the next few weeks.