Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Simple Butter Pie Crust

From what I can gather on the history of pies is, that it origin dates back to ancient Egyptians times and that the first pies were referred to as coffins. Makes sense, I guess, beings they are enclosed in a protective crust. Regardless of their origin, they are definitely a pleaser when produced as a dessert at the table. The pie I am going to be sharing with you is a Rhubarb Strawberry pie with a delicious butter crust. Butter piecrust is not as difficult to manage as many think and the butter adds a warm delicate taste that cannot be beat!

Butter piecrust is as simple as making your typical lard or shortening piecrust if you just follow a couple simple directions. 1. Keep the butter cold! 2. Keep the butter cold!

For a Butter Pie Crust you will need:

1-cup cold unsalted butter
2-cups flour
¼-cup sugar
¼-tsp. salt
¼-cup ice-cold water

Makes enough for an 8 or 9-inch two-crust pie.

I use a pastry cutter to make all my piecrust. It is quicker then using a fork. The less time it takes you to make the crust the colder the butter stays. Take the flour, salt, and sugar and mix well. Cut your butter up into pieces. I do this before hand and then stick my butter pieces in a bowl into the freezer to make sure they have a good chill on them. Take the butter and cut into your dry mixture with your pastry cutter until it somewhat resembles pea size crumbles. Some people prefer to re-chill the dough after making and before rolling. I don't because I do not like working with bricks. It makes it hard to roll out and the extra beating that has to be done to soften the dough will make your crust just that less flakey. So, once I have my piecrust mixed I immediately roll my dough out. I roll it out on parchment paper. Take your ball of dough, separate it into two equal pieces, and start rolling a piece at a time on lightly flour dusted parchment paper. Once rolled out, place your bottom layer of crust into your pie pan. Chill it in refrigerator as well as top layer of piecrust while preparing the filling.

For the Strawberry Rhubarb pie filling you will need:

3/4 cup of white sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries cut in half if large.
2 1/2 cups of 1/2 inch rhubarb pieces

(You can substitute other fresh fruit for the strawberries such as Apples, Peaches, or just use 5 cups of rhubarb if you want a plain rhubarb pie!) Combine sugar, flour, salt, strawberries, and rhubarb. Mix well. Place filling in your unbaked pie shell that you had chilling in the refrigerator. This appears to be a lot of filling but remember the fruit and rhubarb cooks down some. Then cover with top shell. Crimp edges to seal. Cut a few slits in top crust. Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour with foil wrapped around edge of piecrust. Crust will be a light golden flakey brown!

Allow cooling for at least 20 minutes before serving but it will be hard to wait! Enjoy!