Homemade Rhubarb Pie is one of my favorite rhubarb desserts to make when rhubarb season comes around. A flaky crust enrobes a tangy rhubarb custard filling with a sweet and tart flavor making the best pie of the season.
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❤️ Why you'll love it
Sweet Tart Flavor: if you love sweet and sour flavor combinations, then you will love this tart rhubarb pie recipe!
Custard like filling: this rhubarb pie has a custard like filling that is formed by the use of flour and eggs in the pie filling.
Perfect pie crust: the recipe for this homemade pie crust is buttery, flaky, and delicious.
🥘 Ingredients
Granulated sugar
Vegetable shortening: my mom swears by Crisco solid vegetable shortening.
Butter: some butter will be used in the pie crust and some will be used to top the pie filling before covering it.
Ice water
Fresh rhubarb: washed and diced.
🔪 Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, toss together rhubarb, ⅓ cup of flour, white sugar, and cinnamon until rhubarb is coated. Stir in beaten egg until combined. Set aside.
- Place flour, salt, and sugar in food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine. Place shortening and butter in food processor on top of flour mixture. Pulse flour crumbles start to form. Do not over pulse.
- Add the ice water a little at a time, pulsing food processor a couple of times after each addition. Once dough begins to form into a ball remove from food processor and place on a lightly floured surface.
- Knead dough together to form a ball being careful not to handle dough too much. Divide pie dough into two pieces and flatten each piece of dough into a round disk. Roll dough out on a floured surface until about 10-11 inch circle in diameter. Place bottom crust in pie pan and fit to pie dish.
- Transfer rhubarb mixture to the bottom crust in the pie dish. Dot the top of the pie with butter.
- Using cold water, dab fingers into the water and then lightly tap the edge of the bottom pie dough with your fingers to dampen the dough.
- Roll out second disk of dough, fold the dough in quarters (it will be triangle shape), and cut 2-3 slits on each side of the triangle and place on ¼ of the pie. Unfold dough and carefully transfer dough to cover top of pie.
- Gently pick up folded half and bring to cover the pie. Pinch edges of pie together removing any excess dough around the edges of the pie*.
- Crimp pie dough together as desired. .
- Cover pie with pie guard or aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove guard/foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden brown.
- Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
🥄 Equipment
Pie dish: use a 9-inch pie plate, glass or ceramic both work well.
Food processor: this works to mix the pie crust together quickly, however a pastry cutter can be used in its place.
Rolling pin: used to roll the pie dough out into a large circle.
Sharp knife: used to cut excess pie dough from around the edge of the pie crust and to cut slits into the top pie crust.
Aluminum foil: protects the pie crust from burning
🥫Storage
Room Temperature: not recommended
Refrigerate: for best results, store completely cooled pie in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
Reheat: if desired, rhubarb pie can be reheated in the oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until heated through.
📖 Variations
- Substitute 2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries for 2 cups of rhubarb.
- Use a store-bought pie crust instead of making a homemade pie crust recipe.
💭 Tips
- Cutting slits in the top of the pie crust will allow steam to release from the pie while it is baking.
- Brush the top crust of the unbaked pie with an egg wash or heavy cream to enhance the golden brown color on the crust.
- Sprinkle the top of the unbaked pie with coarse sugar crystals.
🙋 FAQ's
You can freeze an unbaked rhubarb pie by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. To bake, remove pie from freezer and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, then place frozen pie in the oven and bake as directed. You may need to add 10-15 minutes to the bake time for pie to cook completely.
📚 Related Recipes
You must try my Mom's recipe for Rhubarb Sauce and it's great on toast, muffins, ice cream and more.
These Rhubarb Custard Bars are THE recipe to win your loved ones over to rhubarb desserts!
Cream and delicious Baked Rhubarb Cheesecake.
My favorite Rhubarb Crumble Muffin recipe.
🍽 Serve with..
Serve rhubarb pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or top with whipped cream.
The Last Word
Rhubarb has a lot of different varieties. Rhubarb stalks can vary in color from light pink to green. The greener variety is the heartier variety which is what I received this year when I visited my parents (and why you see some images of pie with a green filling). Red is more pleasing to the eye, no matter the color the rhubarb pie is still delicious!
Many think that the red stalks are "sweeter" however, that is not a correct assumption as there is no such thing as sweet rhubarb. Green rhubarb stalks tend to be thicker whereas red stalks tend to be more tender and thinner. I like getting the red stalks because I do like the color better, but the green stalks work just as great in a recipe as the red.
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📖 Recipe
Rhubarb Pie
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Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 4 tablespoons salted butter cold and cubed
- ¼ cup ice water
For the filling:
- 6 cups rhubarb washed and cut into slices
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg beaten
- ⅓ cup flour
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large bowl, toss together rhubarb, ⅓ cup of flour, white sugar, and cinnamon until rhubarb is coated. Stir in beaten egg until combined. Set aside.
- Place flour, salt, and sugar in food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine. Place shortening and butter in food processor on top of flour mixture. Pulse flour crumbles start to form. Do not over pulse.
- Add the ice water a little at a time, pulsing food processor a couple of times after each addition. Once dough begins to form into a ball remove from food processor and place on a lightly floured surface.
- Knead dough together to form a ball being careful not to handle dough too much. Divide pie dough into two pieces and flatten each piece of dough into a round disk.
- Roll dough out on a floured surface until about 10-11 inch circle in diameter. Place bottom crust in pie pan and fit to pie dish.
- Transfer rhubarb mixture to the bottom crust in the pie dish. Dot the top of the pie with butter.
- Using cold water, dab fingers into the water and then lightly tap the edge of the bottom pie dough with your fingers to dampen the dough.Roll out second disk of dough, fold the dough in quarters (it will be triangle shape), and cut 2-3 slits on each side of the triangle and place on ¼ of the pie.
- Unfold dough and carefully transfer dough to cover top of pie. Gently pick up folded half and bring to cover the pie. Pinch edges of pie together removing any excess dough around the edges of the pie. Crimp pie dough together as desired.
- Cover pie with pie guard or aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove guard/foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden brown.
- Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
Connie Walker
Can frozen Rhubarb be used in place of fresh?
Shelby Law Ruttan
Yes, just be sure it is frozen, don't thaw it out first.
Carrie R
I think that I need to give rhubarb a good solid shot again soon. It just hasn't been something that I have got into all that much. But your pie looks delicious! 🙂
Rachael
wow this pie looks so good! I'd love to try this out!
Sandra Shaffer
I don't think I've ever tasted rhubarb! I need to change that. Thanks for the tips between the red and green stalks! Your pie is beautiful!
Sheena @ Hot Eats and Cool Reads
This pie looks perfect, Shelby!! I would have no problem eating the whole thing! Great recipe! 😉
Christie Daruwalla
I love a rhubarb dessert. Sounds even better with a custard filling
Renee Paj
I have to admit, I've never seen green rhubarb, but I know I would love a slice of that pie! It looks just perfect in every way! Rhubarb has quickly grown to be one of my favorite things about spring!