The Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe UK
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Simple and delicious homemade strawberry rhubarb pie recipe with fresh fruit and shortcrust pastry. Combine the sweetness of strawberries with the tart of rhubarb in one of the best summer pie recipes of all time.
I absolutely love the flavour combination of strawberry and rhubarb. It’s sweet and fruity with a tart edge and is perfect for cakes, tarts, jam, and glorious summer pie. The first time I had strawberry rhubarb pie was as a kid, and from that first bite, I was hooked. Even though I didn’t like rhubarb at the time, I loved that pie! It’s interesting how some fruits and veggies can change in character when you mix them with the right partner. These days I’d be happy making this pie and sharing it with practically anyone. It’s one of those quick and easy recipes that features the BEST of early summer fruits and utterly mesmerises with its ruby red juices.
Strawberry rhubarb pie is also incredibly easy to make since the filling has only a few ingredients. Though you can, of course, make your own pie dough, to save even more time, make it with pre-made pie dough from the supermarket. So if you’re heading to a gathering and want to make something delicious and easy, this recipe is for you. Why stop at gatherings, though, when you could make this for yourself and indulge at home? You can even make it with frozen fruit for a taste of the sun on the darkest wintery day.
Fresh Strawberries & Rhubarb
One reason that strawberries and rhubarb are often paired together is that they’re in season at the same time. If you have strawberries beginning to ripen in late May to June, pick the best for fresh desserts where you don’t cook the strawberries. Save the less pretty ones for preserves and pies. The ones that are a little over-ripe are perfect for this strawberry and rhubarb pie recipe! They’re not as attractive but still pack so much flavour.
With fresh fruit, rinse it with cool water and slice it up. Strawberries into quarters or slices (your choice), and if you have large stems of rhubarb, chop them in half before chopping again with the aim of creating half-inch chunks or smaller ones. If the rhubarb has leaves, remove and discard them, or better yet, compost them.
Fresh rhubarb is generally picked from early spring to early summer and then left alone after that. The plant needs its stems and leaves for the rest of the summer to grow and store energy in the roots. So if you’re planning on making this pie when rhubarb should be resting, try to use rhubarb that you’ve pulled and frozen ahead of time. You can also use tinned rhubarb from the supermarket to make strawberry rhubarb pie, though you’ll need to drain it from the syrup it’s in. Frozen rhubarb and strawberries work well, too.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe UK
All of the measurements for this strawberry rhubarb pie recipe are in UK measurements as well as Imperial units for those of you in the States. It’s a really simple pie recipe, though, especially if you use pre-made pie dough from the supermarket. You can, of course, make your own shortcrust pie dough, though, and I’ve shared my recipe for it below. The recipe is enough to make a single pie, with about eight servings, depending on how large you cut the slices. If you want to make more pies, use the recipe toggle to double or triple the recipe.
To make strawberry rhubarb pie, you’ll also need a few basic kitchen tools and dishes. They include a rolling pin, a pie dish, and a pastry brush. If you’d like to replicate the lattice pie crust, a pizza cutter is handy but not necessary. You can cut the dough with a knife instead. Aside from that, you don’t need much to make a delicious homemade pie.
More Dessert & Pie Recipes
Before we get to the recipe, I’d like to introduce you to more delicious pie recipes and treats. I can highly recommend all of them, but the lavender cookies are definitely my favourite of the bunch!
- Butternut Squash Pie Recipe (better than pumpkin pie!)
- Classic Apple Pie Recipe with a twist
- Lavender and Honey Cookie Recipe
- Chocolate Turkish Delight Recipe
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe UK
Equipment
- 2 Mixing bowls
- Cutting board
- Kitchen knife
- Pastry cutter or two butter knives
- Pie dish or pan
- Pizza cutter optional
- Pastry brush
Ingredients
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling
- 440 g strawberries (3 cups, cleaned and halved)
- 325 g rhubarb (3 cups, cut into 1/2" pieces – about four medium-sized stalks)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (210 g)
- 1/4 cup plain flour (30 g – or cornflour)
Pie Pastry*
- 140 g salted butter (cold) (2/3 cup plus 2 TBSP)
- 2 cups flour (250 g, plus more for rolling the dough)
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 TBSP cold water
- 1 Egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (375°F) or 160°C (320°F) fan-assisted oven.
Make the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling
- Rinse the fresh fruit, slice or quarter the strawberries, and chop the rhubarb into 1/4" pieces.
- Place the strawberries and rhubarb in a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar and flour. Stir well and set aside.
Make the Pie Pastry*
- Place the flour in a large bowl and cut the butter into it using a pastry cutter or by crisscrossing two butter knives. Keep cutting until the particles are the size of large breadcrumbs.
- Sprinkle the cold water over the dough and toss it together using a fork. Keep tossing until all the flour is moistened and the pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl. You can add one or two more TBSP of water if you think it's needed. The dough should hold together well and not feel sticky (too much water) or too crumbly (not enough water).
- When ready, gather the pastry into a ball and then cut it into two equal parts. Shape into two rounds. You can now chill the pastry for fifteen minutes if you have time. Doing this helps make the dough easier to work with and reduces dough shrinkage while baking.
Create the Bottom Crust
- On a floured surface, roll one of the balls of pastry (or half of the purchased pastry) out into a circle about two inches larger than the upside-down pie dish.
- Place the dough into your pie dish and press it into any edges and around the top of the dish. The easiest way is to roll the pastry up onto the rolling pin. Then unroll it over the dish and tuck it in.
- For tarts, trim the edge of the pie flush with the outer edge of the pie dish. I use a pair of scissors to just cut around the edge. If you'd like a proper pie crust, trim the dough so that it overhangs the edge of the dish by about half an inch. Press it against the outside edge of the dish with your fingers.
Finish Making the Pie
- Next, pour the strawberry rhubarb pie filling inside the pie dish.
- Re-flour your worktop and roll out the second round of dough to create the pie's top crust. Roll it out about an inch wider than the pie pan.
- There are many ways to create a pie's top crust but the photos in this piece are of a lattice top. If you'd like to go with another type, feel free to add your own personal flair.
- Cut the dough into ten strips about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Lay five of them in one direction over the pie, spacing them out equally. Laying the other in the opposite direction can be as easy as just laying them on top of the first five. If you'd like to have a woven lattice effect, though, pull back alternate strips of the first layer – the first, third, and fifth one – and then lay a strip over the ones you didn't pull back. Then pull those strips back over and repeat. This time, pulling the other strips back (2 and 4). I think the photo will be of use here in helping illustrate.
- When you're happy with how the top crust or lattice design looks, finish off the edges of the pastry. All I've done is crimp it together using a fork – dipping the fork each time in flour to help it not stick.
- To give the pie crust a beautiful golden colour, you next need to brush all the exposed pastry with beaten egg. Just whisk an egg up in a bowl and brush it on lightly.
- Bake the pie for 50-55 min on the lowest rack of your oven and allow to cool completely before serving. This dish is simple and is perfectly paired with a dollop of cream, warm custard, or vanilla ice cream, but you can enjoy it plain too.
Notes
Nutrition
Alternative Pie Crust Design
I’ve just recently updated this post with new photos, but the old ones have been online for many years, and you may have found your way here through them. For this alternative design, I rolled out the top dough into a large round, a little larger than the pie dish. To cut ventilation holes, I squished a round cookie cutter so that it could create long, oval-ish-shaped cutouts. After setting the top crust on top of the pie, I trimmed it flush to the edge of the dish. That way, it would pull in while it was baking, revealing a crimson border of pie filling all around the edge of the tart.
Whatever way you want to design and form your pie crust, I’m sure this strawberry rhubarb pie will become a family favourite! Let me know in a comment below if you have any questions about making it or what you thought of the recipe. And if you’re a huge fan of strawberry and rhubarb (like me), then you might want to make a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam, too.
Hey Tanya! I’m so excited to make this for the weekend!!! Love the idea for the top crust, it’s so simple & it does resemble a sand dollar, great look for summer! Going to make this for the weekend, great post!
I hope the pie went down a treat! :)