Rhubarb Custard Pie

From the book Bubby’s Homemade Pies by Jen Bervin and Ron Silver

Introduction

This pie’s gentle, lofty, custard filling tastes faintly of nutmeg and potently of rhubarb. This treasured recipe comes from Jen’s Grandma Adeline, who, as a young girl growing up on a Nebraska farm, was given the nickname “Sour Rhubarb” by her family — in part due to her ornery personality and in part due to her funny habit of snacking on rhubarb stalks straight from the garden. Adeline’s pie is now in Bubby’s repertoire and it sure moves fast in the spring. Because this pie has a custard base it is best made as a single-crust pie.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, eggs, butter, and nutmeg and mix just until combined. Spread the cut rhubarb in the chilled uncooked pastry shell and pour the liquid mixture over it. Give it a little jiggle to settle it evenly.
2. Bake the pie for 45 minutes, or until the center looks cooked and does not jiggle when the pie is nudged (do not use a two-temperature bake for this because it’s a custard pie). Cool the pie almost to room temperature before serving.
3. This pie is really best served on the day it is baked but will keep for 3 days, loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Notes

Culinate editor’s notes: The proportion of tart rhubarb (low) to sweet sugar (high) makes this pie very sweet. For a less sweet and more fruity pie, cut the sugar back to 1 1/2 cups (or even less) and increase the amount of rhubarb up to 6 cups. For a well-set custard, use 1/4 cup flour instead of 3 Tbsp. flour and three eggs instead of two. Finally, to make sure the custard sets and the crust browns, bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes at 400 degrees.

This content is from the book Bubby’s Homemade Pies by Jen Bervin and Ron Silver.