Apple Rhubarb Pie

Berries aren’t the only friends of rhubarb. While strawberry-rhubarb pie is fantastic, apple rhubarb pie is just as fruit-forward and delicious. Sweeter apples (like Fuji) play beautifully with tart rhubarb, and the textures marry well—together they create a sweet-tart pie begging for a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Rhubarb is generally a spring-summer ingredient, but if you’re partial to frozen, use that when apples hit the markets in the fall. Of course, you can find apples year-round, so as soon as you see rhubarb in the markets, garden or grocery store, grab it for this tasty rhubarb dessert recipe.

Ingredients for Apple Rhubarb Pie

• Pie pastry: Using store-bought pie pastry makes this dessert a breeze. We call for the type of dough that you roll into the pie pan yourself, but you could use a frozen pie shell instead. You can also make a butter crust pie crust yourself.
• Fuji apples: These extra-sweet apples with a firm texture are excellent baking apples. Because of their sweetness, they partner well with tangy rhubarb. Honeycrisp and Pink Lady apples would work perfectly as replacements. Jonagold and Braeburn apples are also great for dessert-making but are a little bit more tart. There are plenty of new types of apples that would work too.
• Rhubarb: If using frozen rhubarb, measure it while it’s frozen, then thaw it completely. Drain in a colander, but do not press the liquid out.
• Flour: You need all-purpose flour to help thicken the fruit filling and for the crumbly topping.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar plays a role in the apple filling and the crumble mix.
• Salt: As in any good dessert, you need a smidgen of salt. Here it goes into the crumbly topping for balance.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon is another ingredient that does double duty in the filling and topping. Did you know that there are different types of cinnamon, and they all taste distinct? Ceylon cinnamon (or true cinnamon) is delicate and aromatic, while cassia cinnamon is sweeter and bolder.
• Oats: The recipe for rhubarb apple pie calls for quick-cooking oats for the topping, but regular rolled oats would work fine.
• Butter: Every crumb topping needs butter. Use salted or unsalted here.

Directions

Step 1: Prep the pie pan

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Unroll the pastry sheet into a 9-inch pie plate and flute the edge. Refrigerate the crust while preparing the filling and topping.

Step 2: Make the filling

In a large bowl, combine the apples and rhubarb. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, flour and ground cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the apple mixture and toss to coat.

Step 3: Mix the topping

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients—flour, sugar, quick-cooking oats, salt and ground cinnamon—and then cut in the butter until crumbly. Transfer the filling to the crust and sprinkle with the topping.

Editor’s Tip: It’s best to use a pastry cutter, a fork or two knives to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until you get good crumbles. If you use your hands, the butter could get too warm and crumbles may not form. You could also use a food processor and squeeze together the ingredients to make larger crumbles.

Step 4: Bake the pie

Bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned and the filling is bubbly. If needed, cover the edge loosely with foil during the last 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. Remove the foil and cool the pie on a wire rack.

Editor’s Tip: It’s a good idea to bake fruit pies on a sheet pan in case the filling bubbles over the side of the pie dish.

Taste of Home

Apple Rhubarb Pie Variations

• Add berries: Rhubarb and berries are tangy, so if you’re short on rhubarb, add blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries or a mix instead. Apples are a friendly ingredient and pair well with pretty much any kind of berry.
• Spice things up: Cinnamon is a perfect complement to apples, but if you want more complexity, you could use an equal quantity of homemade pumpkin pie spice (which includes cinnamon). For even more intrigue, season the recipe for apple rhubarb pie with Chinese five spice.
• Make it a crumble: Don’t have time to make a pie crust (and don’t have a premade one on hand)? You can leave out the bottom crust and make this into a fruit crumble.

How to Store Apple Rhubarb Pie

Although you can store a fruit pie on the counter, apple rhubarb pie will last even longer in the fridge. Keep the pie right in its baking pan, and make sure it’s tightly wrapped. It will last up to two days on the counter and four days in the fridge.

Can you freeze apple rhubarb pie?

It’s best to freeze fruit pies unbaked and then pop them straight from the freezer into the oven. Freeze the apple and rhubarb pie recipe for a couple of hours, remove it from the freezer and wrap it in storage wrap. Then, pop the wrapped pie into a large zip-top freezer bag for extra protection. Use within two months for best results. No need to thaw the pie; bake it in a 375° oven, but add more time than is indicated in the directions above.

Apple Rhubarb Pie Tips

Taste of Home

Can you make this a lattice or double-crust pie?

You can make this apple and rhubarb pie recipe with a homemade double crust instead of a crumble topping. Then you can have the pie with a pastry topping, lattice or other decorative pie crust.

What can you serve with rhubarb apple pie?

The most traditional topping for a pie is a scoop of ice cream. Homemade vanilla ice cream is an absolute classic, but this recipe for rhubarb apple pie would also be great with strawberry, blueberry or cinnamon ice cream.