Rhubarb-Raspberry Custard Pie

When spring & summer rolls around my sweet tooth changes, too.  No longer content with cakes & cookies (well, I won’t turn them down!), I want fresh fruit desserts.  It’s time for fruit pies, cobblers, crisps, homemade fruit ice cream!

One of the fruits I crave in the spring is rhubarb.  Rhubarb, on its own, is very tart. But add some sugar, simmer or bake, and you have a lovely flavor; kind of sweet, kind of tart. Berry season also coincides with the rhubarb season so it’s very popular to combine rhubarb and strawberries.  A lesser-known combination, but just as wonderful, is rhubarb and raspberries. Today I made a rhubarb-raspberry custard pie. Mom has made this recipe for a number of years now and I just love it. Not only do you get rhubarb and raspberries but a creamy custard and a streusel topping. How can you go wrong with that?

Rhubarb always reminds me of pink celery!

Pie dough comes easy to me but I know some people struggle with this.  Don't let baking a pie intimidate you, the pie dough in the deli section of the grocery store or frozen pie shells work just fine!

Mix the rhubarb and raspberries and pour into unbaked pie shell.

 

One thing I've learned when baking fruit pies is to bake them on a foil-lined pan.  If it overflows I don't have to clean the oven! To keep the pie crust from getting  too brown during the baking time, cover the edges of the crust with foil or these little pie crust shields. Remove after 25 minutes and continue baking. The custard in this pie blends with the fruit producing a very creamy pie.

And now you see why I use a foil-lined pan to bake on.  This raspberry drip would've been on the bottom of my oven, smoking the house up and leaving me a mess to clean!

We ate this slightly warm and it was quite yummy (though the picture is blurry!) If you like rhubarb you will enjoy this pie!

 

 

Rhubarb-Raspberry Custard Pie

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 T. flour      

¼ tsp. nutmeg

4 beaten eggs                                 

Pastry for single crust pie

1 lb. rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces (3 cups)
1 cup fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries

Topping:

¼ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ cup chopped almonds
2 T. butter (cold)

In small mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour & nutmeg. Add eggs.  Beat well with a whisk or beater until well mixed. 

Combine rhubarb & raspberries; spoon into pastry shell. Pour the egg mixture over the fruit. To prevent overbrowning, cover edges of pasty with foil.

 Bake in a 375° oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil from the pan and bake 25 minutes more or until the custard is set.

Meanwhile, for topping, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg. With a pastry blender (or two knives), cut in butter until the mixture is the size of small peas.  Stir in the almonds.

Remove pie from the oven.  Sprinkle topping mixture around outer edge of fruit & custard, leaving a 5-inch circle in the center uncovered. Return to oven for 5-7 minutes, until browned.

Cool on wire rack.