Rhubarb Custard Pie

The classic rhubarb pie gets a beautiful artistic twist thanks to rhubarb baked in freshly squeezed orange juice and sugar and arranged graphically overtop a creamy, custard base.

Pie With Baked Rhubarb

Søren Staun Petersen's recipe for a classic rhubarb pie topped with candied slices.

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Dough

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• ½ cup cold butter
• 3 tbsp water

Rhubarb

• 4-6 stalks rhubarb trimmed and cut into thirds
• 1 orange juiced
• ¼ cup cane sugar

Cream

• 1 vanilla bean
• ⅜ cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• ⅔ cup whole or 2% milk
• ⅓ cup 35% whipping cream

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Mix flour and icing sugar together. Cut butter into small cubes and crumble them into flour mixture until it develops a gritty consistency. Add water and knead briefly into a dough. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Blind bake in 10-inch-diameter pie dish for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
• Place rhubarb in casserole dish and sprinkle with orange juice, then sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, until pieces are tender but still keep their shape.
• Split vanilla bean and scrape out seeds. In bowl, rub seeds with sugar using fingers. Whisk in egg yolks and cornstarch until well combined. In pot, bring milk and vanilla pod to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pod; whisk in egg mixture. Cook, whisking, over medium heat until thick; remove from heat. Scrape into shallow bowl; place a piece of plastic wrap directly on cream, then refrigerate.
• Whip the whipping cream and mix it with chilled cream mixture. Spread mixture on bottom of cooled pie crust, and top with rhubarb – you choose how artistic it should be. Garnish with wood sorrel and mint, if you like.

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Recipes excerpted from Rhubarb by Søren Staun Petersen (translated from Danish by Natalie Pitu), adapted for ELLE Gourmet. Copyright © 2018 Søren Staun Petersen. English translation © 2022 Natalie Pitu. Reproduced by arrangement with TouchWood Editions. All rights reserved.