The combination of strawberry and rhubarb is a classic for good reason: the sweet, juicy strawberries are perfectly balanced by the tart rhubarb. Our version of strawberry rhubarb pie features a crumb crust on top, which works well with a very juicy fruit filling such as this one, as a traditional pie crust topping would get soggy. The crumb also provides crunchy textural contrast to the soft fruit inside.–Sam Mogannam
Why Our Testers Loved This
This sweet-tart strawberry rhubarb pie recipe was a massive hit with the testers. They loved the ginger crumb topping, “which perfectly complemented the tartness of the rhubarb.” Lori W. was delighted it could also be made without the bottom crust and described it as “oh-so-easy and amazingly good.”
Amy A. joined in with her comment, “Wow—simply put, this was amazing!”
What You’ll Need to Make This
- Vinegar–Adding vinegar to your pie dough will help keep it tender and prevent it from getting overworked. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar on hand, you can substitute white vinegar.
- Rhubarb–Use only the stalks of the rhubarb plant as the leaves are toxic. Look for bright pink or red rhubarb that is firm and without bruising. If it is late in rhubarb season and the stalks are fibrous, peel away the tough fibers before chopping.
- Strawberries–Choose small, firm, bright red strawberries for the best flavor. If your berries are large, quarter them.
- Ground ginger–If you enjoy the bite that ginger adds, go for it and increase the amount of ground ginger in the topping to 1 teaspoon.
How to Make This Recipe
- To make the crust, freeze the flour, butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer for 20 minutes.
- Beat the chilled ingredients on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Combine the water and vinegar in a small measuring cup and slowly add to the mixer while it’s running, adding just enough for the dough to come together.
- Shape the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Lightly flour a work surface. Roll the pie dough into a 12 1/2-inch circle.
- Transfer the dough to a pie plate. Tuck the excess dough under the sides to create thick edges, then crimp the dough to create a decorative edge. Chill the crust while preparing the filling.
- To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and toss gently.
- To make the topping, combine the flour, butter, sugars, ginger, and salt in a separate bowl. Work in the butter until the pieces are the size of small peas.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Set the pie plate on a foil-lined baking sheet. Spoon the filling into the chilled pie crust.
- Top the filling with the crumble mixture.
- Bake the pie until bubbling and golden. Cool completely before slicing.
Common Questions
Yes, you can. Leaving out the bottom is faster and might appeal to those looking to cut back on carbs. Or if you just don’t feel like rolling out a crust.
Don’t get us wrong, we love a pie. We really, really love pie. But this recipe makes a delicious crumble without the bottom crust.
Rhubarb season runs from April to July, and at its peak, you don’t need to peel rhubarb for jam, strawberry-rhubarb crumbles, pies, or crisps. The stalks are tender-ish and crunchy. Later in the season, in July, the stalks tend to get fibrous and tough. Peeling the stalks will make for a tastier, more pleasant mouthful.
To get ahead, you can make and refrigerate the pie crust up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Be sure that it’s well-wrapped in plastic, and if frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge before using. Let your dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling.
You can also make the crumble topping in advance and store it in the freezer in a resealable bag or airtight container for up to 3 months.
Helpful Tips
- Use a deep dish pie plate and place a foil-lined baking sheet under the pie while it bakes, as the filling can overflow.
- If you chill your pie dough overnight or longer, let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling, as it needs to soften a bit to roll. If it’s been refrigerated for only a short time, you can roll it out immediately.
- Leftover strawberry rhubarb pie can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for up to 3 days.
More Strawberry Rhubarb Dessert Recipes
Write a Review
If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Ginger Crumb Topping
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the surface
- 7 tablespoons (3 1/2 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch (12-mm) cubes
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ice-cold water, more as needed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
For the filling
- 2 1/2 cups (4 to 5 large stalks) rhubarb, sliced on the diagonal 1/4-inch (6-mm) thick
- 2 1/2 cups hulled and halved strawberries, (if the berries are quite large, quarter them)
- 2/3 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the crumb topping
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 5 tablespoons (2 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch (12-mm) pieces
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons packed dark or light brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Make the crust
- Place the flour, butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix the chilled ingredients on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 2 minutes.
- Combine the ice water and vinegar in a small measuring cup. With the mixer running, slowly add the vinegar mixture to the flour mixture, adding just enough for the mixture to come together into shaggy clumps. (If you’ve added all the liquid and the dough is still not holding together, add enough cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it does cling together.)
☞ TESTER TIP: Be careful not to overmix the dough, or it will become tough.
- Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap, shape it into a 5-inch disk, and wrap it in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to a few days.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12 1/2-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.
- Transfer it to a 9-inch pie dish, preferably deep-dish, by either folding the dough into quarters and unfolding it in the dish or rolling the dough around a rolling pin and unrolling it into the dish. Tuck the excess dough under the edges to create a double thickness and a smooth edge. Then pinch the dough every 2-inches to form a decorative border.
- Refrigerate the crust while you prepare the filling and crumb topping.
Make the filling
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- In a medium bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon and toss gently but thoroughly to combine.
Make the crumb topping
- In another medium bowl, combine the flour, butter, sugars, ginger, and salt. Using a pastry blender or two table knives, cut the mixture until the biggest pieces of butter are something like the size of small peas. The crumb topping will still seem very dry and floury looking.
Assemble the pie
- Spoon the filling into the pie crust, then top with the crumb mixture. Place the pie on a large rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper and bake until the crust is dark golden brown, the filling is bubbling, and some juices are spilling over the edge, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Let the pie cool completely on a wire rack, if you can stand the wait, before slicing and serving.
Notes
-
- Pie plate–Use a deep dish pie plate and place a foil-lined baking sheet under the pie while it bakes as the filling can overflow.
- Let your dough rest–If you chill your pie dough overnight or longer, let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes prior to rolling, as it needs to have a bit of give. If it has been refrigerated for only a couple of hours, you can roll it out immediately.
- Make it crustless–If you prefer your pie be more of a crumble, skip the crust and just make the filling and topping.
- Storage–Leftover pie can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
I made this as a crumble instead of a pie. Oh-so-easy and amazingly good. I think with the crust it would be too much dough, but as a crumble, it was the perfect balance between tart and sweet–the filling was thick enough to allow it to be served easily.
A huge hit with everyone in the family! As the recipe stated, I let it cool completely, but I think it would also be excellent warm with sweet ice cream.
Oh, this was a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie. Especially loved the ginger crumb topping, which perfectly complemented the tartness of the rhubarb. Very easy to assemble and definitely a crowd-pleaser. I served it with homemade vanilla ice cream.
If you don’t have the time to make a pie crust, this is a great crumble. The strawberry-rhubarb filling comes out tender and gooey. I was glad I baked the pie on a cookie sheet covered with foil, as there was some overflow of the filling.
The crumb topping is sweet, crunchy, light, and a wonderful contrast to the light berry flavor and tart rhubarb. It was very easy to eat. The crumble smells amazing as it bakes. It leaves the aroma of strawberries in the kitchen and brings smiles to all who enter.
I’m not sure if there are many things better than a piece of homemade pie—and while it’s so often viewed as a holiday treat (Northern Spy apple pie at Thanksgiving) or a summer delight (fresh berry pie), there really is, in my humble pie opinion, absolutely no reason to put pie in the category of a once-in-a-while dessert. This pie was so good, I had to make it twice (once with the crust, once without).
To be completely honest, while the crust is good (not the best I’ve had, but certainly a simple, reliable crust), the real winner in this dessert is the fruit and the lovely ginger topping. The topping may not look moist enough before baking, but it browns up golden, buttery, and delicious–it will be fine.
The fruit, if ripe, does create a good amount of juice, so just be aware that it may spill out over your pie pan if you’re not careful. When making the crumble version, I used an 8×8″ pan, which turned out very well (and avoided this problem). Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this is near perfect.
I really like what strawberries and rhubarb become when you put them together, so I knew that I had to make this recipe as soon as I saw it. It didn’t disappoint. I love crumb toppings and felt that there was no need to add a crust to the mix. I wanted the fruit to be showcased, so I made this into a strawberry rhubarb crisp.
I really liked the ginger in the topping. So much so, that I increased the amount of ginger in the topping to a really generous teaspoonful when I made this again a couple of days later.
I also reduced the baking time. The first time I made the recipe, the fruit cooked down too much. It was delicious, but there was no evidence that there had been strawberries and rhubarb at one time.
The second time I made this, I cut the baking time down to one hour. You could see the rhubarb slices in the crisp this time, yet everything was very tender. I may cut the baking time even more the next time I make this, just to see what it’s like with 5 to 10 minutes less time in the oven.
After searching three grocery stores, I finally found the last five stalks of rhubarb in my neighborhood. The stalks were skinny, but I bought them all because nothing makes me love spring more than rhubarb and strawberries paired together.
This recipe was worth the extra effort because it is a great winter-to-spring dessert. The ginger in the topping is subtle, almost too subtle for someone like me who loves ginger, but it adds a bit of heat (slightly spicy) to the topping that was a pleasant surprise and quite welcome on a cold night.
I did away with the pie crust because of the time-consuming rhubarb search, and I’m glad I did. There’s plenty of crumb topping, so I didn’t miss the pie crust at all. A few tips: I recommend using a high-sided baking dish or a deep-dish pie pan because, in a 9-inch pie pan, the filling overflowed onto the baking sheet (thankfully covered with foil). If you like ginger, I think adding a bit more would be fine.
I made a couple of versions of this pie—one as written and another one which was gluten-free and made with stevia instead of sugar. The “normal” one came out fantastic and was very highly praised.
The other one was very good but of course, those who tried both preferred the first one. That being said, for us who cannot have sugar, yeast, and certain flours, it was still a very nice treat and I fully enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: I made this into a crisp and couldn’t find any rhubarb, as all of it had been sold by the time I got to the one store (out of four total) that had already started carrying it. So, this review is for a strawberry ginger crisp. But wow—simply put, this was amazing!
I was nervous about all the sugar making it too sweet, but that wasn’t the case at all. I left out the last quarter-cup of the topping because it seemed like overkill, but after seeing how it came out, it probably would have been fine.
Still–if you’re not into a lot of crisp/butter on top of the pie/filling, don’t feel the need to use all of it. I can’t wait to make this again once rhubarb is back on the grocery shelves!
I assume crystallized ginger was used in place of ground ginger? Can you use fresh grated ginger? Sounds like this topping would be delicious with pears.
Hi Suzanne. As you know, the recipe calls for ground ginger, not crystalized. I think Raye, one of our testers, substituted it. We’re going to check for you. I wouldn’t recommend fresh ginger, as equal amounts of fresh and ground doesn’t mean equal amount of flavor or heat.
I used both ground and crystalized ginger, which wasn’t in the recipe. I used Ginger People little crystalized chips, so they’re already in bits. They added an extra zing to the recipe.
Thanks for the clarification and link to Ginger People. Always good to have another source.
Now THIS is summer and I look forward to making this or something, anything like it. Who doesn’t love the cooked fruit, the oozing juices and the tender topping? This one is gorgeous!
Completely agree. Is rhubarb easily had in France?
I also saw this recipe on Martha, and one look at the photo and I was downloading the Bi-Rite book on my Kindle app for my iPad. It’s just the best recipe. Everyone just raves about how wonderful it tastes. It’s my new go-to crust for fruit pies and my trusty topping for crumbles and cobblers. I add crystallized ginger as a bonus flavor, don’t leave it out. I froze the leftover crust and topping and it was just perfect the next time I made tarts.
So glad you enjoyed it, Raye. I also love crystallized ginger in desserts. Thanks for letting us know about your experience!