Rhubarb Custard Pie

If I were to pick my favorite dessert it would be rhubarb custard pie. (Unless you're talking favorite birthday dessert. Then I would pick angel food cake and lemon icing.) My mom had a patch of rhubarb growing in the backyard that supplied the perfect treat each Memorial Day weekend. I pulled out a pre-cut, pre-measured bag of rhubarb from the freezer (Thanks, Ma!) this afternoon to make a pie for tonight's dessert. Yummy!

Rhubarb Custard Pie
Betty Crocker

3 eggs
3 Tbsp milk
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp nutmeg (I only use 1/2 tsp.)
4 cups cut-up rhubarb
1 Tbsp butter (I didn't use this.)

Beat the eggs and milk in a large bowl. Mix the sugar, flour and nutmeg together and add to the eggs. Mix well. Add the rhubarb and stir. Pour into prepared crust. (See below for recipe.) Dot with the butter. (I didn't.) Cover with lattice top. (Unless you're entering your pie in the county fair, don't get too worked up making your lattice top form the perfect weaved design.) Bake for 50-60 minutes at 400 degrees until nicely browned. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Found this recipe for pie crust on foodnetwork.com. I'm not a huge fan of pie crust, but I was actually really pleased with how this one turned out. Nice and light and flaky. One thing I have learned in all my hours of watching the Food Network is that the key to flaky pie crust is to use wet ingredients that are chilled; i.e. cold butter, shortening, and water.

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust
Paula Deen

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold
12 tablespooons butter, cold and cubed
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.