Cinnamony Rhubarb Meringue Pie
This has been my rhubarb week. I bought too many of the flavor-packed stalks for my rhubarb and leek gratin on Monday - their colorful beauty was just too tempting and I ended up grabbing (and buying) as much as I could fit in my hands. So the green and red pile of rhubarb on my marble counter top called for a compote, or even better, a pie!
I felt inspired by lemon meringue pie: an elegant pie made of a crumbly short crust, yet instead of lemon, topped with the fruitiest, cinnamony rhubarb curd you can imagine and finished off with a cloud of sweet meringue. I love lemon pie but learned that rhubarb lifts it onto another level, at least for my taste. It's such a fruity, sour, and slightly sweet and buttery composition.
A short note: The curd in the cool pie will be a bit more set than you see in the pictures, I cut it too early - tempted by my impatient appetite!
You can also find this recipe in my book 365: recipe no. 98!
Rhubarb Meringue Pie
For a 23cm / 9" pie (in a shallow pie dish) you need
For the pastry
plain flour 160g / 1 1/4 cups / 5 1/2oz
granulated sugar 1 tablespoon
salt 1/4 teaspoon
butter 90g / 3/4 stick / 3 1/4oz
water (cold) 3 tablespoons
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter quickly into the flour until combined. Add the water and continue mixing with the hooks of an electric mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).
Roll out the dough between cling film and line your pie dish with the flat pastry. Prick it with a fork and blind-bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Let it cool completely.
For the rhubarb curd
First you make a rhubarb compote which you then turn into a curd.
rhubarb, cut into 0.5 cm / 1/4" slices, 680g / 1 1/2 pounds
granulated sugar 150g / 3/4 cup / 5 1/4oz for the compote, plus 2 tablespoons for the curd
ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon
water 75ml / 1/3 cup for the curd, plus 1 tablespoon for the compote
butter 1 tablespoon
cornstarch 60g / 1/2 cup
pinch of salt
organic egg yolks, beaten, 3
For the compote, heat the rhubarb, 150g (3/4 cups) of sugar, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of water in a large pot on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for 10 minutes (open, without a lid). Take off the heat and stir in the butter.
For the curd, whisk 75ml (1/3 cup) water, the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of sugar and salt and add to the hot rhubarb. Bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes on medium-high heat, stir once in a while. Take 1 tablespoon of this mixture and whisk into the beaten egg yolks, pour the egg-compote mixture back into the pot with the rhubarb. Bring to the boil, stir constantly and cook for half a minute. Take the pot off the heat, pour the curd into a bowl and let it cool completely. You could place the bowl on cooling pads to speed up the process.
For the meringue
egg whites 3
granulated sugar 80g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon
a pinch of salt
Beat the egg whites with the salt, adding the sugar gradually while beating, until the white is stiff.
The pie
Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).
Pour the cool rhubarb curd on top of the pastry and finish it off with the stiff egg whites, you can form little peaks with a knife to create an uneven surface. Bake for 7 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crisp. Let it sit for about 30 minutes before cutting for the curd to set. The pie still tastes great the next day (after keeping it in the fridge) but it won't look as pretty.
