Sour Cherry Rhubarb Streusel Pie

We had guests over last night for dinner so wanted to make a pie for dessert.  As you might know I love sour cherries and love rhubarb so decided to make a pie with both but this time with a streusel topping.  For pate brisée recipe look at this previous post.

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Ingredients for the filling

450 g pitted sour cherries

480 g rhubarb cut in 0.5-1 inch pieces

175 g sugar

2 tbsp or 40 g cornstarch 

A pinch of salt

1 tsp of almond extract

Juice of ½  lemon 

Tossed frozen cherries and rhubarb in a pot with the sugar and salt until the fruit defrosted and started to give up some juices.  Then added cornstarch and mixed to dissolve.  Cooked over medium heat until just barely starting to thicken, no need to fully thicken as it will do that while baking.  Once cooled refrigerated overnight.  Tip, you can test the filling to see if there is enough thickener by removing a bit and microwaving it for 30 secs.

Streusel Topping for Pies

1⅔ cups streusel, to top Makes 1⅔ cups streusel, enough for one 9- or 10-inch pie topping

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

4 teaspoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, at room temperature

Stir together the flour, brown and granulated sugars, and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle in the butter pieces and toss to coat. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is chunky but not homogenous.

Chill for at least 15 minutes before using.

The streusel will keep refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for 1 month.

Once the bottom pastry is rolled out and transferred to the pie plate cover and place in fridge for at least 30 mins and up to 3 hours allowing the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax before adding the filling and topping with the streusel.

When ready to bake pre-heat oven to 425°F baking at this temperature for 30 mins on the lowest rack on a baking stone or steel.  Watch the edge and protect it from over browning.  

After 20 mins shielded the edge and continued to bake at 425°F for another 10 or so mins then shielded the whole pie with a cookie tray and decreased temperature to 350°F and baked until the bottom crust was nicely browned and the filling bubbling. Up to 30-60 mins more.

My index of bakes.