Rhubarb cream cheese pie with fresh strawberries from Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson

TrishaCP on June 21, 2013

A nicely decadent dessert and a good option if you want the classic rhubarb- strawberry combo but don't want to cook your strawberries. A pre-baked pie shell (I used my own recipe) is filled with rhubarb tossed with sugar and cornstarch (I sometimes find the recipes in this book erring a bit on the sweet side, but I thought 1/2 cup here with the 1lb of rhubarb was just enough). The rhubarb is baked in the crust for about 15 minutes-enough to soften it slightly but not enough for it to break down. A lightly sweetened cream cheese-based custard is then added and baked until set. The pie is finished by topping with fresh strawberries- I didn't garnish with powdered sugar as my berries were very sweet. The rhubarb custard base is interesting- the rhubarb pieces stayed intact through baking so you get nice bites of the fruit with the tangy cream cheese - you could actually omit the strawberries and have a decent rhubarb cream cheese pie, but it is really pretty with the strawberry topping.