Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I am a pie baker.  I have been for a long time.  Though I cook and bake many things, I am best at pie baking.  I really never expected to change my crust recipe at this point in my pie baking life but I have.  You can teach old dogs new tricks!  I saw a recipe for a pie crust using cream cheese and I just had to try it.  It is beyond perfect!  It's easy to make and gives fabulous results and it is great to work with.

In the bowl of your food processor, place an 8 ounce block of cream cheese, 1/2 C. of butter and 2 C. of flour.  Pulse until blended.  Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water just until the dough comes together into a ball.

Split the dough in half and roll the dough out until it is about 2 inches larger than your pie pan.  This dough rolls very easily.

Fold it into quarters.

Spray your pie plate with cooking spray and lay the crust in the pan.

Open it to cover the pan.

This is where it got interesting.  I used the rhubarb from my garden which was very thin.  I also didn't have quite as much as I would have liked to use.  I cut up the rhubarb and mixed it in with some cutup strawberries. I sprinkled them with just a bit of sugar and some flour.  (About 3 tablespoons of flour and 1/3 cup of sugar.)  Then I remembered my rhubarb sauce that I made a week ago.  I stirred that into the mix.  There was about 1-1/2 cups of sauce.

Next, roll out the other half of the dough and cover the pie.

Crimp the edges.

Brush it with milk or cream.

Sorry this is blurry.  It is my vanilla sugar.

Sprinkle the top of the pie with vanilla sugar.

Place it on a cookie sheet because it is almost guaranteed to boil over.  Bake it at 375 degrees for about an hour or until golden and the filling is bubbling.

See what I mean.  You do not want this inside your oven.  Been there, done that.

This was without a doubt the best pie I have ever baked.

The flavor was perfect.  The inside was not runny but also not dry.  The crust was flaky and out of this world.  I think I've found the best crust recipe!