Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe without Tapioca

Discover the magic of the best award-winning strawberry rhubarb pie ever! This sweet and tart pie is made with fresh strawberries and rhubarb, topped with a flaky crust, and boasts the perfect texture without tapioca. This classic old-fashioned dessert is perfect for spring or summer. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the perfect treat.

We are rhubarb enthusiasts! When it’s in season, we stock up and freeze it so that we can enjoy its tart sweetness all year long. We use it to make everything from Strawberry Rhubarb Dump Cake to Strawberry Rhubarb Jam to this easy Rhubarb Simple Syrup. But my absolute favorite will always be an easy old-fashioned strawberry rhubarb pie!

❤️ Why It Works

This award-winning strawberry rhubarb pie recipe has been tried and true and is older than I am! It is one that my grandmother made and passed down to my mother who passed it down to me. It’s won county fair baking competitions and is always the first to sell out at the county fair markets. But that’s not the only reason to love it.

• It is EASY! As far as pies go, this is one of the easier ones to make. Simple ingredients that turn out mouthwatering results.
• Without Tapioca! A lot of pie recipes lately use tapioca for thickening. While it is an easy way to thicken a pie, it’s really not needed. We use cornstarch as it thickens the juices nicely just as it reaches boiling point and doesn’t make the filling cloudy like flour does. The filling stays together well and stays clear. So no need to buy tapioca that you will rarely use. You can simply use the cornstarch you likely already have in your pantry.
• The perfect blend of sweet and tart. While everyone else is serving up overly sweet pies, you can offer them something unique and fresh on the pallet.
• It can be FROZEN! Yes! You can actually freeze the pie so you can enjoy the taste of summer all winter long!
• Kids can help! We are always about making memories in the kitchen. This strawberry rhubarb pie is an excellent recipe to gather the kids and bake something together.

🔪Variations

The great thing about rhubarb is that it is so versatile! There are several ways you can vary this old-fashioned recipe and have a mouthwatering classic dessert with a fun new twist! 

You can switch up the top crust! Try a lattice pattern or use a cookie cutter to cut out different shapes for the top crust. 

Try a Crumble topping! You can switch out the top crust altogether and use the crumble topping from our mini Dutch apple pies or the streusel topping from our spiced cinnamon muffins! Both go perfectly with this classic strawberry rhubarb pie!

Mix up the fruit! Strawberries are not the only fruit that is delicious when paired with rhubarb! You can also use raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, pears, apples, apricots, nectarines, and peaches!

Add Orange juice! Simply add 1 Tablespoon (15ml) of orange juice to the filling! While it’s a little alteration, it’s just enough for a fun variation. 

Top with Cinnamon sugar! Just like our fresh peach pie – topping off the strawberry rhubarb pie with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar in the egg wash is a fun way to jazz up a traditional pie crust. 

🧐 How To Pick Your Rhubarb For A Pie: 

1. Look for firm stalks, avoiding any which are limp or blemished.
2. If the leaves are attached, they should be fresh and crisp.
3. Pick stalks with deeper red colors if possible. This will make for the prettiest pies and deepest-colored recipes.

Rhubarb comes in different colors, ranging from green to pink to red. The color of the stalks does not necessarily indicate how sweet they are. However, red and pink rhubarb are often used in strawberry Rhubarb pies because it gives the pie a more attractive color.

Rhubarb is most tender and flavorful in spring and early summer but can be used throughout the season. Select firm, crisp stalks when they are 8 to 15 inches long. To harvest, twist off the leaf stalk at the soil line rather than taking a knife and cutting near the roots. Finally, cut off the leaf.

🥧 How To Make A Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links, which means that I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps me to keep this blog running and to provide you with free content.

I have actually been asked for this recipe many times over the last few years. But honestly, I have hated how my pies look so never posted it before now. I can make the best-tasting pies, but they just don’t look award-winning quality. Now, my sister, she makes a gorgeous-looking pie!

I’ve been working really hard on my pie-making for the last few years. And I’ve made leaps and bounds on how they look! Oh, they are still miles away from looking as beautiful as I would like. But I couldn’t put off sharing this recipe any longer.

Making this pie is very simple once you have the pie crust situated. That is always the part I struggle with the most. The silly pie crust! Sometimes I cheat and use a store-bought crust to make it easier. But honestly, when it comes to flavor nothing beats my grandma’s flaky pie crust.

Begin by prepping the fruit. Wash the rhubarb and strawberries.

Hull the strawberries and trim the rhubarb. Then slice both into perfect pie pieces. For the strawberries, I use a strawberry slicer to make the slicing go faster. Plus then the kids love to help slice the strawberries because it is so easy!

For the rhubarb, I discovered the best kitchen hack ever! I slice the rhubarb in a food processor ! No kidding. It works brilliantly and saves an insane amount of time!

Once you have the fruit ready, combine it in a bowl with the sugar and allow it to marinate for 30-60 minutes. This allows the juices to flower and soften the fruit. At this point, I usually begin on the pie crust.

After the fruit has sat in the sugar, you will portion out 1/4 cup of the juices to save and drain the rest of the juice.

Combine the fruit, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, and 1/4 cup juice back in the bowl. Gently mix it all together.

Fill the pie crust. This usually fills my 10.5″ pie pan nicely. Although it will depend on the depth of your pie pan. I have a 9″ pie pan that is incredibly shallow and this is far too much. But my sister has a deeper 9″ pie pan that holds this beautifully.

Apply the top pie crust and flute the edges to seal them.

Use a sharp knife to cut four or five 2-inch slits in the top crust, arranged in a circular pattern for venting.

Take one egg white and whisk it. Then brush it onto the top of the pie crust using a silicone pastry brush.

Then sprinkle with sugar!

This helps the crust to bake evenly, prevents edges from burning, and gives it the best sugar-coating top you have ever tasted!

Bake the pie in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook for another 30-45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Check it every 5-10 minutes after the 30-minute mark until the top crust is golden. The cooking time can vary based on the crust that you use. Allow to cool 1-hour minimum.

Now if you love warm pie, you can serve it an hour after baking. But I will warn you, it will be messy. The filling probably hasn’t set up fully; so the fruit will slide out of the crust and it won’t look pretty. But really if that is how you like it, who needs pretty right? It will still taste amazing!

My husband loves warm pie. I prefer the pie filling to be more set up, so he digs in after an hour and I do my best to wait 2 hours.

Serving Suggestions

We recommend serving this pie with your favorite ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. If by some miracle, you have a slice left over, you can make an incredible pie milkshake by adding it to a blender with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream and milk.

💡 PRO TIP:

Allow your strawberry rhubarb pie to thoroughly cool before taking a slice! It can still be quite juicy when it’s warm thus causing all the filling to run out of the crust when you try to serve it. If you allow it to cool, then the filling will thicken and stay together nicely.

I also like to use a silicone pie shield to prevent the edges from burning while the center is still cooking. They easily adjust to almost any size, and keep the bake nice and even over the pie.

🫙 How To Store Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This pie can be kept at room temperature for up to 36 hours. After that, it’s best to cover it with foil and keep it refrigerated.

I prefer to cover my Strawberry Rhubarb pie with Saran Wrap or foil and refrigerate it. This will last up to 7 days. 

🥶 Can You Freeze Strawberry Rhubarb Pie?

YES! Isn’t that music to your ears? The perfect taste of summer can be frozen to enjoy in the winter! There are 2 ways you can freeze your strawberry rhubarb pie. As an unbaked pie or a fully-cooked pie. 

You can freeze unbaked pies for up to two months. After that, you’re flirting with freezer burn. Frozen, baked fruit pies will keep up to 4 months. So really it is your choice which method you want to use. 

To freeze an unbaked strawberry rhubarb pie: assemble the pie as you would if you were going to bake it that day. Then, freeze the pie uncovered for 2 hours, or until it is mostly frozen. Once the pie is set, triple-wrap it in foil. Label and date the pie, and write the baking temperature and time on the foil.

The great thing about this method is that there is no need to thaw the pie before baking. Simply pop the frozen pie into a hot oven and bake it as usual. The baking time will be longer than for an unfrozen pie, but the exact amount of time will vary depending on the amount of filling in the pie. A general rule of thumb is to add an extra 20-30 minutes to the baking time for an uncooked pie.

To freeze a fully-cooked strawberry rhubarb pie: let it cool completely. Then, transfer the pie to a flat surface in the freezer. Let the pie freeze solid, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or foil. Label and date the pie, and eat it within 4 months. To thaw the pie, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Then, reheat the pie in a 350-degree oven until warm.

🥫 Can Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling Be Canned?

Sadly I would not advise canning this strawberry rhubarb pie filling. Many people will say that yes you can. But the most current recommendation from the USDA is to not use cornstarch or flour in canning recipes. 

The reason is that flour and cornstarch are starches that do not break down with heat, so it can prevent the heat from penetrating the center of the jar, interfering with safe processing to destroy the bacterial spores that cause botulism. 

The only exception to this rule is when a tested recipe calls for Clear Jel® as in pie fillings or small amounts of thickener in a few relish recipes. So for safety reasons, I cannot recommend freezing this pie filling. 

💭 FAQ’s 

Please note: Every child is different, so it is important to use your own judgment when deciding which tasks are appropriate for your child. These are just suggestions, and you may need to adjust them based on your child’s individual abilities and needs. It is also important to remember that younger children will require more direct supervision than older children.

Remember to pin this Strawberry rhubarb pie to Pinterest! 
Use the button on the recipe card or the share buttons on the side or bottom of this page.