[ SERVES 8–10 ]

I am a rhubarb hoarder. There’s always a surplus of it from the allotment and I make sure that I chop some up to be frozen. If you treat it well, rhubarb is amazing for making pies. It naturally contains quite a lot of liquid and has a pretty tart flavour, though, meaning you need something to absorb the excess liquid (hopefully not the pastry underneath) and something to sweeten it. I mix some of the crumble mixture into the filling for this purpose, and this has bonus points (!) because it also makes the filling buttery and gooey. It’s just perfect. As well as fresh blueberries I have added dried blueberries to the mixture, which absorb some of the liquid as the pie bakes, plumping them back up.

Ingredients

½ quantity of Flaky Pastry (allow the pastry to chill for at least 30 minutes)

80 g (2¾ oz/6 tbsp) unsalted butter

90 g (3 oz/¾ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

110 g (3¾ oz/½ cup) granulated sugar

30 g (1 oz/⅓ cup) walnuts, chopped

125 g (4½ oz/1 cup) blueberries

220 g (7¾ oz/2 cups) chopped rhubarb

50 g (2 oz/⅓ cup) dried blueberries (optional)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Roll out the chilled pastry and use it to line a 20 cm (8 in) pie dish (as shown on How to Line a Pie Dish with Pastry). Prick the pastry all over with a fork. Crumple up a piece of baking parchment about twice the size of your pie dish, un-crumple it, and place it in the pastry-lined dish with a generous handful of baking beans or rice. Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes, then remove the baking parchment and baking beans or rice and bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven but leave the oven on.

Over a medium heat, melt the butter in a saucepan until it foams and smells nutty. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour, salt, cinnamon and half the sugar. Mix the chopped walnuts into this crumbly mixture.

In a large bowl, stir together the blueberries, rhubarb and dried blueberries (if using) along with the remaining sugar and 3 tablespoons of the crumbly mixture. Pour into the pre-baked pastry case and smooth into an even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and cover with the rest of the crumbly mixture. Return the pie to the oven for a further 20 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.