Since I still have a jar or two of the delish rhubarb chutney I made last year, I wanted to do something different this rhubarb season. And, of course, rhubarb is a classic, often combined with strawberries in tart-sweet-glorious desserts, so my mind quickly turned to pie.
The apple pie filling was a nice proof of concept. Turns out, we're really enjoying having the option of a quick homemade baked dessert. The challenge is that our rhubarb season and strawberry season don't quite overlap. Here's where Dave's brainstorm came in. Why not can rhubarb pie filling in May, then strawberry pie filling in June? One pint of each, et voila! you have a perfect strawberry-rhubarb pie.
So that's the plan. Here's the recipe for rhubarb. Stay tuned for strawberry.
You'll need:
8 cups chopped rhubarb
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup + 2 T ClearJel (do not substitute!)
2 cups water
6 T lemon juice
4 pint (500 ml) Mason jars
4 snap lids and rings
Directions for canning:
Wash your jars in hot soapy water and rinse well.
Blanch your rhubarb in a large pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Put drained rhubarb in a covered bowl or pot. You may need to do it in more than one batch.
Make sure your jars are ready to be filled cause it all happens pretty quickly from here on out.
Combine sugar, ClearJel, water in a large pot. Whisk it all together thoroughly until well combined. Heat on medium until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice to the thickened mixture and bring it back up to bubble.
Heat water to the almost boil in a small pot and place your snap lids in there to soften, if recommended by the manufacturer.
Fold drained rhubarb, a few cups at a time, into the hot mixture.
Scoop hot rhubarb pie filling into jars leaving a good 1.5 inch headspace.
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble each jar with a skewer or chopstick to release any trapped air. Wipe each rim thoroughly with a clean paper towel, dampened with vinegar. (The vinegar works really well to clean up the sticky, sticky filling.) Place a heated snap lid down and screw the ring on finger tip tight.
Put the filled jars into your water bath canner. Make sure there is at least an inch of water above the top of your jars. Don't start your timer until the water is boiling. Boil for 30 minutes.
Remove jars from the canner. Repeat with the next batch. Commence beauty shots.
Edited to add instructions for lemon juice. Oops!
