It sounds like making gluten free pie crust, which I've done a few times for a friend who likes it even better than regular. There's hope!

Roll it out between sheets of plastic wrap on top of a pizza peel or flat cookie sheet, or upside down sheet pan, or something similar.. Carefully peel away the top layer of wrap. (If the dough is very sticky, try a little spray oil on the top wrap before you roll. You want it to cling to the bottom, which is why parchment isn't a good idea. It's also better to see what you're rolling.) Place your pie plate over it and invert carefully over the counter in case any drips.

Hopefully the dough will hold together enough not to fall off the edges before you can ease it into place in the dish. Try to get it in place with the plastic still on, catching the edges before the break off if you can. Work as quickly as possible.

Once it's in the dish and mended and trimmed, blind bake it, even if you don't usually, to steam out some of the excess liquid. If you have a top crust, roll it similarly. It'll slump and may not be pretty, but it should be okay. Or save it for another bottom crust and make something else for the top of this one.

Good luck!

I’d quickly lose patience, spread it on a cookie sheet, bake it, break it up, crumble and top the filling baked in ramekins. Or something of that nature.

Perhaps you can just pat the dough into the pan, like I do with various high butter tart crusts and not roll it out at all, if the plastic wrap trick doesn't work.

I'm smiling, although it's not funny to be wasting ingredients when they are difficult or impossible to replace. Definitely should have drunk the vodka, LOL.

Good luck, my rhubarb is just peeking out, it'll be a few weeks before mine is even young, small and tender.

Annie

Next time use Crisco for pie crust!

Yep, drink the vodka and use Crisco for pie crusts. Annie, has a good idea about just patting it in the pan instead of rolling. I would prebake slightly also, since it is so wet. No way would I waste the flour and butter, especially now.

PS, I can't work with my husband either! He knows everything. And it is all my fault!

I use to use all Crisco, then went to half butter and half Crisco. I think they changed the formula and don't like it the way it is now. I might switch to lard like my mom used.

Tirgereye - My husband is an EE engineer and thinks he is an expert on everything. Good thing I am easy going or we wouldn't have lasted this long. HWMBO

Yeah, they did change the Crisco, but I still like it better than the only lard I can find. I don't have a source for "real" lard and all I could find in the grocery store was hydrogenated and had, to me, an off taste. Kinda like stale leftover chitlins.

I haven't bought pastry flour in quite awhile, but I've made plenty of pastry crusts using whole wheat pastry flour, and they did come out softer and more crumbly than those made with regular flour - it seems you need some gluten to get a flaky crust - but they still worked just fine. It seems to me he may have under measured the flour and over measured the liquid.

Chilling will probably help if it's all butter. I would just press it into the pan as suggested for the bottom crust, and perhaps some extra flour could be cut into the part used for the top crust, a little at a time until it's a bit more firm, if chilling doesn't do the trick? My pastry crusts are usually all butter, and sometimes I make oil, or part oil/part butter crusts for savory pies.

And isn't unsalted butter supposed to have a lower water content than salted?

Took the crust from the refrigerator and it was as hard as a rock and impossible to roll out. Left it on the counter top to soften up a little. DH rolled it out because it was too stiff for me. It kept wanting to break up in chunks but finally got it rolled out and in the pie pan. The top crust was just as much fun. It is in the oven baking. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

There are regulations covering minimum fat content in butter, but it depends on the butter for how much water there is. For just generic American butter, the salted often does have more water, likely because salt absorbs water. Both have over 80% butterfat. Generic butter is usually 81-82% butterfat, so the difference is minor. It might be enough to affect your pastry, depending on the brand of butter.

Pie crusts are weird. You need the sticky of glutinous wheat (or added eggs) to hold together, but you don't want to develop the gluten or it'll be tough, hance the warning not to overwork it. The bran in whole wheat makes it less sticky and will cut gluten strands as it's worked.

Different fats have different sized fat globules. Additionally, they have different water contents that steam out at different temperatures, since fats melt at different temperatures. The flaky in pie comes from that steam. Bigger globules, like in good lard, give you bigger flakes as the steam out. Butter and Crisco have different sized globules, besides the different flavor, so you get a combination of behaviors when you mix them. Crisco is supposed to be 100% fat, but I haven't confirmed that. I've read that it inhibits gluten formation, but I don't know if that's true, or if butter also does.

Vodka affects this behavior as well, but I forget how. Alcohol evaporates faster than water. Since a spoonful of water is enough to be the difference between crisp and chewy cookies, I guess a spoon or three of vodka would be enough to do that steam thing.

I use all butter because I like a bit of a firmer crust while still getting a pleasant texture. I also have a good whole wheat recipe, for hard red winter wheat, but that has a lot more protein than pastry flour, and this recipe is for a thin firm crust, not flaky pastry.

They changed Crisco about 15 years ago to make it 0 transfat, and I think they changed it again more recently. It is different.

Oh, and that top crust? My girls used to cut fancy little shapes, from circles to puppies and use them in a pattern placed on top of the pie as a top crust. They looked pretty and cute and when the top crust didn't roll out nicely no one knew the difference.

Annie

It came out looking good as can see by the picture. One problem was when it was cut open there was a lake of juice because the stalks were so young and tender. And the recipe called for 4 cups and he put in 9 cups!

He said he wanted to use all he picked. I would have froze the rest for later. He didn't add more flour or tapioca. I prefer tapioca rather than adding lots of flour and making it gummy. Don't know what to do to fix the flood problem.

I won't use W W pasty flour for pie crusts again. It was more shortbread cookie like and very grainy. I prefer flaky. Don't know what to use that flour for so probably toss it in the garbage. It was an experiment that failed.

@caflowerluver, can you pull a ”Julia Child” and serve the filling in compote dishes with the crust crumbled over the top as a garnish? Served with a little glass of vodka?

I have only had rhubarb once. Not my cuppa. DD’s college roommate’s mom made it as a treat. Her crust was delicious. I ate the crust and enough of the filling to not seem rude.

bbstx - Rhubarb, you either love it or hate it. I grew up with it and even ate it raw dipped in sugar.

I see recipes for rhubarb strawberry __________ and wonder why they want to mess up good strawberries like that! HA! The roommates’ parents liked their rhubarb especially tart. When they were visiting down here once, we took them to a local barbecue joint for dinner, a place that served DH‘s favorite Lemon Icebox Pie. They were polite, but hated the pie. It was much too sweet for them.

To quote Bbstx, "I knew there was a reason I liked you." I've been saying that about strawberry-rhubarb pie since the beginning of pie! I mean, if you have more strawberries than you can eat or sell, okay, but otherwise it's such a waste! I like rhubarb pie, but I haven't had it overly tart. I don't remember ever eating rhubarb raw. But the mix does the strawberries no favors. Though if anyone thinks it's the best of both, enjoy!

As opposed to apple pie with a small number of blueberries in it, which is really good. :) They marry well. :)

That does look good, and I love rhubarb. In pie, I want just rhubarb, no strawberries. I'll have each alone, thanks, not a mixture.

I'm just waiting for my rhubarb to be ready. Rhubarb crisp, rhubarb pie, rhubarb muffins, rhubarb sauce, I love it all. Of course, I can't have all those goodies, so I bake them, have one and then send the rest to Mother for her weekly baked treat, she loves rhubarb too.

Annie

I’m a rhubarb-only person too. In fact, the thought of cooked strawberries almost makes me gag. I guess I’m one of the few people around who doesn’t like strawberry jam. So, to my thinking, the strawberries ruin the rhubarb.

Caflower, when I was a kid, I’d eat raw rhubarb stalks dipped in sugar. Usually under my bed with my Easy Bake Oven and my grandmother sleeping in the other bed. I was a weird kid.

Loooove rhubarb...and don't mess it up with strawberries.
I don't like whole wheat crust for pastry....
Don't throw the flour out....flour is in short supply these days....make muffins or bread with it.
I make my crust with all butter and half vodka and half water...even have a bottle of cheap vodka I use just for pie.
Would have loved all that rhubarb in a pie....but if you put more rhubarb you should have used more sugar and flour....yes I like flour as my thickener in pies and in gravy. If you double the fruit you need to double the rest of the ingredients as well.

My rhubarb mysteriously died a few years back....the only thing I can think of is that someone sprayed it thinking it was a giant weed. i need another plant.

When I make a fruit pie, in cook the water off from the fruit first. I don't like any sort of thickener in the pie.

Linda has a good point. In that spirit, you can also use the whole wheat pastry flour as an extender for the rest of your flour. Up to 5% you shouldn't notice a difference in the gluten, and it'll give a little extra flavor.

I prefer strawberry rhubarb over all rhubarb pie because with the sweetness of the strawberries you add less sugar. DH likes all rhubarb served with vanilla ice cream. I like it plain.

One thing I noticed with early rhubarb is how tender, not chewy, it is and mild flavored. DH picked most of what was there and put it in the freezer. There was 10 cups cut up so got lots for cobbler, crisp, bread and muffins.

Anyone eat ''stewed rhubarb" either for dessert over ice cream or as breakfast fruit growing up?

Not growing up, but I do now. We moved for my dad's work when I was in second grade. The 'new' house had a big patch of rhubarb which I suspect my mother had never seen. I don't remember her making much use of it, and there was a big commercial sized freezer in the basement of that house. (It held an occasional salmon and lonely large container of ice cream from time to time)

My sister and I would 'sneak' the sugar bowl, go out back and cut rhubarb, dip, eat. Great fun. I can't remember why we felt the need to be sneaky, no one cared if we consumed sugar or not in those days and the rhubarb wasn't otherwise in demand.

And by the way, I'm another don't spoil the rhubarb recipes with strawberries. I love rhubarb-only pie.