Make Ireland's Famous Roscommon Rhubarb Pie for St. Patrick's Day
Greetings from Ireland. Today I wanted to share one of my favorite traditional Irish recipes—this time it’s a comforting pudding called Roscommon Rhubarb Pie, just in time for the new season’s rhubarb.
I came across this recipe when I was doing research for my cookbook, Irish Traditional Cooking. A friend from Strokestown in County Roscommon told me how his mother remembered how her grandmother would strew the base of the bastible (a pot oven) with chopped rhubarb, sweeten it with a sprinkling of sugar and cover it with enriched bread dough. When the cake was fully baked in the pot over the open fire, it was turned out so that it landed upside down, with the sweet juice soaking into the soft golden crust. It was served warm with soft brown sugar and softly whipped cream.
Related: 52 Easy Irish Recipes
We reinterpreted the dough as a sweet scone dough, and I tested the recipe in a covered sauté pan in the oven. The result was a wow with all the family—everyone loved it.
This is a perfect example of the way in which recipes cooked initially over an open fire can be adapted to produce the most delicious results today. I’ve made Roscommon Rhubarb Pie (also known as Roscommon Rhubarb Tart) in America with delicious results so let me know how it works for you with this season’s rhubarb.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Related: 85 Best Pie Recipes
Roscommon Rhubarb Pie Recipe
Ingredients
2 lbs red rhubarb
1 ?-1/? cups granulated sugar
Method
23 × 5cm (9 × 2 inch) round tin—we use a heavy stainless-steel sauté pan which works very well.
Preheat the oven to 230oC/450o/Gas Mark 8.
Trim the rhubarb, wipe it with a damp cloth and cut it into pieces about 2.5cm (1 inch) in length. Put into the base of your tin or sauté pan and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Sift all the dry ingredients for the scone dough into a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Whisk the egg with the milk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid all at once and mix to a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and roll into a 23cm (9 inch) round, about 2.5cm (1 inch) thick. Place this round on top of the rhubarb and tuck in the edges neatly.
Bake in the fully preheated oven for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4 for about a further 30 minutes, or until the top is crusty and golden and the rhubarb soft and juicy.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to sit for a few minutes. Put a warm plate over the top of the sauté pan and turn it upside down so that the pie comes out onto the plate. Be careful of the hot juices, they will be absorbed by the pie.
Serve warm with soft brown sugar and cream.
