Cindy Crawford's Favorite Pie Is Filled With The Perfect Fruit Pairing

It's no secret that celebrities need to eat and (gasp) totally have favorite foods just like the rest of us. The food faves of the famous become even more interesting when celebs come forward with go-to recipes of their own, like JFK's sentimental New England fish chowder recipe from his childhood, or adept home cook Gene Kelly's personal recipe for French coq au vin. Today, we're exploring another knockout recipe for the star-studded supper table. American supermodel and business owner Cindy Crawford has appeared on the cover of Vogue and Playboy and walked the runway for Versace, Chanel, Valentino, Dior, and countless others. Today, she has a makeup line, a furniture line, and she's a savvy home baker. 

When the sweet siren of a sweet tooth hits, Crawford is looking no further than her favorite pie, which features a timeless fruit pairing: Strawberry and rhubarb, the perfect treat for summer picnics. The famous track by Siouxsie and the Banshees sings the praises of "Christine, the strawberry girl," but after a look at Crawford's mouth-watering pie recipe, maybe the song should've been called "Cindy" instead. Crawford shared her go-to strawberry rhubarb pie recipe with Saveur magazine and reportedly makes this dessert often at her home in Malibu, where it's a favorite of her husband, Rande Gerber.

Crawford's strawberry rhubarb pie starts with a homemade pie crust, which is loaded with the fruit filling of sliced strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Although, one aspect of Crawford's pie crust is different from the typical prep: It adds vegetable oil instead of cold butter. The whole thing is blanketed in cold pats of butter and a final top crust, which gets sliced with classic fruit pie ventilation slits at the center for a traditional aesthetic. You can also swap the strawberries for blueberries or peaches, but these fruits perform better with an added hint of lemon zest.

If you've never worked with it before, rhubarb is a seasonal spring vegetable with a naturally piquant, sour taste that pairs remarkably well with sugar. In Crawford's favorite, timeless fruit pie, the rhubarb's sourness juxtaposes and complexifies the strawberry's sweetness. In fact, rhubarb is an ingredient that performs best when cooked because of its strong, sharp flavor. It's not just about the dimensional flavor, either. In strawberry rhubarb pie, the sugar intermingles with the strawberries and rhubarb to form a sort of gel that helps the pie keep its shape when sliced — so long as you allow the pie to cool completely before cutting. Pro tip: The red stalks are more tart for baking than the green stalks, which pack less flavor.