Rhubarb, vanilla and almond lattice pie

A friend gave me some rhubarb from her allotment. It looked so good that I didn't want to use it for jam making. I wanted to do something special with it.
I searched on my cooking books but wasn't pleased with the few available options so I decided to look in the world wide web.
The below recipe was taken from Delicious magazine. 
It is tasty but it was a real nightmare to make! 

Serves: 4 persons.

Ingredients:

• For the pastry (makes two rectangular pie dishes or one 23 cm round pie dish):
• 240g plain flour, plus extra to dust
• 140g ground almonds
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• For the filling (double the ingredients for a 23 cm round pie dish):
• 750g rhubarb, cut in 1-2 cm chunks
• 100g sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
• ½ orange: zest and juice
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Equipment: 15 x 20 cm pie dish.

Method:

1. Mix the flour, almonds, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. I used my hands.
   
2. Add the sugar and egg yolks and continue to mix until the pastry comes together in a ball.
   
   
   
   
3. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 40 min. I made the full amount  of pastry and divided into 2, putting half in the freezer to use perhaps another day. For the half to bake, I used a covered recipient so not to use and through away cling film.
   
   
   
   
4. Put all the filling ingredients in a large pan, bring to a gentle simmer and cook over a low heat for 15 min or until the rhubarb is tender.
   
   
   
   
5. Remove from the heat, strain away the excess rhubarb juice and leave to cool.
6. Butter and flour the pie dish.
7. Roll out ⅔ of the pastry to a rectangular shape bigger than the pie dish. Carefully roll the pastry around the dusted rolling pin and unroll into the pie dish. Use a piece of pastry to push the pastry case into the edges of the tin, then trim away any excess. Use the trimmings to patch any gaps. Almond pastry can be a bit fiddly to work with. If it cracks when you're lining the tin, just patch it up as best as you can with any off-cuts. No one will notice when the pie is finished. A 'bit fiddly to work with' is an understatement!!!!! It is a complete nightmare!!!! The almonds make the pastry very very very brittle and almost impossible to roll out and then lift.  Every time I rolled it it would break or stick to the rolling pin and I kept flouring the rolling pin and the counter. I floured it so much I ended up drying the pastry and it started cracking (see picture). By the third attempt I could no longer use the pastry so threw it away and took the other half from the freezer. By this point there had been quite a fair amount of shouting and a bit of swearing. I had to roll it twice and flour it but finally managed to get it into the pie dish. Hurray! I am never using almonds in pastry again...
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Chill for 20 min in the fridge or for 10 min in the freezer.
9. Line the pastry case with a large piece of wet baking paper and fill with rice. Bake in a 200°C oven for 15 min, then remove the rice and baking paper and cook for a further 5 min or until the pastry feels sandy. This technique works well and avoids you having to buy baking beans. 
   
   
   
   
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. The pastry cracked in the oven as well!!!
    
11. Spoon the rhubarb into the pie case.
    
12. Roll out the rest of the pastry into the thickness of a £1 coin and slice into 1 cm wide strips. Lay one strip on top of the pie, a couple of centimetres from the edge of the dish, then trim the ends, pressing them down gently onto the pastry rim to secure. Repeat but at 90°. Continue laying pastry strips, alternating the direction, leaving a 2 cm gap between them to create a lattice of overlapping strips. I actually forgot to alternate the direction so the lattice is not perfect. I also patched up the cracked rim.
    
13. Sprinkle the pie with sugar, then bake for 15-20 min until the pastry is golden on top and the filling is warmed through.
14. Leave to cool slightly, then serve with ice-cream, cream or custard. We ate it as it is but the rhubarb flavour is very intense so the ice-cream / cream / custard will cut the tartness.