When Life Gives You Strawberries.... Make a Pie!

Evidently I'm both blog lazy and pie crazy. I haven't had much access to internet lately, so I've been slacking on the blogging. However, with all that extra free time I have found a new hobby...pie making! I loved the apple pie so much, I thought I'd try out a strawberry pie. Considering I've never EATEN a strawberry pie....I think it turned out ok.

To make the crust, I used the same recipe as in the apple pie:

Preparation time: 20 min Baking time: 8 min
Yield: Pastry for 1 (2-crust) pie or 2 pie shells

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cold LAND O LAKES® Butter (I got mine right out of the freezer, and it worked perfectly)
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water (again, used the freezer)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract


Combine flour and salt in large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough water with fork just until flour is moistened. (This part was a bit difficult for me to understand, basically you just want tons of tiny pieces of butter with flour clumped on them, or at least that's what I did, and that method work nicely for me. You will have to get your hands dirty on this one :-) )

Divide dough in half; shape each half into ball. Flatten slightly. Wrap each ball in plastic food wrap; refrigerate. (While it's refrigerating you can make the pie filling)

Roll out 1 ball of dough and place in pie pan. Bake the bottom layer for 10 minutes or so, depending on your oven.

For the filling, I investigated the basic practices of strawberry pie filling and discovered I needed to go buy some corn starch. The rest is just what I figured would be a tasty combo.

4-6 cups of cut strawberries

1/2 c to 1 c of granulated sugar

1 Tbsp of vanilla (I'm a little vanilla obsessed)

3 Tbsp or more of cornstarch. I honestly didn't measure, I just kinda threw it in there from the box.

1 Tbsp of lemon juice
1 c of water

Using a potato masher, smash up 3 cups (or more...whatever you're feeling) of strawberries. Don't puree..just mash. Place them into a large pan. Add the water, sugar, and cornstarch.

Cook on medium, stirring frequently until you get a delicious tasting, syrupy mixture. Toss in the lemon juice and vanilla. I made the mistake of not mashing them until I was cooking it, AFTER I realized they'd cook down better mashed. Don't make my mistakes.

When the filling is sufficiently delicious by your standards, pour it into a different dish to cool. By now the pie crust should absolutely be finished baking, and you should let it cool. Pour the cooled filling into your cooled pie crust, and put the rest of the cut strawberries on top.

The next part is a bit of a predicament, and I haven't yet figured out a solution. I'd love your comments about it! Since the strawberries are already cooked and hopefully forming a gelatin like texture, you don't want to stick them back in the oven. But I like a pie with a full crust on top! Problem. I rolled out the second ball, put it on top, and baked the pie anyway. Sure, it was a little runny when I took that first slice, but the flavor didn't change. Do what you feel. Isn't that what baking is about?

I got a little frivolous and carried away with decorating the pie, but I had fun doing it. I ate a slice, took the pie to work the next day, and came home with an empty pie pan! It really was delicious. I can't wait to try my hand at some fresh-picked blackberries. Here are a few more pie pics:

The pie! And the leaves. I know, ridiculous, right?

Take a slice out of the pie!

Nobody said baking was good, clean fun. Just good fun.

Definitely NOT clean.