This dish is like summer in pie form. Be sure to use fresh picked strawberries from your farmer’s market or local orchard.
- Prep: 1 hour
- Rise: 2 hours
- Cook: 25 min
- Total: 3 hour 25 min
- Serves 8
- Pie Crust
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- 1 â…“ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- In a large bowl, blend flour, salt, and shortening using two dull butter knives or a pastry blender until the shortening is the size of peas.
- 6 tablespoons ice cold water
- Fill a wide-mouthed glass with ice. Add water to the top. Measure or pour the ice cold water into the flour mixture. Using a spatula or your hands, mix the water into the flour to form a large ball of dough. You may need to add an extra tablespoon of water if you have excess flour. If you added too much water, add additional flour until the dough is well formed but not too sticky. Handle and mix the dough as little as possible.
- Form dough into a disc and wrap in wax paper. Put wrapped dough in the freezer for 10 minutes or the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Roll out onto a lightly floured surface and place in a deep dish pie plate. Place a second pie plate on top of the pie crush to weight it down.
- Bake at 350 °F until edges are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes before adding filling.
- Filling
- 3 pounds fresh strawberries
- Wash and hull strawberries with a grapefruit spoon, pair knife, or your hands. Place any overripe, smashed, or second tier berries in a measuring cup until you have 1 ½ cups. Reserve remaining strawberries.
- Place 1 ½ cup of second tier berries in a food processor and process until smooth.
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ tablespoon low- or no-sugar pectin (Sure-Jell or Ball brand) (6g)
- generous pinch of salt
- In a small saucepan, combine pureed strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, pectin, and salt. Whisk until combined.
- Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. Heat until a boil and then cook for 2 minutes at a boil. The mixture will bubble up and then thicken and darken, ensuring that the pectin and cornstarch are fully dissolved.
- reserved strawberries
- Transfer strawberry syrup to a large bowl and add reserved strawberries. Gentle mix until well coated.
- Assembly
- Pour strawberry filling into baked pie shell. If you wish, you can turn over the strawberries on the top layer so that no cut sides are showing, but honestly, it tastes the same no matter how you arrange the strawberries.
- Chill in the fridge for 2 to 5 hours. After 5 hours, the syrup may become a bit watery or runny, but the pie will still taste great.
- Whipped Cream
- 1 cup cold heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Just prior to serving, beat cream and sugar on high with an electric hand mixer until thick and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Serve as desired.
- Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
Image Credit: Reuben Mcfeeters
