April 11, 2009 | 126 Comments

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Yum

There is nothing like a homemade fresh strawberry pie!

I know I’ve brought you an awful lot of sweets lately and some of you may be wondering where my family puts all of these desserts! I can answer that question simply enough, we put them elsewhere! Usually, when I make a dessert, we’ll take out two pieces of it. The prettiest gets photographed and then eaten by the male parental unit and the second one gets halved by the kiddies. After that, everyone knows Mama has more desserts to make within a few days so we give the rest away to neighbors, friends, or family.

I generally try to make something sweet on Fridays because that allows us to enjoy it for our Shabbat supper and take anything left to our Fellowship group on Saturday.

I go through phases in my posting. Sometimes I get on a casserole or main dish kick, sometimes I get on a roll with sweets. I’ve found that I’m happiest when I just allow myself to post whatever I’m in the mood to write about as this helps me to keep having fun with things rather than get burned out. Seeing as how this is going to be an incredibly busy week (meetings at school, dentist and doctor appointments with two kids, deadlines, etc) I was really just in the mood to post this pretty pie – so here ya go!

If any of you have ever had the strawberry pie at Shoney’s or Big Boy restaurants, this is likely looking pretty darn familiar. As well it should because it is very similar to that pie – only better. Using my quick and easy mix in the pan pie crust, you can throw together this gorgemous pie quick as a wink! This would be a beautiful dessert on any table – especially at family gatherings such as reunions, Mother’s day, or cook outs!

You’ll need: Fresh strawberries, strawberry gelatin powder, cornstarch, and sugar.

You’ll also need a cooked and cooled crust. You can purchase one ready made or make my mix in the pan pie crust, which is what I did. It works out wonderfully with this pie! I wanted a bit thicker crust so I made a double and then had room to play with it a bit at the top edges and make it prettier 🙂

Rinse your strawberries and cut the tops off. Also remove any bottoms that are on the un-pretty side :).

Slice each strawberry in half.

In a sauce pot, place your sugar, strawberry gelatin mix, three heaping tablespoonfuls of cornstarch. Stir that up.

Add water and place over medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly.

Yes, this means you’re going to have to stand there for a minute. I like to take this time to close my eyes and have a little mental recollection session as I go over all of the thoughts I haven’t been able to complete on that particular day because they were interrupted by family members.

Continue cooking and stirring this until it becomes clear and translucent as you’ll see in the next photo.

Remove this from the heat and allow to cool to room temp. If you want to do this quicker, you can always fill a bowl with ice water and dip the bottom of your sauce pan down in it while you stir. You can also stick it in the fridge for a little bit.

Layer your strawberries in the pie crust. Again, this is my homemade mix in the pan pie crust and its easy as…well, easy as pie, of course.

Yes, I’m corny sometimes but in this day and age, corny can be refreshing. Don’t you think?

When your liquid has cooled (room temp is fine), pour over the strawberries, making sure to cover them all.

I couldn’t leave out this photo, either. Isn’t this a beautiful pie?

I cover this and refrigerate it for several hours before serving. In fact, it works beautifully if you make it the day before. Right before serving, you can top with dollops of whipped cream, if you like. Nothing wrong with gilding the lily!

This is my piece. But if you really want…

I’ll share. 🙂