August 13, 2009: Fresh Strawberry Pie

Son John didn't come clamoring for a pumpkin pie, and I had that lovely pie dough still chilling in the refrigerator and more than a pound of fresh strawberries, so what better than a fresh strawberry pie!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

1 9-inch baked pie crust
2 pints fresh strawberries (2 lbs)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Wash and dry the strawberries, then remove the hulls.

Take 1 1/2 cups of the berries and puree them in a food processor to make approximately 1 cup puree (you can use frozen berries for this step).

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine.

Add water, stirring until smooth.

Stir in strawberry puree. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for about 1 minute, then remove from heat.

Add the vanilla extract and stir the mixture occasionally to prevent the sauce from forming a skin, while it cools down for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the berries in half (unless they are small and you can leave them whole) and arrange them in the pie crust. When the strawberry sauce has been cooled for 5 minutes, pour it over the sliced berries, trying to cover them as evenly as possible. *My strawberries were small, so I did this step in two layers. I placed the smallest berries in the pie shell, and spooned some of the glaze over them.

Then I arranged the larger whole berries over the top, pointy ends up.

Top with the remaining glaze, and placed the pie in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours before serving with a dollop of whipped cream.



TWO HOURS?



Yea, sure...like that's going to happen.