Homemade Strawberry Pie

I love the springtime/early summer.  Flowers are blooming, weather is warming up, the sun is shining…ice cream is selling like crazy…

…and of course, the pollen is everywhere, and the grass (and weeds) are growing so fast that we can’t keep up with the mowing…

But on the up side, strawberries are on sale!!!  Ninety-nine cents a pound! 

So I stocked up.  There’s a nice big bag in the freezer for smoothies, and then…well…

Yup.  Fresh strawberry pie.  It’s one of my faves, right up there with cherry pie…apparently I have a thing for red fruit pies.  Though, for this particular pie, I used 2/5 cranberries because I had some to use up.

Moar red fruitz.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pie crust (homemade or store-bought), baked according to the package

egg wash

5 cups strawberries (or 4c strawberries & 1c cranberries), washed & sliced

1/4 cup corn starch

2/3 to 3/4 cups sugar, based on how sweet your strawberries are

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 tbsp lemon juice (I also added the juice of half an orange, because cranberry & orange go well together)

whipped cream

 

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-bake the pie crust (be sure to poke plenty of holes in the crust with a fork to keep it from puffing up).  During the last 5-7 minutes of the baking, lightly coat the pie shell with the egg wash to get a golden crust.  Let crust cool completely.

While that’s cooking, in a large pot combine 2 cups of the strawberries (NOTE: if you try the strawberry/cranberry combo, give the berries a quick chop in a food processor or blender), cornstarch, sugar, salt, extracts, and lemon juice over medium heat.  Stir until sugar is dissolved & the glaze has thickened (3-5 minutes; you may have to go a bit longer with cranberries to make sure they’re softened).  Let glaze cool completely.

Once the glaze is cool, fold in the rest of the strawberries and mix gently until the berries are well coated with the glaze; then pour into the pie shell & spread evenly.

Top with the whipped cream and decorate the top with a few extra strawberries.  Let chill for 2 hours to give the filling time to fully set.  Then….DEVOUR!!!!

Makes 8 delectable servings!

NutriFacts:

Calories 242.6

  Total Fat 7.4 g

  Saturated Fat 3.5 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.2 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 2.6 g

  Cholesterol 0.0 mg

  Sodium 121.3 mg

  Potassium 162.5 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 43.2 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.2 g

  Sugars 24.6 g

  Protein 1.6 g