strawberry pie

seeded from: itself
budded from: itself
shoutouts to: American Pie by Teresa Kennedy

 Hello!

I made strawberry pie today!  So, disclaimer, this is actually my second time making this pie in the last couple weeks.  The first time I made it I almost followed Kennedy's instructions to the letter but still thought it was too sweet, so I've tweaked it a little, using less sugar and adding in lemon juice.  Maybe I'll tweak it more at some later date.

 So because I made it in two different goes, the pictures look funky because they were taken at different times of the day (and also different days, obviously!).  Like the above and below pictures.  I really do think that the lemon cuts the sugar taste and makes the pie more fun (read: tangy). 

I've also been changing up my pie crust recipe a little bit.  I have been doing half wheat and half white flour and was liking the taste and the feeling that I was eating slightly "better" crust, although, really, the thing has eight tablespoons of butter in it so, not much hope for that.  But I think because of all the oils in the wheat flour it was making my crust too sticky and a little bit more annoying to work with.  So this time I went with 1 cup white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour and it was way more workable!

Now, no more chatter, on to the recipe!

strawberry pie 
filling ingredients:
      4 c. ripe strawberries, washed and hulled
      3/4 c. sugar
      1/2 c. water
      4 Tbsp. corn starch
      2 Tbsp. lightly salted butter (or unsalted butter + pinch of salt)
      juice of 1 lemon
      1/2 pt. unsweetened whipping cream

crust:  use your pie crust recipe or this pie crust recipe (1 - meaning without shell)

making pie

• preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and bake your crust for 20-25 minutes or until crust is completely baked golden.  Cool.
• Put 2 cups of washed and hulled strawberries into either blender or food processor.  Puree or pulse until pieces are no bigger than the nail head on an 8p. nail.
• In a medium saucepan, combine pureed strawberries, sugar, water, and corn starch.   Cook over medium heat and stir continuously until mixture is thick.  The mixture will darken pretty suddenly and it won't be long after that that the mixture will mound slightly when dropped from a spoon.  
• Add butter (or unsalted butter + pinch of salt) and stir constantly until melted.  I don't like to stir or wait a lot so I cut up my butter into a couple pieces instead of chucking in one big pat of butter.  
• Remove from heat and cool slightly.  
• After mixture has cooled slightly, stir in lemon juice.  
• Place remaining berries in crust.  Sometimes I halve or cut my berries so I can jam pack as many of them into the pie as possible, because more strawberries has to be better than less right?  I do think it's a good idea to keep them in good size chunks so that they don't get too soggy.  I think some people may aesthetically appreciate having whole strawberries more, but I'm always more for taste anyways.  
• Pour filling over berries and cool at room temperature or in refrigerator until set.  
• Whip up some whipping cream and top the pie right before serving.  

Also, look!  Andy and I made a bike rack!  Yes it is spray painted gold because it is just that fabulous.  I'll post some pictures of other things I've been crafting about soon!