Strawberry season! It’s strawberry season! Whoohoo!
Can you tell how excited I am? I mean, amazingly sweet, luscious strawberries are at the market for $0.97 a basket. WOWEEE!
We’ve been eating them on our pancakes, over yogurt, drizzled with vinegar in green salads, and neat. And today, a strawberry pie was my goal.
Yes, I know that most people don’t cook up the strawberries when they make strawberry pies. Most of the recipes I’ve seen have been 1) Strawberry-rhubarb pies, 2) fresh strawberries piled in a pie shell and glazed, 3) gelatinous globs of jello in a pie shell, or something else. I couldn’t for the life of me find a straight-up, cooked strawberry pie from a reputable source. I don’t know why that is. I agree that fresh strawberries are fantastic, but they’re so hard to eat when you stick them in a pie shell and then try to cut the pie into slices. And honestly, I’d rather eat fresh strawberries sans the cornstarch-laced glaze. If I have to eat cornstarch, I’d like it in a gooey berry-full pie filling, please.
Plus, I’ll take any excuse to make a lattice crust. Isn’t there just something about a lattice crust that makes you think…pink gingham aprons, ruffled curtains, open windows, and a vintage ice cream truck pulling over in front of the house? Anyone?
So here’s my version of an old-fashioned, straight up strawberry pie. No rhubarb. No jello. Just delicious buttery pastry and juicy strawberry filling.
I have to say, I outdid myself on the crust this time. It’s really flaky and flavorful. I left larger chunks of butter this time before bringing the dough together with a bit of water, which helped a lot. My strawberries were pretty ripe, so just 3/4 cup of light brown sugar was enough to make them sweet, but not too sweet.
Old-Fashioned Strawberry Pie
Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, chilled and cubed
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup ice water (or more)
Filling
5 cups strawberries
3/4 cup golden brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 400F.
In a bowl place the flour, sugar, salt and cubes of chilled butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, until largest pieces are about pea-sized. Add ice water little by little while mixing dough. When dough holds together when you squeeze it, it’s ready. Gather into a ball. Divide into two equal balls, wrap in plastic, and chill in fridge while making filling.
Wash, halve, and hull the strawberries. Mix with rest of filling ingredients and place aside in a bowl.
Roll out the bottom crust and place it in a pie pan, trimming it about 1 inch over the edge. Place pie pan in freezer while you roll out the top crust.
Roll out the second ball of dough, and cut it into strips with a sharp knife. Remove the pie pan from freezer, and pour the strawberry filling into bottom crust. Place or weave the strips of dough into a lattice on top of the filling and trim strips 1/2 inch over edge. Fold bottom crust over lattice strips and crimp.
Bake 15 minutes at 400F, then lower oven temp to 350F for another hour, or until crust is browned and filling is bubbling. If crust is browning too fast, cover edges with strips of foil.
Let cool and serve!
This turned out lovely! I’m excited to try out your recipe
I have to admit, $0.97 makes me do a little happy dance, and lattice covered berries make me dream of what “life was like then” too.
Yummy! It looks good
Thanks Beth! Let me know how it turns out if you try it =).
It looks so appetizing! I was looking for a simple strawberry pie so I’ll certainly have a try with this recipe. Maybe you remember I’ve a vegetable garden… My boy brought me today our first, delicious, and sexy strawberry haha.
Have a nice week!
Wow! Our strawberries are still just flowers. We may have planted them too late.
My god that looks divine. Could you possible also make this with frozen strawberries instead?
I don’t know. I don’t see why not. The only problem I might see is that the filling might be a bit more watery, but it would probably still turn out fine.
Oh please!!!! You can not possibly beat cold stawberry pie with cool whip on top. I much prefer that over dry pie crust on top. I think I’ll just stick with my recipe!!!!!
To each their own…
I made this recipe twice now. Used the Joy of Cooking Sweet Crust instead and I let the strawberry mixture sit overnight. The strawberries/sugar react and drain about two cups of liquid. Then I prepare the pie as directed minus the extra liquid. The result is a less soupy pie that my guests loved.
I was looking for a simple and straightforward strawberry pie recipe and came across your blog. I tried out your recipe tonight. I didn’t have cornstarch on hand, so I used potato starch instead. It’s in the oven right now! Hope it turns out all right. All I can say is that it sure smells heavenly in my kitchen right now
Can’t wait to see the end result.
Hi, Thank you SO much for posting this recipe.
My mum is buying strawberries practically every day now and I felt like making this pie but also couldn’t find it anywhere. Thank you so much!
Just made it & its amazingly YUMMY!
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This is exactly the type of recipe I was looking for. Thanks for posting. Can’t wait to try it today.
[...] it for me.Finally though I stumbled upon an “old fashioned” strawberry pie recipe at Food Republic and decided it was the [...]
[...] 3 tbsp cornstarch pinch … Remove the pie pan from freezer, and pour the strawberry filling … for a simple strawberry pie so I'll certainly have a try with this recipe… Original webpage [...]
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it today and it came out perfect! I have been wanting a recipe for Strawberry Pie and didn’t want all the gelatins and jello(s), just a good “old fashioned” strawberry pie! And this fit the bill perfectly!