Fresh Strawberry Pie
Published June 3, 2020

- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 10 ⅔ounces/300 grams shortbread cookies (two 5⅓-ounce packages)
- 3tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ¼teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼cup/55 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 2½pounds/about 1 kilogram strawberries (about 8 to 10 cups), hulled
- ⅓cup/65 grams granulated sugar
- 3tablespoons strawberry preserves
- ¼cup/30 grams cornstarch
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1cup/240 milliliters cold heavy cream
- 1tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
- ½teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
For the Crust
For the Filling
For the Topping
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine shortbread cookies, sugar, flour and salt and blend until you have fine crumbs. Transfer crumbs to a medium mixing bowl. Add butter and mix with a fork until crumbs are evenly moistened. Tip crumbs into a standard 9-inch pie plate and press them in an even layer on the bottom and up the sides of the plate. Bake until golden brown and set, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
- Step 2
Prepare filling: Cut each of the strawberries in quarters or eighths, if they are large. Transfer 2 cups berries to a small saucepan and crush completely with a potato masher. Set aside the remaining berries in a large bowl. Add the sugar, preserves, cornstarch, 1 tablespoon water and salt to the saucepan.
- Step 3
Bring strawberry mixture to a boil over medium heat and then cook it an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add strawberry mixture and lemon juice to the strawberries in the bowl and stir to combine. Transfer to the prepared crust and gently tap it down into an even layer. Transfer to the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.
- Step 4
Just before serving, whip cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, if using, to soft peaks. Top pie with whipped cream.
Private Notes
Comments
There is a recipe for a pie very similar to this in the old Fannie Farmer Baking Book. It calls for a regular pie crust made with butter (blind baked). About 3 cups of fresh strawberries crushed and cooked with 3T cornstarch, a cup of sugar and a T. Lemon juice. Cooked until thick and cooled. Then mixed with about 3 cups of fresh, sliced strawberries. No strawberry preserves. Serve with whipped cream. I have also made this with blueberries. You cannot go wrong. It is easy and so delicious.
This is similar to the strawberry pie we’ve always made, but the addition of salt and acid (lemon juice) deepened and balanced the flavor. One change that protects against a soggy crust (if it miraculously doesn’t get eaten the first day) is to spread 4oz of softened cream cheese on the crust before the filling. It works with regular pie crust too. Fresh. Rich. Perfect.
I’ve made this with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and fresh peaches. I just changed the jam to match the fruit.
I made two of these yesterday for a pie contest in my city. It was a last minute decision to enter and this is fairly easy pie. I followed the directions exactly. I didn't think I was going to do well because it's really kind of basic. I won! The flavor was so good that it just blew the judges away. I was completely shocked because I couldn't taste the finished pie but after judging, we got to taste all the pies. The flavor was wonderful and the crust held together like a charm.
I cut back sugar as suggested but with sugar in the shortbread cookies (Whole Foods store brand) and the strawberry preserves it was too sweet. The local strawberries were sweet enough themselves. Are the preserves really needed? Could I cut out the added sugar entirely? Also, with shrinkflation, packages of shortbread cookies don’t come in the size mentioned (even the Walkers). I had to calculate grams per cookie and figure out how many cookies to use.
The strawberries I used were so ripe that the sugar in the recipe was a bit too much. I think it would be just as good with half or a quarter of the sugar. Delicious but a little bit sweet for my taste. I’ll definitely make it again with less sugar, possibly even no sugar.