If I had to name my top five pies, fresh strawberry would be among them. It’s one of the simplest pies to make. In this USA Weekend video we demonstrate just how simple this pie is to make. Once you pre-bake the crust, you’re done with the oven. Just make the glaze, slice the berries and you’ve got one very fine-looking pie.
Happy Memorial Day everyone!
I have always loved fresh strawberry pie. (I requested it instead of cake for my 8th birthday!) But I’m not a fan of the gelatinous red goo they sell at the grocery store to bind the fresh berries together. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a recipe where the filling is made from scratch!
I don’t think there’s anything more wonderful and summery than fresh Strawberry Pie. My perfect summer day would include going strawberry-picking, making this pie and having a barbecue with my family and friends. And going for a swim!
The recipe posted in the paper says that each slice contains 4 grams of protein. Can you tell me which ingredient provides that protein? Thank you.
Believe it or not, Bonnie, there’s one gram of protein in a cup of strawberries. Enjoy the pie!
do you have to use fresh strawberries or can I use the strawberries you find in any super market. I have tried other recipes using store brought strawberries and the pie did not firm up and had a lot of liquid floating on top. Thank you so much, I also love strawberry pie, my favorite
Hey Mary Beth,
You can absolutely use fresh strawberries from the grocery store’s produce department. I would guess that your past experience with the pie not setting up is a problem with the filling, not the strawberries. Enjoy!
I like the sound of “beauty” strawberries.
Hi, Pam,
It’s Rita Heikenfeld from Cincinnati – I teach at Jungle Jims and you and I have chatted over the years. I am putting this yummy pie recipe in my syndicated column for next week and also on my blog at Cincinnati.com.
Thanks for always sharing the best, DOABLE, recipes!
Rita
Rita,
Just make sure to reduce water to 3 tablespoons from 1/4 cup. Take care.
Thanks!
Pam
Hi Pam, Made the strawberry pie, it was delicious, however; it was a little runny, anything I can do the next time to firm it up a little? Just wanted you to know my daughter gave me your cookbooks years ago. How to cook without a book, and The perfect recipe. I recognized your name as soon as I saw it in the Parade magazine. I now live in Florida, but lived in beautiful Bucks county Pa. most of my life. Have been searching for a Strawberry Pie recipe for a long time. Thanks for your help. MB
Hey Mary Beth,
A couple of other people have said their pie didn’t set up as well, so I’m concerned. The only thing I can think of is that the water to dissolve the cornstarch should be reduced by 1 tablespoons to be 3 tablespoons, not 1/4 cup. It’s hard to believe 1 tablespoon of water could make the difference in a pie being firm enough to get a clean cut and one that doesn’t. As you can see from the video, the filling is quite thick. I hope this helps.
Love, love Bucks County! I’ll bet you miss it a little now and again as well.
Cant get enough of this pie! Made it twice so far. second time i made my own crust and it was MUCH better. Firts time it was a little to runny so i added a little more pectin and slightly less water and now it’s perfect!
Thanks, Danielle. I’m so looking forward to making this pie when I get enough ripe berries. Since the amount of juice released varies, I plan to use your tip and Pam’s tips and visual guide to adjust the recipe if needed. And if I make a mistake and get an overly juicy pie, I think it will disappear just as fast!
TMC,thanks for the recipe and the comments- brought back happy memories of my grandmother and family parties, and I found out that strawberry is one of my husband’s top five pies, too.
Can the lemon zest be omitted or reduced? It seemed a little over powering.
Of course, Nanci. The lemon zest does add a nice fresh flavor and I preferred it to lemon juice, but feel free to cut back.
I pureed the halved two cups of strawberriesw and then removed the measured 1 and 1/4 cup of puree and transferred to a medium sauce pan with the sugar, pectin and salt. What do I do with the remaining pureed strawberries?
There should be very little or no puree left. If there is any left, it should be more than a tablespoon or so. My advice: enjoy it!
My fiance told me that it was really easy to make strawberry pies until she just made one randomly in such a short time! Always wondered about the complexity of making one but anyway she has got a lot of cooking and baking experience.
This is a wonderful tasting pie. Everybody has really enjoyed the THREE times I’ve made it. Each time I’ve played with the cornstarch amount and it is still runny. I did the 3T/3T water tonight with great hopes,and it was runny again. I did have a lot of puree left over–enough to do freeze and do another pie! Maybe our strawberries here in FL are super huge but I did purchase 3 one pound clear plastic packages. Needless to say, it was really yummy, but I serve with disclaimers about the looks after cutting! Nobody seems to mind except me, because it is SO good! We serve with whipped cream…yum! 🙂
Hi TMC’s – I made this pie on Sunday and although it tasted delicious, I was disappointed that the filling did not hold up when I sliced it and it spread out all over the pie plate. The picture in the paper looked so good, nice and neat, so needless to say I was sorry to see that mine looked like such a mess. I see some others had the same problem and your advice was to cut back on the water when dissolving the cornstarch to 3 T in lieu of 1/4 c. Do you know if anyone tried this with success? I’m a bit hesitant to try again unless I was pretty certain it would hold together. Your thoughts please.
Thanks,
Lorraine
Hi Lorraine,
I’ve done a lot of thinking about this pie. From the comments, everyone loves the flavor of this pie. Clearly, it’s a little slippery and doesn’t hang together perfectly.
First the pie in the USA Weekend photo is not our pie. With tight budgets these days, magazines and newspapers often use stock photos with their articles. If you look at the USA Weekend photo, ou’ll notice that there are no halved strawberries on top as with our pie.
And I’ve started to think that the halved strawberries are, in fact, part of the problem. When brushed with the diluted glaze they make the pie look beautiful but they also make the pie a little top-heavy and difficult to slice. Since they’re brushed with light glaze rather than folded into a thick glaze, I think they start to give off moisture which results in a pie that doesn’t slice so well.
I know when I fold the glazed sliced strawberries into the pie shell, they’re definitely firm enough to get a clean slice. I just think the weight and weeping of the halved strawberries is part of the problem.
I don’t know about you all, but I’d prefer a pie that’s a little messy than one that’s the texture of jello.
Although I’m not going to pull this pie from the site, I think I’m putting it to rest for now. Come next spring, I might take it on again as a project. For starters, I’d probably slice up all of those halved strawberries and fold them with the rest–not as pretty, but I think you’ll get a clean cut. With all the extra strawberries getting folded in, you might need a little more glaze, but maybe not.
Hi. Isn’t there a strawberry pie recipe that DOESN’T use gelatin or cornstarch? When I make peach or blueberry pie, i just use flour, sugar and a little lemon juice. Any thoughts? Thanks.