As I promised in my previous post, here is the recipe for the strawberry pie I've made for Thanksgiving.
After I've read a lot on pies ( crusts and fillings separately) I've used the Culinary Cafe recipe for crust. I am pasting it as it is there, you can check the full explanation and wonderful article they have here:
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
* 1/4 to 1/2 cup water
1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in food processor. Add butter; process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 8 to 10 seconds. For hand method, place dry ingredients in large bowl. Add butter; blend with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Add ice water in a slow steady stream through feed tube of food processor with machine running, until the dough holds together for no longer than 30 seconds. For hand method, mix dough with a wooden spoon, adding water until dough just holds together.
3. Turn dough onto piece of plastic wrap. Press into flat circle, or rectangle depending on what shape you intend to roll out pastry to. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. May be frozen, double wrapped in plastic, for several months.
Now the filling is another story. My son wanted strawberry pie and I've never made one, so I did quite a research on how to do it. Most of the pies were "cold" in the sense they weren't baked with the strawberries, but my son wanted one that would be baked with the strawberries, so I had to think of something.
I combined couple of recipes in one and here is my filing:
-1 can of strawberry filling
-2 cups of fresh strawberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
4 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white for brushing on top
Basically mix the can of filling, the fresh strawberries, the sugar( brown and white)and the vanilla extract well. In a separate cup mix the corn starch and the water and then add to the mixture. Pour in the filling over the bottom crust,cut whatever shapes you want on the the top crust and cover the pie with it.
Bake for 40-50 min on 350 F or until golden brown in color. Don't forget to cover the edge of the pie with aluminum foil so it wouldn't burn.
Take it out of the oven and let it sit for at lest 30 min. You can garnish it with whipped cream and nuts.
I have to admit I wanted to "improve" this recipe even more, but I didn't there since it was my first time making it. Anyway, my initial idea was to melt chocolate, and brush it over the bottom crust, let it cool and set and then to fill with the filling. I had also idea to put some pecans inside, but I guess I'll do that next time. If any of you tries it in the mean time with the extras, let me know how it did turn out.
We were never ones for pies, but this was out of this world delicious.I was afraid to bake a pie before because I thought it would be this runny mushy thing, but as you can see from the picture, it wasn't runny at all!!! It was grate and I'll definitely keep the recipe.
Enjoy!
