A Summery Strawberry Pie Recipe | Live Lovely Recipes

We are home from Italy and spending quite a bit of extra time at home than we anticipated. I unfortunately picked up a case of Covid from the last wedding we went to in Italy and had mild symptoms. Naturally, I stayed home until it was safe to venture back out and my symptoms were gone. But work wanted me to be extra cautious and stay home for extra days this week. In that time I did a lot of baking, cooking, swimming, reading, photo editing, and walking. Matthew thankfully did not get sick and tested negative the entire time.

In that time I made a few summer recipes including some baked peaches for breakfast and this summery strawberry pie. It came out looking amazing and tasting just as good, but I made a few errors my first try and it cut into syrupy blobs on our plates. Delicious blobs, but not very photogenic.

Because of this, I was not sure if I should share the recipe, but I figured that by sharing my mistakes you can make a better formed pie than mine. Either way, the presentation is not nearly as important as the taste. For those of you who messaged me asking for the recipe, this is it with a few tips and minor changes so that your pie will be more successful than mine. Like most of my baking, this recipe is my own (you can blame me if your strawberry pie turns out more like a strawberry soup). I like to feel inspired by desserts I have tried in the past and create my own baked goodies. Some work and some do not. This one is a work in progress. I’m still tweaking.

When I decided to make a strawberry pie I found numerous recipes to draw inspiration from. Some suggested cooking the strawberries with lemon juice and some sugar into a jam  and placing another layer of pie crust on top, some suggested frozen strawberries only, while others suggested the strawberries stay fresh and cold with a jello pour over. I made something closer to the later, without the jello. but as you will see, the jello might hold the key to some of my pie woes.

Ingredients:

• Two packages of fresh strawberries (or about four cups)
• One homemade or packaged pie crust (could be gluten free or regular)
• One lemon
• One cup of water
• One cup of sugar
• 1 tbsp. of corn starch
• 1 tbsp. of arrowroot powder
• Strawberry jello (not necessary, but you may want to include it for extra firmness)

How to make a strawberry pie:

Cut the greens off of your strawberries and place in a colander to rinse.

Juice your lemon.

Madeleine watched from the window. Since returning home she has been close by at all times.

Grease your pie plate. This was one of my errors. I did not grease my plate enough and it did not cut well as a result. Once your pie plate is greased and ready, put in the crust and bake at 350 until lightly golden. Once it is baked, set it aside to cool.

In a separate saucepan, heat mid-high your cup of water with a cup of sugar. I added some diced strawberries to my mix for a natural flavoring. Sprinkle in the arrowroot powder and cornstarch (if you’re going gluten free, arrow root powder can be used as a cornstarch substitute) slowly and stir it in a little at a time so it will not clump. If you pour it right in, it will turn into big gooey clumps and ruin the texture of your syrup. These two ingredients are wonderful thickeners. Also pour in your lemon juice.

This is where the jello comes in. I resisted using jello in mine and I believe that was what kept it from becoming solid enough after cooling. You do not have to use the jello of course (for my vegan friends, you may wish to simply add more arrowroot and sugar to thicken your mix), but if you want more hold add in half a packet or even the full box of strawberry jello. Continue to cook this syrup below a boil (you don’t want to turn the sugar into caramel by cooking it too hot) until the water evaporates and you have a thick syrup.

Then pour your fresh cut strawberries (if they are large, cut them in half first) into the pie. Once your syrup has cooled off quite a bit, pour it evenly over the top to coat each strawberry and fill in the pie, then refrigerate for a few hours or until the syrup becomes thick and holds.

And if your syrup is still a little thin and doesn’t hold, it’s ok because it will still taste amazing. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I poured us a little sparkling strawberry juice form Trader Joe’s and used some leftover fresh strawberries for accents.

And we had ourselves a delicious summer picnic on the front porch.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and that you have learned from my two big mistakes (grease the pan and thicken the syrup). Let me know how your pie came out in the comments below and share this post using the tools at the bottom of this post if you enjoyed it.

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