Strawberry Pie

During my college days years ago, I began to get serious about cooking. My husband, fiancé at the time, supported my every effort, no matter how terrible it was. Usually my cooking centered around weekends and a small group of my husband and his friends, and the food didn’t vary too much from fajitas, chili, and cookies. After a while I decided to try my hand at strawberry pie. I made a lot of strawberry pies back in the day, and I cringe at the thought. You see, I never could figure out how to get my strawberry glaze perfect. It was either lumpy, runny, or just plain gummy. To this day, I still can’t figure out how I went so wrong. Making the glaze is not that difficult… But you know how college students are. We didn‘t care. At least it was strawberry pie, and at least it didn’t come from the school cafeteria.

Fast forward a couple decades, and I am still making strawberry pies. Somewhere along the way I figured out how to make a glossy smooth glaze that didn’t seep through the bottom of the crust, stick to your teeth, or “surprise” you with white lumps. This month I found an interesting recipe in Taste of the South magazine that added a different ingredient to the glaze, strawberry extract. The extract didn’t make a huge difference to the taste of the pie, but it added an extra boost to the strawberry flavor. Strawberry Pie is one of the best ways to showcase the sweet fruit, and it's made all the better when strawberries are grown fresh locally and are in season.

Strawberry Pie

adapted from Taste of the South

1 baked and ready-to-fill pie shell

1 cup sugar

2 TBL corn starch

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp strawberry extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extraxct

1 (3 oz) package strawberry flavored gelatin

2 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled and slice in half

Place sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add boiling water and extracts. Whisk the mixture over medium heat until it thickens and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add the gelatin, whisking until smooth. Cool mixture to room temperature.

Arrange strawberries in baked pie shell. Pour the cooled filling over the strawberries. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until completely set. Can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator up to 3 days.