This Fresh Strawberry Pie is even better than our favorite restaurant pie. It's fresh as can be, juicy, luscious, and stunningly delicious with just 3 simple ingredients in the filling. The all-butter crust is flaky amazing.
Prepare: Preheat oven to 450F with rack on lower middle position. Press single pie dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a regular 9-inch pie pan (not deep dish.) Roll excess dough over edges and crimp well.
Bake Pie Dough: Line dough with parchment paper so that it's fitted and excess edges of paper extend 1-2 inches beyond pie pan. Fill with pie weights and bake 12-15 minutes, watching so edges don't get over browned. Remove pie weights with parchment paper carefully and return empty pie shell into oven for another 5 minutes or until bottom looks dry/baked (cover loosely with foil if edges are cooking too quickly.) Let baked shell cool to room temp while you prepare the filling.
Make Filling: Mash 2 cups fresh strawberries. Transfer to a medium saucepan and add sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Add fully dissolved cornstarch/water mixture and continue boiling/stirring for 2-3 minutes or just until filling is thickened and glossy. Transfer filling to a shallow dish to allow quicker cooling; cool at least 10 minutes or to warm/lukewarm.
Arrange and Chill: Place remaining 4 cups whole strawberries evenly into the baked/cooled pie shell. Evenly distribute filling mixture over the strawberries. Chill at least 2 hours to set, before slicing. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Notes
It is of utmost importance that your cornstarch is 100% dissolved in water; be sure there are no traces of undissolved cornstarch, as even the tiniest bit will cause clumps in the filling. Tip: use your fingers to swirl cornstarch in small bowl of water to ensure results.
If you make enough dough for a double crust, wrap half of the dough airtight and freeze for up to several weeks. Pie weights can be made out of uncooked/dry rice or beans as well. To quickly mash strawberries, I place them in batches on a large cutting board and cover with cling wrap. Using a meat tenderizer, I give it a few mild whacks to mash in a jiffy.
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