Crazy Good Strawberry Pie

It has been mentioned before, a time or two, in this blog that my sweetheart has an enormous sweet tooth. It has also been mentioned that if he comes across fresh strawberries, just about anywhere, he is drawn to them like a magnet. 

It is still not strawberry season here in Aiken, South Carolina. Still, my man makes it his business to be on the lookout for strawberries. Recently, we were shopping at our local Sam's Club and, somehow, a large container of strawberries wound up in our shopping cart, thanks to him! 

Hey, I'm not complaining. I love strawberries too!

It happens he's crazy for a good fresh strawberry pie, such as the one I made here, which was delicious. In that particular pie, I used fresh locally grown strawberries.

Since he never tires of eating pie, I thought that I would use all of the strawberries to prepare a couple of beautiful and scrumptious strawberry pies. Our girls and their families enjoy pies too and  we will share with them. 

For these pies, I wanted to have a thicker filling than some I have prepared in the past. After looking around on the Internet and browsing some of my large collection of cookbooks, I decided to experiment with the amounts of ingredients. I also added boxed gelatin dessert (Jello). The strawberries, though quite juicy and sweet, were still somewhat tart. I figured the gelatin dessert, along with a little extra sugar, would give the pies an extra boost of strawberry flavor and a bit more sweetness.I must say that I was very pleased with the result!

Strawberry Pie

As I said, I made two pies. Take a look at the photo below and you will see that my recipe makes a most ample nine (9) inch pie.

Crazy Good Strawberry Pie

A closer look at this wonderfully delicious pie!

Strawberry Pie

You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or you can do as I did. In the interest of saving time and simply because I was feeling a little lazy, I used a prepared refrigerated nine (9) inch pie crust to make the pie(s) and they were quite good. There were two in the package I purchased at ALDI.

Bake House Creations Prepared Refrigerated Pie Crusts Purchased from ALDI

I often make my own pie crusts for fruit pies but these purchased ones turned out just fine, albeit, not quite as rich tasting (no butter, not shortening). On the up side, if you read the writing in the closer picture of the pie crust box below, you can see they might be somewhat healthier.

Bake House Creations Prepared Refrigerated Pie Crusts from ALDI

Some might consider this fact, alone, reason enough to try these pie crusts! As I said, I am happy with how they turned out. 

Here is my recipe that I used for making this Crazy Good Strawberry Pie.

Crazy Good Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

• Homemade or Purchased Refrigerated 9-inch pie crust
• 3 Cups of fresh strawberries, washed and drained, with caps removed
• 2 Tbsp. plus 2 teaspoons of Corn Starch
• 1-1/2 Cups Granulated White Sugar
• 1-1/2 Cups Water
• 1-3 ounce package Strawberry Gelatin Dessert (I used JELLO brand)

Directions

Wash and drain the three (3) cups of fresh strawberries. Remove the caps from the strawberries and slice into approximate fourths. Place strawberries in a bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven, as directed on the package for the refrigerated pie crust. Prepare the refrigerated pie crust, according to the package directions for preparing the crust for making a crust for an unbaked pie filling. Remember to prick the bottom of the crust with a fork to allow steam to escape and prevent bubbles in the crust. Place the crust in the preheated oven and bake until very lightly brown (approximately 1-13 minutes).

You may, of course, use your favorite pie crust recipe and prepare your own nine (9) inch crust, if you prefer.

After the crust is lightly browned and allow crust to cool completely while preparing the strawberry filling for the pie.

Place the water, granulated sugar and cornstarch in a large sauce pan. Stir the mixture together over medium/high heat on stove top. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue stirring until the mixture has thickened, being careful not to overcook or burn the mixture.

Remove mixture from heat when thickened and add 3 ounce box of strawberry gelatin mix (such as Jello) and mix until completely dissolved and combined with the sugar/cornstarch mixture.

Once the gelatin dessert is completely dissolved into the mixture, add the 3 cups of cleaned, drained and quartered strawberries to the mixture in the sauce pan and stir, coating all the strawberries.

Allow the mixture to cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the sauce pan. After the mixture has cooled, pour the mixture into the pre-baked pie crust. Loosely cover the pie and refrigerate pie for at least three (3) hours or overnight until the filling has gelled.

Place a dollop of whipped cream on top of individual slices , if desired, before service. Now, just go ahead and dig into a slice of this fabulous pie and enjoy!

I hope you will give this recipe a go. If you love strawberries and gelatin dessert, you are sure to enjoy this Crazy Good Strawberry Pie! 

Crazy Good Strawberry Pie with a Dollop of Whipped Cream

I love what B.J., over at  BJ's Sweet Nothings quoted her mother as having said about putting whipped cream on everything. It is too funny! BJ is so cute and her blog is delightful. It is true, whipped cream makes just about anything taste good, don't you agree?

I hope your day has been great and that you will enjoy a beautiful Sunday all day tomorrow!

Thank you so very much for blessing me by dropping by Mimi Mine and taking a moment or two to read my posts!

You can have some great fun by checking out the great parties, listed below, to which I am linking up. These highlighted links will take you to some great cooking, baking, crafting and DIY  and travel ideas!

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