There just aren't very many things better than Strawberry Pie after a long, cold, dreary winter! Late February and March are strawberry season here just because they show up on trucks from Florida. It's really a great perk up for the psyche.
The local FFA kids were selling flats of strawberries for their fundraiser this year. Since strawberries are Handsome's favorite in the whole wide world; I decided to get a flat. Bestie picked them up for me and they are such nice berries. I gave Handsome the choice between Strawberry Pie and shortcake. He chose pie so that's what he got for Pi Day!
My personal preference is strawberry shortcake. It's what I was raised on. I didn't even know Strawberry Pie was a thing until I worked in an office where it was a thing and pies showed up. Not only were these surprise pies fantastic; I had no flipping clue how to make the goop that keeps the strawberries from going everywhere. I searched high and low and even tried the store bought goop that just didn't cut it on flavor. This recipe came from some obscure cookbook and I had written this recipe down on a now-worn-out sticky note. It is super easy and it works. You just have to plan enough in advance to get the pie to set up before dinner time!
I just used a frozen 9 inch deep dish pie shell and baked it prior to filling. You can make a pie crust, use a rolled crust and set it in the pie plate and bake it, or even a graham cracker crust would be tasty with these berries. This pie shell used 2 quart of berries that I washed, stemmed and quartered. The entire recipe of goop was needed to fill in all the spaces around the berries. A shallow pie wouldn't need as many berries or as much goop. I've seen folks just trim the berries and place them stem side down in the pie shell and fill in all the rest of the areas with the goop. You can go as simple or as fancy as you like!
We like Cool Whip for desserts around here, it's quick, easy and tasty. If you're a purist and want to whip cream, have at it. Even a spray can of whipped topping or cream would be great. It would be prettier than dollops of Cool Whip like I did.
This was such a treat and so tasty.... next time, though, I'm making shortcake.....