Strawberry Pie

One thing that I had on my "summer bucket list" was to make a strawberry pie. I didn't have time to make it at our pie night the other week, so I decided it would be a perfect bridal shower treat! Morgan hosted an adorable shower for our elementary friend Emma, and it's always fun to get together and celebrate love!

To be honest, I always fail at any "jello" substance. I've always had problem making it, and have now since been embarrassed to try. But, I took it upon myself to get this right, and I was pleased with it! Especially since the recipe is SO easy. I will now be making this every summer!

The lighting is usually horrible in our old house (hence the picture), but I couldn't help but dip strawberries in this cream cheese to "taste test". And then I had a couple more..

Final product. After my cute strawberry design, it got covered! And, the crust was a little skeewampus, and there's sauce on the pan. But I don't care because anything with cream cheese is good, and doesn't matter what it looks like....right!? am i right?!

This is how easy it is:

Homemade Strawberry Pie

recipe found here

Crust: (I did not make my own crust this time... and it turned out great!)

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 Tbs cold water

Filling:

• 4 oz. cream cheese (I doubled this because I wanted a thicker layer of cream cheese...just call me fat kid)
• ¼ cup powdered sugar (doubled as well, and added a pinch of milk-is that even possible?)
• ½ tsp vanilla

• 1 qt. strawberries, washed, hulled, and cut in half, divided
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tbs cornstarch
• ¾ cup cold water

(Don't waste your time on making a crust!) Prepare crust: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour and salt together. Cut in shortening with a fork or pastry blender until looks like peas. Beat in egg, water, and lemon juice. Pour into flour mixture and stir until blended. Use flour generously to roll out. Using a fork to make a few holes in the bottom of the crust. Then cover with tin foil and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove tin foil and allow to cool.

Makes 2-9″ crusts. So you can use the extra to make another pie or we like to make cinnamon sugar crisps with the extra. {cover with butter, then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake until golden brown.}

Prepare Filling: In a mixing bowl, blend together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture on bottom of the cooled pie crust. Arrange ¾ of the strawberries into pie crust on top of cream cheese to form an even mound. Mash together the remaining strawberries, either by hand or in a food processor. Mix in sugar. In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook until almost boiling. In a small bowl, mix together water and cornstarch and add to strawberries. Cook until bubbly. Pour mixture over strawberries in crust. Refrigerate until set. Serve with whipped cream {optional}.

And that's it! Now dig in! :)