Strawberry Pie!

Last Christmas my cousin brought over a cherry/berry pie which was KILLER. Which there is something to be said about this since I am not a big cherry person, unless they come from the Slurpee machine at 7eleven. So instead of recreated this recipe with strawberries, making this my first ever pie!! I was plenty nervous considering that I am not a good baker and I typically mess these things up by not having enough this or that. Which I kinda did, however it worked out. For this blog I only have a picture of my finished products.

The Dough

I made the dough from scratch. It is a Martha Stewart Recipe that my cousin used and I used as well. This recipe calls for a blender or food processor, I used my mixer instead. It was pretty straight forward and easy to do.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling dough
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons ice water, plus 2 more, if needed

Directions

1. In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar several times to combine. Add butter. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with just a few pea-size pieces remaining.
2. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed with fingers (if needed, add up to 2 tablespoons more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Do not over process.
3. Turn dough out onto a work surface; form dough into a 3/4-inch-thick disk. Wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
4. Before baking, unwrap dough; place on a large piece of floured waxed paper. Roll dough to a 14-inch round. Using paper, lift and wrap dough around rolling pin (discarding paper); carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate. Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate.
5. Trim overhang to 1 inch; fold overhang under itself. Pinch between thumb and forefinger to make a uniform edge around the rim. Crimp edge; refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

The Filling

For the filling my cousin gave me a Allrecipes.com recipe. Like I said before this is for a cherry pie, but I used strawberries instead. Also this recipe calls for almond extract which I substituted for cinnamon (1-2 tsp, taste the filling after 1 and see if you want more). I did not add the food coloring because strawberries are already red, no need for any of that! Side Note I didn't add enough filling to the pies, so when you do this add a little extra and then when you fill the pie place them on a baking sheet instead of your oven rack; that way if they spill over it doesn't get on the bottom of your oven. I also added a little bit of lemon zest which put a little zing in the filling!

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 1 pie (6 to 8 servings)

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1 (20 ounce) can pitted sour cherries (I used about 2 regular containers of fresh Strawberries)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon red food coloring (optional)

1 egg yolk

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 C). Make pastry and refrigerate.
2. Drain cherries, reserving 1 cup liquid. In a saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in cherry liquid and bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mixture will thicken.
3. When mixture is thickened, add butter, almond extract, food coloring and cherries. Cover and refrigerate.
4. On lightly covered surface, roll out half of the pastry into an 11 inch circle. Put into 9 inch pie dish. Roll other half of pastry into another 11 inch circle. With a knife or pastry wheel, cut eight 1/2 inch strips.
5. Pour cooled cherry filling into pie dish. Place pastry strips horizontally, then vertically, across the top of the pie and lightly brush with egg yolk. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, and cool before serving.

Final Product: What is your favorite type of pie?