By a show of hands, who here is planning on having some sort of cookout in the next few days? Mhmm… we figured there would be at least a few of you! If your menu isn’t already set, we would highly recommend this delish double berry pie to top off a summer dinner. It’s unbelieveably easy to make and nothing beats fresh, local strawberries. We’ve enjoyed our mother’s fresh strawberry pie for as many summers as we’ve been around, but we didn’t have her recipe when we wanted to make this pie- that is the beauty of this dessert, it’s remarkable basic so we grabbed the components from a couple different places and wham, bam, dessert in under 30 minutes!
We’re going old school recipe dictation with you today- just like Grandma would (but we are throwing in a couple of reference recipes!) Start by making a prebaked basic single pie crust. I’ve always gone to Betty Crocker in a pinch. The key to a great crust is to incorporate the butter into the flour/salt very well until it’s like cornmeal (some people say small peas, but I really like to pastry blend) then when you add the water I generally add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon icy cold water more than it calls for and mix/fluff it in with a fork until it is almost all combined- seriously, do not- I repeat, do not- overmix/overhandle the crust once you put the water in!! Use your hands to make it into a ball and get the initial disc shape going, then roll it out to the size of your pie pan.
Once the pie shell is baking, get your glaze going on the stove. This part if fun because it involves a potato masher, for me anyway. There isn’t really a precedent set on how to mash strawberries, you could probably stomp them like grapes if you wanted… just don’t tell your dinner guests. While the glaze and pie shell cool, rinse and prep the berries of the straw and blue variety. When everything is ready load up your shell with upside down strawberries and when you can’t possibly fit another strawberry in there, fill in with blueberries! Carefully drizzle the whole thing with glaze, chill – if you want- and when the time comes you can knock the whole thing out of the park with a little homemade whipped cream (sweetened with maple syrup!) or really go whole hog a la mode!
Happy 4th of July weekend! Blair + Hayley
