52 Pies Project: Louisiana’s Best Strawberry Pie
Welcome to another week of the 52 Pies Project! This week we’re talking Louisiana strawberries. They’re in season and they’re abundant- everywhere you turn, strawberries, strawberries, strawberries!
I debated calling these strawberry pies something other than “Strawberry Pie”. The recipe that you’ll find below makes enough for TWO pies and was lending itself to something more along the lines of “Friendship Pies”- one for you, and one for me. Or something cutesy like Very Berry Strawberry Pie because the amount of strawberries in these little things is insane.
Warning: You will really need to like strawberries for these pies.
Me? I like strawberry flavor but don’t care for strawberries. It’s unAmerican, I know, but it’s something about the seeds that I can’t get past. Usually when I make a strawberry cake, I puree the strawberries and strain to get rid of most of the seeds. But for strawberry lovers, I’m also getting rid of the best part.
With that being said, my husband looooves strawberries.
Loves strawberries so much that when I was making the pies and layering the strawberries (layers upon layers, y’all) into the graham cracker crusts, I could’ve stopped right there and he would’ve been happy.
In fact, he grabbed two slices right out of the pie.
But the pie didn’t stop at that point, so neither did I.
The pie recipe is found in the Best of the Best from Louisiana III . The publisher graciously sent me a copy to review and I went straight for the pie section. This Strawberry Pie comes from the Main Street Restaurant in Franklinton, Louisiana and while it doesn’t say anything in particular about the pie, my guess is that if it’s made it into the Best of the Best cookbook, the Main Street Restaurant must know what they’re doing when it comes to strawberries.
What’s great about these series of books, is there’s one for your state too.
Just do a quick search on Amazon for the state of your choice.
- 3 pints Louisiana strawberries
- 2 graham cracker pie crusts
- 2½ cups sugar
- 3 heaping tablespoons cornstarch
- 2½ cups water
- 1 (6 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
- 1 (12 ounce) container Cool Whip
- Wash, stem, and drain strawberries. Slice and place in pie crusts (the crusts should be full). In a 2-quart saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch, and water. Boil until thick. Stir in gelatin. Pour over strawberries in crust. Cool til set, and cover. Top with Cool Whip before serving. Makes 2 pies.
While the recipe is crazy easy, here’s a couple of notes I made while whipping together these pies. First, as you’re boiling the sugar, cornstarch and water together be patient while doing so. I kept stirring and stirring wondering if it was “thick” enough. I’d say the process took about 8 minutes or so. Secondly, it simply tells you to cool till set. I had the pies out on the counter cooling and it didn’t look like they were going to set. I started questioning whether I had boiled the gelatin mixture long enough.
Don’t stress this part. Simply put them into the refrigerator to cool and a couple of hours later, you’ll have jelled strawberries.
Now, since I had two pies this week and if you recall my dilemma last week about needing to either make 2 pies, or stop cutting a slice of the pie for photographs- this pie eliminates that problem! One for me, and one for a friend!
With that in mind, I got to work on pie packaging.
These incredibly fun polka dotted disposable pie containers are from Sur La Table. I looked online for a link for you, but it looks like they’re in store only.
One day last week, I was on Amber’s Damask Love website and stumbled upon the tutorial for these die cut strawberries. If you have never perused her site, you’ll need ample perusal time before doing so. The girl is THE most talented person with paper I have EVER seen and her tutorials will have you feeling like you can conquer the world….with only scissors and paper.
These little handcrafted strawberries were just what my 2nd pie needed for gift giving. I simply added eyelets using my Croc-A-Dile tool and ran some bakers twine through it. Her strawberries turned gift tags in lightning speed.
Wrapped up my polka dotted pie container in some green gingham fabric and was good to go, yet I continued making strawberry tags.
My husband looked over at me and asked exactly how many strawberries I was planning on making?
They’re so easy and fun, I got carried away. I made no less than 20!
Do you have a favorite pie you like to give for gifts?
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