The best recipes often come to you as family hand-me-downs and this one is no exception. It’s my mom’s strawberry pie recipe that she’s been making all my life. I don’t know exactly where it came from, but she’s passed it on to me and now I am passing it on to you!
I almost always try to make a home made pie crust with my pies – people comment all the time about how hard that is, but I think they are leaving out one crucial detail when they make theirs. I’ll share my secret in this post so you can make award winning crust that will knock the socks off your friends and family next time you have a get-together.
For the Single Shell Pie Crust you will need:
1 1/2 cups Flour
3/4 cup of shortening (I use Crisco)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cold water
How to make your crust:
I HIGHLY recommend making your pie crust the night before and refrigerating it. Typically, the dough will be sticky and chilling overnight helps it roll out wonderfully so it doesn’t stick all over your hands and rolling pin. If you don’t have time, at least try to chill for a couple hours.
Measure out your flour, mix in the salt, then cut in the shortening with a fork or pastry blender. You will want to get a crumbly mixture and make sure all the shortening is mixed in well.
Add cold water. Honestly, I never measure this. I just run some from the faucet in the flour mixture and start mixing until it seems like it’s enough. If I had to guess, 6 – 7 tablespoons of cold water.
Once a dough has formed, shape it into a ball, put in cling wrap and stick in the refrigerator overnight. Then, when you are ready to bake your pie, roll the dough out on a floured surface and transfer to your pie dish.
Bake the crust on 400 for about 20 minutes. (Another trick to making sure your crust doesn’t get bubbly in the center is to weight it down with dry beans. It will leave a funny design on the bottom but no one will see it because your pie filling will cover it up!)
What you need to make your Pie:
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup of water
1 package (3 oz.) strawberry Jello
fresh sliced strawberries
Directions:
Line your baked pastry shell with sliced strawberries. You can add as many or as little as you like – I try to get a good layer that covers the bottom of the crust. Set aside.
Combine the Jello, water, sugar and cornstarch in a pan on the stove. Mix until thickened – this can take anywhere between 5 – 10 minutes.
Once mixture is at the right consistency, pour over strawberries in pastry shell.
Refrigerate until set – at least 5 hours. Serve by itself or with whip cream and enjoy this delicious summer favorite!
