Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Strawberry Pie is always a Favorite


AND THE WINNER IS...for Sunday's giveaway from Nancy Parra...

Ronna L.  

Ronna, Nancy will be in contact.

Congrats!!!

And now...

It's still strawberry season. How can you pass them up? I can't. Ever. I eat them every day of the week during the season. Love them. So sweet, so simple. So red. We have the best place, just around the corner, that sells fresh strawberries from April to September. 

Recently, I bought a three-pack. That's a ton of strawberries! 

Note: strawberries turn quickly, so if you're not going to use them right away, make sure you either hull them and/or put them on paper towels to keep the moisture at bay. 

Strawberries, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

In cream, in strawberry ice cream, and most of all...in strawberry pie. Yum! 

I've made this pie using a gluten-free crust, but it can be made using a regular flour crust, too. The strawberry mixture, itself, is naturally gluten-free. I found the recipe in a cookbook called The How Can it be Gluten-free Cookbook. [You know how I love cookbooks, right?] This one has just about every tip in it about how to make gluten-free items. From biscuits to desserts! I've included the recipe for the cookbook's pie dough below. I added a few notes of my own.

Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY PIE
ala The How Can it Be Gluten-free Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 recipe single-crust pie dough (fresh made or frozen)
3 pounds strawberries (9 cups) – 5 containers (the more the merrier!!!! )
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoons fruit pectin
A pinch of salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Make the pie crust (recipe below). Cook it at 375 degrees (middle rack) for 20-25 minutes. Rotate at about 12 minutes so it cooks evently. Note: in my oven, it took 20 minutes because it happens to run hot! Do your best not to overcook. Should be golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

In the meantime, choose 1 container of strawberries that are ugly, out of shape, etc. (about 1 ½ cups, uncut) and process in a food processor or blender. It will make about 3/4 cup puree.



Now whisk the sugar, cornstarch, pectin, and salt together in a medium saucepan. Stir in the berry puree. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, and bring to a full boil. Cook for 2 minutes scraping bottom and sides of pan to prevent overcooking. The mixture will froth at first and then will darken and thicken. DO NOT OVERCOOK.  Transfer this glaze to a large bowl and stir in lemon juice. Let cool to room temperature (about 15 minutes).



Meanwhile, pick over the rest of the strawberries, cutting and slicing those that are too big or possibly “ugly.” Add the strawberries to the bowl containing the glaze and fold in with the spatula until coated.  Pour the strawberry mixture into the pie shell, mounding toward the center. If any strawberry sides face up, turn downward so they look pretty.



Refrigerate the pie until chilled, about 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream if desired.

SINGLE-CRUST GLUTEN-FREE DOUGH
ala The How Can it Be Gluten-free Cookbook

Ingredients:

2 ½ tablespoons ice water
1 ½ tablespoons sour cream
1 ½ teaspoons rice vinegar
¾ cup plus 2/3 cup gluten-free flour
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (cold from refrigerator)

Directions:

Combine ice water, sour cream, and vinegar in a bowl. Process flour, sugar, salt and xanthan gum in a food processor until combined, about 5 seconds. Scatter butter on the mixture and pulse until butter is size of large peas, about 10 pulses.

Pour half of the sour cream mixture over the flour and pulse until incoprorated, about 3 pulses. Pour remaining sour cream mixture over flour and pulse until comes together, about 6 pulses.

Turn dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap (make sure it’s large enough for a pie plate) and flatten the dough into a 5-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrierate for one hour. Before rolling out dough, let it sit on the counter to soften sligthly, about 15 minutes.





*MY TRICK: I topped the dough with another sheet of saran wrap so that the dough did not stick to the rolling pin! (That is not in the cookbook recipe.)

*Dough can be wrapped tightly and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

By the way, you'll notice in the photo, yes, the crust got a little "toasted." I'd cook it slightly less than recommended next time. [The old adage: know your oven.] Also, this pie would have been much prettier with whipped cream. I ran out and didn't think a small spritz would do it justice. It was delicious without!

TWO MORE THINGS:

On Killer Characters blog, which a number of us participate on, we are having the Cozy Days of Summer Giveaway, where each day you can enter to win a book or more. Check it out and leave a comment with your email! Click the picture to follow the link:


ALSO

For STIRRING THE PLOT, which comes out September 30th, I'm going to be doing a number of giveaways. Books, mugs, stuffed kittens!  Make sure you're signed up for my newsletter and "like" me on Facebook, where information about the giveaways will appear.  Look for pictures of Tigger, the ginger cat in the series, celebrating ala Halloween!



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5 comments:

  1. Picture perfect, even without whipped cream.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks like bliss in a pie plate! Love strawberries, too. Love summer fruit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bliss. How sweet. Nice word and one I'll use in my current manuscript. LOL

      Daryl / Avery

      Delete
  3. I'm enjoying all the wonderful summer fruit. 3 pounds of strawberries sounds like so much but when you actually put them in a pie, you need all those berries. Yum! I bet this was delicious!

    ~Krista

    ReplyDelete