Maffy's Bite

Strawberry Pie

I call this the "one-handed" pie.  Like most of my cooking/baking, I'm usually holding Rumi with my left arm and cooking with my right.  I was lucky enough to prepare this pie while he was sleeping most of the time, but the rustic crust is thanks to Rumi.
Which brings me to say that the saying "easy as pie" holds true!!! Especially this pie recipe that I found in my Saveur magazine issue #139!  It's not only easy, but really fast to make...just allow an hour to cool your dough before rolling it out.

3 cups flour

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed/chilled

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

3 lb. strawberries, halved

1/2 cup, plus tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 tbsp. orange juice

1 tbsp. orange zest

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

2 tbsp. heavy cream

1. Pulse flour, salt and butter in food processor until pea-size pieces form.  Add 1/2 cup of ice-cold water; pulse until dough forms.  Form into a ball; halve and form into two disks. Wrap; chill for an hour.

2. Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, toss together the remaining salt, berries, 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, juice, zest, and vanilla.  Set aside.  Unwrap dough, roll both into 11" wide and 1/8" thick circles.  Transfer one circle to a 9" deep-dish pie pan; mound filling inside.  Cut 3/4" strips from remaining circle; transfer to top of pie, creating a lattice pattern.  Trim and crimp the edges. Brush dough with heavy cream and sprinkle with remaining sugar.  Bake until golden and bubbling, about 1 hour.

(If crust begins to brown before pie is finished baking, cover with foil until pie is done). Let cool.

I really enjoyed making this pie because it was not only VERY easy, (coming from someone who once thought pies were hard to make) it is actually delicious.  Not overly sweet, just simple. And with that said, add more sugar if you like your pies to be very sweet.