Strawberry pie

Here's a recipe for you: Combine one affinity for pie, one love of strawberries and one boyfriend and mix well. Add in one birthday. The result: Me trying out this recipe from a sample issue of "Cook's Country" that he got in the mail a while back. The later result: One seriously delicious pie, says the aforementioned boyfriend (I'm trying to cut down, so I left it up to him to do the tasting). Apparently, I'll be making this one again. :)



Strawberry Pie
From Cook's Country

One recipe for a single-crust pie (I used my old standby from here)
2 pounds frozen strawberries (though fresh would probably be fine, if you've picked up a ton of them while they're in season)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
1 c sugar
Pinch salt
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced thinly

4 ounces cream cheese
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c heavy cream

1. Roll out the pie crust and fit it to your pie pan. Chill until firm.
2. Line crust with foil, covering the edges well, then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake at 375 about 25 to 30 minutes, until the dough looks dry and is light in color. Remove the foil and weights and bake until deep golden brown, about 12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.
3. Cook the frozen berries in a saucepan until jam-like and reduced down to 2 cups (measure this out to be sure), about 25 minutes.
4. Combine the lemon juice, water and gelatin in a small bowl. Let stand until the gelatin softens and thickens.
5. Stir the gelatin mixture, sugar and salt into the strawberries and cook about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
6. Fold fresh berries into filling, then spread evenly in pie shell. Chill until set, at least 4 hours.
7. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth, then add the cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Top slices of pie.