strawberry cream pie

I arrived up in northern Indiana to see my grandparents and they announced that we were having dinner that night in town.
The menu? A fish fry.
The company? Three other couples my grandparent's age.

It was just me and eight 80-year-olds. Other people love hanging out with their grandparents, right?

One of the ladies mentioned that she'd gone strawberry picking and I needed to know everything. I'd never picked strawberries before. The next morning I got up and my grandpa and I headed 20 minutes away to the fields at LeCount Strawberry Farm.

I've been back three times and have gotten around 50 pounds of strawberries total. Most of them were for other people because these red gems needed to be shared with the world.

I made strawberry cream pie with one quart of berries cleaned and cut in half.

First, I made the pie crust. You could make your own or you can get one from the grocery store. I have no judgement. Bake it and let it cool.

The filling is cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar. If I had my stand mixer I'd whip it for a good 5 minutes. With the hand mixer I was lazy and only did about 3 minutes. It was fine.

 

Next, you're going to make the glaze. If you feel like this is too thick for your taste use less cornstarch. I liked it, but the grandma thought it was on the ugly side.

It may be ugly, but the taste...oh, I'm going to need a minute.

SO.GOOD.

Strawberry Cream Pie

1 qt strawberries

Clean the strawberries and cut them in half [or, if they’re super-large, bite-size pieces].

1/2 cup Sugar
1-2 Tbsp Cornstarch
3/4 cup Water
1 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
1/2 cup Fresh Berries, crushed/smashed

In a saucepan combine the sugar, cornstarch, water, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and it will thicken up. Mix in the crushed/smashed berries. I used 2 Tbsp cornstarch here, but if you want it to be thinner, I would just use 1 or 1 1/2 Tbsp. You can’t screw it up. Let this cool to room temperature and mix it with the berries.

3 oz Cream Cheese
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

Combine the cream cheese, vanilla, and whipping cream. Add the powdered sugar and beat for 3-5 minutes until it fluffs a bit.

Pour the creamy mixture into your pre-baked pie shell. I didn’t actually use it all because I wanted this to be mostly a strawberry pie, but you can make that call for yourself. I kept the extra to dip berries in when I ate them later. Top with the glazed berries. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to let the cream set. You could top it with some whipped cream if you feel like it, but I don’t think it needs it.