On My Desk - Mom's Strawberry Pie

If it's Wednesday, it's time for another installment of On My Desk

This week's "desk" is the kitchen counter. Again! (What's gotten into me?)


Yesterday, our dear little Jo turned 15 years old. What she really wanted for her birthday was time with her boyfriend to go to a movie, time with her best friend and a wad of cash to go to shopping ... and a strawberry pie.

She's not much of a cake kind of girl.

I hadn't made this confection in several years. It's my all-time favorite dessert, though. My mom's recipe for a fresh strawberry pie.

Only ... I don't really have the recipe. I just sort of remembered how to do it by helping my mom. But here's the idea:

Start by making a single crust pie shell. My favorite recipe comes from the Crisco cook book ... but I substituted real butter for the Crisco. Ummmmm!

While that's baking, cut up a couple pints of strawberries ... some in biggish chunks (the best berries) and the rest in little-ish bits.

Watch that pie crust. You want it baked, but not browned. Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

Throw the little-ish bits of strawberries into a sauce pan. Add a tinch of water. Turn on the heat. Mush up the berries. Add a bit of sugar (or combo of sugar and artificial sweetener). Cook it until it gets to a jelly-ish consistency and starts to bubble. Stir it a lot, cuz it burns easily.

When it looks a bit like dull jelly, it's time to add a thickener. So scoop a blob of corn starch into a bowl and add enough water to dissolve the starch. Drizzle this into the strawberry slurry. Stir constantly now. The slurry now starts getting a nice and thick and shiny. It smells great!

Take the pot off the burner and let it cool.

In the mean time, dump a glob of creme cheese in a small bowl (4 to 6 oz ought to do). Add a smidgeon of milk. Stir it around with a fork until the creme cheese is very spreadable. You don't want it too liquidy ... but a bit more spreadable than, say, tub-o-margarine.

If the pie crust is cool, carefully spread the creme cheese on the bottom of the pie crust. Stick the thing in the refrigerator so that the creme cheese can set up a bit.

Now take that pot of cooled strawberries and add in the most of the biggish chunks of berries. Take the pie crust + creme cheese out of the fridge. Spoon the chunky strawberry mixture into the pie shell, covering the creme cheese. If there doesn't seem to be enough berries, add some more of the biggish chunks on top to fill in.

When you serve this pie, add a dollop of whipped topping.

It's the best. Really. My pie crusts come out wonderfully flaky and light. The strawberries are sweet and tart and smell divine. But it's the creme cheese base that adds the kick.

Oh, mammy!

(I think I was 'channeling' Mom yesterday as I played in the kitchen. We spent a lot of years side-by-side that way. Sure wish she were alive to have shared our girl's birthday with us.)