A break from painting..Strawberry Pie

We recently went on the best summer holiday. A trip to visit my father in California. While there we went to dinner and had pie. We talked about my grandmother's homemade strawberry pie as being the best pie ever. My grandmother was an excellent cook. I came home knowing I had to make her pie even though I don't have it down perfectly yet.

I used my mother in law's amazing crust recipe.
Pie Crust
2 cups flour
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup water
1 tea salt
2 tea sugar

I used about 1/4 lard with 3/4 cup shortening and froze it. I also used frozen water that had just crusted over. So my ingredients were really cold. I use a food processor to mix the dry then the fat and then the water. It is shaggy then I pull it together on my floured pie towel. It comes together as you roll it out. This crust was tender and fantastic.

Grandma McQuivey's Strawberry Pie 
4-6 cups fresh ripe strawberries-washed and hulled
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
4 TB cornstarch
1/4 tea salt
1 TB butter
2-3 drops red food coloring

Crush 1 cup berries and cook with water 5 minutes. Strain. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add to strained juice an cook 3 minutes of until thick and clear. Stir constantly. Add butter and coloring. Place remaining berries in baked and cooled shell. Pour over fruit. Chill.

I made 2 pies. One was soupy because I thought the glaze would set up. It doesn't. The other pie I got the glaze way to stiff and it was like a layer of glaze on top of my fruit. You want your glaze to be pourable but thick enough to hold its shape. Not quit as thick as yogurt..and Greek yogurt is way to thick. I also added 1 cup sugar instead of 3/4th because my strawberries were a tad tart. With sweet strawberries 3/4th sugar is great.

What I discovered is that pie making is like painting. The success is in the prep work. You must have frozen fat and very cold water for pie crust to be its very best. Just like you must clean, mud, sand, and fill all holes before painting. It makes a huge difference.

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