strawberry pie recipe
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Cook time: 
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • PIE DOUGH for one standard 9-inch pie: 1 cup white flour
  • ¾ cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, in a small dice
  • ¼ cup shortening
  • 5 to 7 tablespoons ice water
  • FILLING: 4½ to 5 cups (620 to 680 grams) hulled and quartered strawberries
  • ¼ cup (30 grams) cup cornstarch
  • ½ cup water (to mix with cornstarch)
  • ⅔ cup (135 grams) sugar, or possibly more if your berries aren't very sweet
  • pinch teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon cream or milk, beaten
  • whipped cream, optional for serving
  • a splash of balsamic vinegar for whipped cream
Instructions
  1. MAKE THE CRUST:* Mix flours, sugar, and salt together.
  2. Add butter and toss until just coated with flour mixture.
  3. Rub butter between thumb and forefingers to incorporate into flour mixture, so that the butter-flour mix looks crumbly and is about the size of chickpeas. It will clump when squeezed in your palm. (Alternatively, you can gently pulse the ingredients in a food processor.)
  4. Add shortening, toss to coat, then rub it into the flour mixture until the mixture forms pea-sized pieces. It will also come together in fist-sized clumps when squeezed in your palm. (Again, you can use a food processor here.)
  5. Slowly drizzle in about 1 tablespoon of ice water and mix into butter-shortening-flour mixture to moisten. Add a little more water, gently mixing to moisten so dough is moist but not wet. Do not overwork the dough in this step, or your dough will be tough!
  6. Gather into ball, flatten into a and wrap with plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before rolling out and using.
  7. Roll out pie dough to fit pie dish with a little overhang. Crimp edges decoratively.
  8. BAKE THE CRUST: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 deg C). Pierce bottom of the crust with tines of a fork to prevent air pockets or bubbles from forming while baking. Line the crust with a couple of layers of aluminum foil overhanging crust, then fill with pie weights. Refrigerate 30 minutes or freeze for 10 minutes, or until firm.
  9. Keeping pie weights in place, put pie crust on preheated baking sheet and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake 30 minutes or until the crust is golden.**
  10. To help seal the crust and prevent sogginess, make egg wash by whisking egg yolk and milk/cream in a small bowl. Remove pie weights and foil from pie crust. Brush bottom and sides of crust with egg wash. Bake until egg wash is dry and shiny, about 5 minutes. Cool crust completely, then fill.
  11. MAKE THE FABULOUS FILLING: Add 2 cups of prepared strawberries to a small saucepan.
  12. Add sugar, cornstarch, water, vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon juice and salt. As the mixture cooks, mash strawberries until chunky. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and juices have thickened, about 3 to 5 minutes. My eye looks for what I call the "one second path" to check for the correct thickness. If scraping the wooden spoon across the bottom of the pot while cooking, you should see the sea of strawberries (the Red Sea, if you will) part for about 1 second, then coalesce. Or, you want the juices to coat the back of the wooden spoon. Cool until warm to the touch, then add remaining strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Stir mixture to coat fresh strawberries well. Spoon mixture into crust. Allow to set for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator before slicing and serving with fresh balsamic-spiked whipped cream.
  13. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
* An all-butter pie crust is really good here too. If not into the pie crust thing, substitute with a graham cracker crust.
** If using a glass or ceramic pie plate, do NOT put the cold plate into a hot oven. It will crack. Take the plate plate out of the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to warm the plate slightly, then follow baking instructions.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/dessert-recipes/strawberry-pie-recipe/