Summer produce is struggling to get to market as our cool spring and early summer continues, impeding the arrival of the full spectrum of Maine grown fruits and vegetables. Rhubarb made a strong showing about a month ago and strawberries, its vital partner, are here at last. The cool weather made the crop a little late by a week or two, but their flavor is intense.
I prefer to keep this duo separate. While I like strawberry-rhubarb pie I tend to make separate uses of these two, the latter is a vegetable technically but is used like a fruit in desserts. And strawberries should be left unadulterated. The next time you have the urge to make a strawberry rhubarb pie, increase the berries to use alone and omit the rhubarb; make a double crust pie (crumb topping is good too) in the usual way. For a thickener I like to use tapioca flour, a cleaner way to set fruits in a pie.
But for me it’s the fresh strawberry pie that is really the winner. There are two methods that I offer here. The most common form is to puree the strawberries to cook them in a sugar, cornstarch and water bath until thickened to pour over hulled uncooked berries arranged in a bake pie shell. The last time I did this I used a cookie crust instead of pastry dough. I sometimes prefer this because I don’t like chilling pies housing a pastry case; chilling ruins the flakiness of a dough. The cookie crust (use crushed shortbread, vanilla wafers or tea biscuits mixed with a bit of sugar and plenty of melted butter and baked until firm) survives much better. For a recipe for this pie see Fresh Strawberry Pie recipe link.
Fresh Strawberry Pie
