One of my favorite go-to fruits to eat are strawberries. Oftentimes I purchase too many that I find myself having to freeze a few to prevent them from going bad.
I recently went through my freezer only to realize that I had a good amount of strawberries stocked up and thought to myself that I should probably do something about this. Unfortunately, with no rhubarb at hand, I decided to make ends meet by coming up with a great alternative to strawberry rhubarb pie. I call this my cinnamon strawberry pie as I love to load my pies with lots of different spices.
With cinnamon being one of my favorite spices to work with, I also made sure to add some to the pie crust as well. What I really love about this strawberry pie is that it actually isn’t as sweet as it sounds. The spices and graham cracker do add a bit of a kick to it so that you’re not overloaded with sweetness (not a bad thing for those of you with a sweet tooth, though). All in all, this is a fairly easy pie to make and doesn’t take much time to put together.
Sweet and Spiced Strawberry Pie with Buttery Crust Recipe
Equipment
- Cutting board and knife
- Meshed sifter
- Stock Pot
- Pie Dish
- Ladle
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
For Crust
- 2 Stick Unsalted Butter (1 Cup), Soft, Small cubed
- 2 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Cold Water
- 1 Tsp Himalayan Sea Salt
- 2 Tsp Cinnamon
For Filling
- 3 Cup Water
- 6 Cup Strawberries (frozen or room temperature)
- 3/4 Cup Cornstarch
- 1/2 Cup Grounded Graham Cracker
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1/2 Tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon (Heaping)
- 1 Tsp Nutmeg
- 1 Tsp Pumpkin Spice (optional)
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Instructions
- If your strawberries are frozen, thaw them out a bit by putting them in the microwave until the strawberries are easy to hull and cut in smaller pieces. If they’re at room temperature, hull the strawberries and cut them in smaller, manageable pieces. Place them in a bowl and put them aside.
- Next, add the water into the stock pot and turning on the stove to low heat. Slowly sift the cornstarch into the pot and stir occasionally.
- While the water and cornstarch is hot but not boiling, mix in the strawberries, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, salt and (optionally) pumpkin spice. Switch to medium heat and let cook for 5-6 minutes while covering the stock pot as some of the water needs to evaporate to give a thickened texture. Once the mixture starts to boil bring down to low heat for another 3-4 minutes.
- Slowly add in the grounded graham cracker in small portions while mixing into the strawberry mixture. Once well mixed, turn the heat back on low for an additional 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- After 10 minutes, turn off heat and set aside to cool off for a bit while making the pie crust.
- Mix together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Next add the softened and cubed butter and half the water mix into the bowl and mix the ingredients. Add in additional water in small increments while mixing until ingredients are fully mixed. You may need additional flour if the mixture is too soft and sticky.
- Split and separate the dough into two balls. Place them into saran wrap or two small bowl and let chill in the refrigerator for 15 – 20 minutes. While the dough is being chilled, start the oven at 350 degrees.
- Take out both dough balls from the fridge. Using the roll pin, roll out one of the balled dough flat and spread onto the pie dish up to the edges of the dish. Add as much filling as reasonably possible. Roll out the second and place over the filling. Crimp the edges. With a knife make slits on the pie crust. This give the pie the ability to “breathe” so that it doesn’t explode inside the oven while baking.
- Place in the oven and let cook for 30 – 40 minutes depending on how cooked you want your crust to turn out.
- Optionally, sift some confectioner sugar over the pie and serve while warm. Buon appetito!
I love adding a bit of sifted confectioner sugar to top it off, along with some whipped cream and a few cut strawberries.
Enjoy!
