Fresh Strawberry Pie as Elegant as can Be!

                                                                                



 Fresh Strawberries in a sweet butter crust nestled in a fresh strawberry glaze! Slice & serve with whipped cream & you are the DESSERT QUEEN or KING ! This pie is EASIER then it looks so give this one a try while the berries are available!

PIE CRUST:
2 Cups Flour
1/4 TSP Salt
1 TBS Sugar
2/3 Cups COLD Butter ( I freeze mine & cut frozen butter into about 1  TBS chunks)
5 TBS Cold Water
1 TSP Vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut butter in to fine crumbs. I use my food processor to make it easy. Once butter is cut in add cold water & vanilla. Process in until dough comes together. Roll out on floured surface. Place in an 8" pie pan. Flute edges & prick crust with holes. Blind bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Take out of oven & remove foil & rice used for blind baking. Return crust to oven at 375 degrees for another 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven & let cool.
STRAWBERRY FILLING:
2 Quarts Strawberries cleaned & Hulled leaving stem on one large perfect berry for center of pie.

Remove 1 & 1/2 Cups of the smaller & imperfect berries & place them in 1 & 1/2 cups of water in a deep saucepan. Bring to a boil & let cook about 5 minutes. Turn off heat & let berries sit for 15 minutes. Go back a mash berries, sieve berries keeping the juice. Discard the mashed berries. Add juice back into the saucepan & add 1 TSP Lemon Juice. Now add 1 & 1/4 cups of sugar that you stirred together with 4 TBS of Cornstarch & a dash of salt. Bring berry juice up to the boil & whisk in the sugar mixture cooking & stirring until mixture is nice & thick. Stir in a few drops of red food coloring if needed. let glaze cool slightly. Now arrange whole berries in your crust in 2 layers. In bottom layer use smaller berries making one single layer. Spoon a small amount of glaze of this layer lightly coating each berry. Now go back & add the second layer of berries arranging in a pretty pattern. Spoon the remaining glaze over this layer. Place the one huge perfect berry you kept our in the center of your pie & glaze the berry. Chill pie to set. Slice & dollop each slice with whipped cream!  YOU WILL MAKE THIS YEAR AFTER YEAR WHEN BERRIES ARE IN SEASON!