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Why I Love This Strawberry Pie
If you are unsure about making pie, this is the pie to make. Why is that? This is a stovetop pie, which takes away much of the uncertainty of pie-making, which makes it nearly foolproof.
This method uses fresh strawberries mashed together with cornstarch, water, and lemon juice. Mashing the berries causes them to release their juices, which combine with the cornstarch to create a slurry. Within a few minutes on the stove, the mixture becomes thick. Once poured into a baked pie crust, it just has to set up to be ready.
When a traditional pie is baked in the oven, the baking time can take anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes to activate the thickening agent. This fresh pie takes hardly a fraction of that time, using mostly the juice of the fresh berries and their pulp. All the filling is cooked on the stovetop, so there’s no waiting to see the filling bubbling throughout in the oven. Thus, there’s no guessing if or when it’s done.
Quick and easy and packed with summertime flavor!
Strawberry Pie Ingredients
The best part about this pie: it only takes 7 ingredients, and one of them is optional!
- Pie crust – Flaky and buttery, it holds the berries and filling. You can buy a frozen 9-inch pie crust at the store or make my pie crust recipe.
- Fresh strawberries – The star of the show! Make sure to look for the freshest, ripest ones, and hull them to remove the greens.
- Granulated sugar – Sweetens the berries just enough, complementing and enhancing their natural sweetness.
- Water – Helps dissolve the sugar and cornstarch in the filling.
- Lemon juice – Brightens the filling with a bit of subtle citrus.
- Cornstarch – Thickens the cooked berries so the pie sets while it cools.
- Red food coloring – This is completely optional, but it can be added if you want a deeper strawberry-red color.
The full amount of each ingredient can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make This Strawberry Pie
Before you start, you’ll need a blind-baked pie crust for this pie. Preheat your oven and bake the pie crust according to your favorite method (blind-bake until golden).
Assemble the strawberries – Arrange half of the hulled fresh strawberries in the baked pie crust.
Cook the filling – In a saucepan, combine the other half of the strawberries with sugar, water, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Mash with a potato masher until it’s almost liquid, with a few soft berry chunks. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring until the mixture thickens and bubbles in big, slow bursts. Then, remove from heat.
If you’re using food coloring, stir it in now.
Finish the pie – Pour the cooked strawberry filling on top of the strawberries in the pie crust. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until set. Serve each slice with whipped cream.
Serving
Serve each slice chilled (or at room temperature), with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Storage
- Refrigerate: Keep the pie covered and in the fridge. It’s best eaten within 2 days, when the crust stays flaky and the berries are bright. When ready to eat a slice of the leftover pie, simply cut and serve cold. You can let the pie come up to room temperature if preferred.
- Freeze: I don’t recommend freezing this pie (or any pie, really). The berries will lose their texture, and the filling can turn grainy.
More Strawberry Desserts
- Strawberry shortcake cake
- Strawberry poke cake
- Roasted strawberry rhubarb pie – so much flavor!
- Strawberry and blueberry cookie tart
Watch How to Make This Strawberry Pie
Have I Convinced You to Make This Recipe?
I hope you make this recipe and put some food on your table. Leave a comment and share a star rating so you can let others know how much you love this recipe. This helps show others that this is a recipe they, too, can make, enjoy, and love!
Fresh Strawberry Pie
Ingredients
- 1 recipe 9-inch pie crust blind baked and cooled
- 4 cups fresh strawberries whole, hulled
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- red food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Assemble the strawberries: Add 2 cups of the hulled fresh strawberries to the fully-baked pie crust and set aside.1 recipe 9-inch pie crust
- Cook the filling: In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining 2 cups of strawberries with the sugar, water, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Using an old-fashioned potato masher, mash the strawberries until the mixture is nearly a liquid with some pieces of berry remaining. Heat the mashed berry mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 3-5 minutes. When the mixture starts to bubble around the edges, stir constantly until bubbling throughout and thickened, 3 minutes. When done, the mixture will have slow, large bubbles and be thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the food coloring (if using).4 cups fresh strawberries, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup water, 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 3 tbsp cornstarch, red food coloring (optional)
- Fill the pie: Pour the strawberry mixture immediately over the fresh strawberries in the pie shell. Allow to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Place in the refrigerator until fully chilled, 4-6 hours. Serve with fresh whipped cream.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below!
Styling: Addelyn Evans | Photography: Dera Burreson
Very easy to make and just like the picture. I made it exactly like the instructions say, but the taste threw me off. It was the addition of the lemon juice. I make blueberry pies all the time and even though it didn’t have cinnamon, the similarity was too strong. I will make it again, but without the lemon juice. It just doesn’t need it and takes away, not enhances the strawberry flavor. This is just a personal preference. But definitely an easy pie to make.
Looks wonderful
My mother was a fabulous baker and taught me. We always boiled the berries, water, sugar, and lemon juice until the berries were very soft. No need to mash. Then we added the cornstarch mixed with a little cold water, stirring until thickened. this way the cornstarch is less likely to form lumps. You use the same concept when making gravy. I’m glad you didn’t use gelatin as I feel that makes it taste artificial, and like you, I always whip my own cream.
This is my new favorite pie recipe!! I went to a local berry farm and bought some fresh strawberries, making this pie just so delicious!! Thank you for another great recipe!
And btw, Kaleb, I shared your recipe on the Facebook page for my local berry farm. It’s so good, I should share, right?! 😊
This is my new favorite pie recipe!! I went to a local berry farm and bought some fresh strawberries, making this pie just so delicious!! Thank you for another great recipe!
The pie is amazing! The crust is so good and everything came out perfectly! I didn’t even have to add red food coloring. Thanks Kaleb! This is a keeper and it’s going right into my favorite recipe box. Your recipes are perfect! Every one I tried was out of this world delicious. 😊😊😊
Thank You
Hi Caleb, the white pie dish in your video looks a bit smaller than a 9” pie dish. What size pie plate did you use?
Absolutely fantastic!!!
Strawberry season is just about over here in Georgia. I thought I’d had enough of strawberry, but my husband came home with another large basket. This pie is a wonderful alternative to shortcake.
Y’all MUST make this pie. Delicious!!!
I give this a 5 star for the flavor, and ease of making. I am diabetic, so I used Splenda as my sweetener. It made my filling very thick, not pourable at all. I added more lemon juice to thin it out. Also, I used large whole strawberries, so they did not completely fill the pie shell. Lesson learned.
Love seeing your recipes on FB.
Easy..,.