Name: Diner-Style Fresh Strawberry Pie
Total time: 2 h 45 min
Ingredients: 2 quarts fresh strawberries , washed, hulled, and halved (8 cups); 1 cup granulated sugar; Pinch table salt; Pinch ground cinnamon; 2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1 lemon; 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 1/2 tablespoons Instant Clearjel; 1 prebaked 9-inch pie shell

Why This Recipe Works

For a strawberry pie recipe with fresh, juicy berries held together by a soft, sweet glaze, we used a combination of cornstarch and pectin, which glazed the fruit while allowing the beautiful red color of the strawberries to shine through. Now the glazed berries for our strawberry pie recipe could withstand chilling in the refrigerator without becoming watery.

Before You Begin

Use your favorite prebaked 9-inch pie shell recipe. (We like this all-butter one.) The process of thickening the glaze is easier and less involved with Instant Clearjel, a commercially derived, modified food starch, than it is with the cornstarch and pectin in the recipe above. There is a hitch, though. You may have to mail order Instant Clearjel.

Instructions

Bring 4 cups berries, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and 1/4 cup water to simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat; simmer, stirring constantly, until soft, about 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to sieve set over a large bowl; press on solids with back of wooden spoon to extract 1 1/4 cups juice into bowl (spoon off any extra) and discard solids. Add cinnamon, lemon juice, and vanilla to juice; set bowl over ice water and stir mixture occasionally until cold. (If juice is not cold, Instant Clearjel will not set up as smooth as it should.)

Mix Instant Clearjel with remaining 1/2 cup sugar in small bowl; whisk mixture into berry juice until thick and pudding-like, about 1 minute.

Fold remaining berries into glaze, turning several times with rubber spatula to coat thoroughly. Turn glazed berries into pie shell, using spatula to mound berries slightly at center. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2, and up to 6, hours. Serve.