Strawberry Pie is the ultimate summer dessert, i.e. lots juicy fresh strawberries piled into a crust and topped with a simple crumble. This is one berrylicious strawberry dessert you won’t want to miss.
Certain pies get all the glory, like blueberry, apple, and cherry. As a cook I like to go with the underdogs…have you seen my Apricot Pie? How about my Cranberry Pie? You won’t see them coming and going, and yet they’re amazing. Ditto this strawberry pie. And I’m not talking about the kind of deal where they just pile ginormous raw strawberries into a crust and call it pie. This is real honest to goodness hot jammy berry pie, with a buttery crumble topping and a big scoop of vanilla melting all over the top. Amen.
strawberry pie ingredient notes
strawberries
- In season strawberries are a must for this simple dessert. Don’t bother to make this pie until you can get your hands on some good ripe strawberries, rock hard berries with white centers won’t do. I don’t hull them, I just slice them horizontally, discarding the green tops as I go.
- I toss them with sugar and a little lemon juice to balance out their sweet flavor.
the thickener
- Strawberries, like many berries, are super juicy, so if you want to insure that your pie filling isn’t too loose, I recommend a product called Instant Clearjel. It’s basically a super duper starch thickener, and it works wonders. You can find it on Amazon.
the crumble
- This one is simple: flour, sugars, and butter.
the crust
- This easy pie starts with a frozen pie crust. (I like Marie Callendar’s) Carefully lift it out of its tin and place it into one of your own pretty pie plates. Once it bakes up, no one will be the wiser.
strawberry pie assembly
- Toss the berries with the sugar, lemon juice, and Clearjel thickener.
- Pop your frozen pie crust out of its tin foil and place in your own pie dish. No need to thaw it.
- Combine your crumble topping in a food processor or with your fingers to create a crumbly sandy texture.
- Pile the berries into the crust. Like all fruit pies, the filling will shrink down considerably as it bakes, so pile the berries up high to begin with.
- Top with the crumble.
- Bake until golden and bubbling.
Crumble toppings make pies so easy
This pie is so simple because all you need to do after slicing the berries is make a quick butter crumble topping. You can use your fingers or two forks to cut cold butter into a flour and sugar mixture. It’s like playing in a sandbox. I love crumbles so much I make a big batch crumble recipe to stash in my freezer all year long ~ it means I can make a crumble for one or twenty one any time the urge strikes!
strawberry pie baking tips
Place your pie on a baking sheet to catch any juicy drips.
Make sure you bake your pie long enough for the juices to be bubbling throughout. That’s important for activating your thickening agent.
Cover loosely with foil if your crust starts to brown too soon.
Let the pie cool before trying to slice. This allows the juices to settle and thicken further.
Food stylists trick ~ just before serving, lightly sprinkle with a little extra brown sugar to ‘refresh’ the crumble topping and make it look even more appealing.
Reader Rave ~
“This is absolutely the best strawberry recipe we’ve Ever come across!! Thank you so very much for this wonderful recipe!! ” ~Linda
Strawberry Crumble Pie
Ingredients
- 1 deep dish frozen pie crust, (do not thaw)
filling
- 1 1/2 pounds strawberries, washed and sliced
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp Instant Clearjel (or you can use 4 Tbsp cornstarch or 5 Tbsp tapioca flour), You can buy Instant Clearjel here.
crumble topping
- 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 6 Tbsp cold butter, cut in small pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, and Clearjel. Set aside.
- Make the crumble topping by cutting the butter into the flour and sugars. Use your fingertips or two forks to blend it all together until it becomes coarse crumbles.
- If you like, carefully remove the frozen pie crust from its tin and put it into your own pie dish. Set the dish on a baking sheet to catch any dripping juices.
- Transfer the berries to the pie crust, but leave any extra juices behind. Mound them in the center of the pie and top with the crumble mixture.
- Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 375F for another 40 minutes, or until the top is browned and the juices are bubbling.
- Let cool completely before slicing.
If I use my own pie crust, should I assume the bake time might be less?
This pie was the best I’ve ever had and I made it! New favorite hands down!
This pie was AMAZING!
Made this without a crust doubled the ingredients took it with some small plastic wine glasses to picnic and dished it up with dollops of cream
people begging for seconds if I’d had them.. I think it would be great hot over vanilla ice cream.;
Must have been a lovely picnic!
Hi, Sue! I wondered if it’s possible to make and freeze this pie a week or two ahead? If so, would you recommend assembling the pie and freezing without baking, or baking then freezing? Thanks so much for a beautiful recipe! It looks amazing!
I’m afraid to say that I don’t think this pie is a good candidate for freezing Addie, sorry. I haven’t tried it myself, but I just think it would get too soggy when it thawed.
Wonderful pie recipe! I had tons of fresh strawberries and decided to make a “Fall” Strawberry Pie. So perfect and tasty. Had it with whipped cream My 86 year old mom loved it too!
I wouldn’t have thought to make it in fall, sounds great!
This is absolutely the best strawberry recipe we’ve Ever come across!! Thank you so very much for this wonderful recipe!! One question….does it need to be refrigerated?
I usually leave pies like this at room temperature for the first day or so, and then, if there’s any left, I’d refrigerate it. But it will be fine for the first 24 hours.
Do we eat this pie cold or warm?
You can do it either way, Deisi, but we had it warm. It would be nice cold for a breakfast treat!
Silly question, maybe, but I could do this without the pie crust, right? Would I need to change any of the proportions to just make it as more of a crisp?
That’s a good idea, Emily, this would work fine as a classic crumble! I don’t think you’d have to change anything to do that.
It wasn’t a hit in my house. It was too watery and I realized strawberries aren’t good when they are cooked.
Sorry about that Sheryl. You might experiment with more thickeners next time, some strawberries are super juicy. And I know what you mean about cooked strawberries, they have a more ‘jammy’ flavor than fresh. Hope you try something else on my site!!