Strawberry Pie (101/366)

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Holy strawberry pie! This pie is awesome. Especially for a Passover pie.

For some reason we ended up with three pint of strawberries in our fridge and I there was no way we were going to eat them all before they went bad. So I combined a few recipes to Passover-ize it, you know, just in case we ran out of desserts.

Instead of regular or a graham cracker crust, the crust for the pie is made of almonds. And instead of using corn starch to thicken the filling, I used potato starch. Worked like a charm.

I think it’s the combination of whole strawberries and the strawberry puree that makes this pie so good. It’s sweet, and honestly the best word I can think of to describe this pie is…refreshing.

Strawberry Pie

For the Crust

• 2 cups almonds, whole or slivered
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Filling

• 2 pints of fresh strawberries
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 2 Tbsp potato starch
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1 tsp vanilla

To make the crust:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

In a food processor, blend the almonds, sugar and almond extract until the almonds are coarsely chopped.

Add the butter and continue to blend until the almonds are finely chopped.

Press the mixture into a pie pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the crust is browned. Take out and let cool.

To make the filling:

Wash and hull the strawberries. In a food processor, puree 1 1/2 cups of strawberries to make about 1 cup of puree.

Combine the puree, sugar, potato starch, and water in a medium sauce pan and whisk to blend completely. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture starts to boil. Boil for about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and mix in the vanilla. Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

While they are cooling, take the remaining strawberries and cut in half (or leave whole if they are small) and arrange them in the pie crust.

Pour the strawberry puree mixture over the whole strawberries, trying to cover it as easily as possible. Refrigerate for about 2 hours to allow the pie to set.