Strawberry Mint Pie
It’s been strawberry day at my house. I’ve been researching ways to use my strawberries and this pie is my own invention! Along with my strawberry obsession, I horde old cookbooks. So I perused several old books to put together the crust and then tried my best to figure out the rest.
I’ll start with my crust. It’s pretty much your basic pie crust recipe, but I discovered that adding a teaspoon of vinegar makes for a flakier crust! All the old-fashioned recipes used lard for the crust. While I love lard, and have some on hand, I feel like it needed to be butter. King Arthur all-purpose flour also makes it better.
Flaky Pie Crust (Makes two crusts)
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
1 tsp vinegar (white distilled)
6 tbsp ice cold water. I literally put a jar of ice water on my counter and poured it from the jar.
Mix the flour and salt together, then put in the butter pieces. Mix together with a pastry blender until the butter is chunked up with the flour. The butter will be pea sized throughout the mixture.
Start adding the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together nicely. I mixed with a fork, then worked with my hands.
Now, roll in a ball and divide. You have two crusts.
I refrigerated my crust for a few minutes while I got some other things done around the house.
Once they were chilled, I put one of the dough sections on a floured surface and rolled it out to fit my pie plate.
Place the crust in the pie plate, and trim the edges if needed. Sprinkle with some sugar.
*I’m going to stop here and say my edges are not the neatest. I hope I don’t offend any awesome pie makers with my sloppy crust!
Now the other section of dough will be used for the top of this Strawberry Mint Pie. So, leave it chilled while the strawberries are being prepared.
For the strawberry mint filling, you actually start the night before…
Take 2 ½ to 3 cups sliced strawberries, and pour ¼ cup sugar over them. Place them covered in the fridge to macerate all night. (Macerate is when yummy juice is pulled out of the berry from all the sugar!)
Put the berries into a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10 minutes, mushing up the fruit as it becomes tender. (No more sugar is added, by the way.)
I gathered about ¼ cup of chopped mint, and added to the boiling mixture. Boil for another few minutes to let the flavors meld.
Be sure to turn on the oven to 350 degrees.
*My mint from my herb garden is a mystery mint….I planted both orange mint and peppermint in it a few years ago, and now I am convinced I have a hybrid from cross-pollination. So whatever mint is available to you, it will be good in this pie! I would love to use our Mountain Mint that grows wild on our property. Too bad it’s not in season just yet.*
Pour the strawberry mint filling into the uncooked pie crust.
Now, roll out the other section of dough. Cut into a square, and then slice off thin strips for the lattice effect on the top of the pie.
I AM NOT GOOD AT LATTICE TOPS!! Maybe I’m too impatient, maybe I have too many kids to keep under control in the background. Whatever the excuse, I did not make a perfect lattice crust. ☹ I attempted, and while it’s not perfect, I still think it’s pretty. Again, sorry to offend those bakers out there who know what they’re doing. Please make this pie and send me pictures of your beautiful top crust!
This pie will need to bake for around 45 minutes. Just keep an eye on the crusts. When the berry filling starts bubbling in the middle, it is done.
Let it cool a bit, and it is perfect served with some Whipped Cream. See this recipe for a variation with…you guessed it…strawberries.
Strawberry Mint Pie Recipe
3 cups sliced strawberries
¼ cup sugar
—Let this mixture sit in the fridge overnight.—
The next day:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put strawberry mixture to boil for around 10 minutes.
Add ¼ cup chopped mint.
Boil another few minutes.
Pour into pie crust.
Add top crust.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until the center starts to bubble.
Serve with Whipped Cream.
