Glazed Fresh Strawberry Pie? Yes, please!!

Mom has been making this strawberry pie recipe for as long as I can remember. As I stirred the glaze with her yesterday, I had flashbacks of all the times past I have done very same thing, with the very same pot & in the very same spot.

But this time we had an assistant who kept saying “can I help?” and “I can do it Granmog” ((I don’t know how Gracie started called mom ‘Granmog’. Gracie doesn’t yet know: ladies don’t like to be called anything that rhymes with ‘hog’ — but only Gracie can make it endearing.))

The original recipe comes from mom’s bicentennial cookbook:

Over the years, mom has adjusted Mrs. Myrtle Stonecipher’s recipe to fit our personal tastes.

We don’t use red food coloring, we ONLY use fresh strawberries & the most significant change: more glaze. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The trick is to pour the 3 oz box of strawberry Jello ((mom only had a large box so we poured out the amount we needed and saved the rest for later)) into a clear measuring cup and then pour enough sugar in the cup to reach 1 & ½ c total. Then add 4 T of cornstarch & salt and stir dry ingredients to combine (we forgot the step of combining dry ingredients first. The cornstarch was a little harder to incorporate but it still turned out prefect).

Once the dry ingredients are combined, pour them in a medium saucepan, add water, place on the stove over medium heat and stir until glaze thickens & turns from opaque to translucent.

Once the glaze turns clear, it’s time to cool it down and add 1 t of vanilla. We carefully set the pan in a cool water bath. If you have time to let it cool to room temp without placing it in a water bath then just skip this step. (It needs to be cooled so it doesn’t scald the strawberries…that would be bad.)

Reserve about ¾ c of the glaze to pour over the top of the pie, add remaining glaze to the strawberries & pour into a pre-baked pie crust. Magic is happening right here…and the smell…If only I could bottle that smell – strawberry heaven.