Summer Already? Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

I generally judge produce based on price. If it's cheap, it's probably good. So when I saw the first cheap strawberries of the year, I was thrilled. It seemed a little early, but I figured that maybe all the rain this year brought might account for that. I sniffed the packages, they smelled good and that should mean they taste good. So I bought 2 pounds.

Last year I spent about a month perfecting a fresh glazed strawberry pie recipe but never got around to actually baking them. Since it is still cool enough to roll out pie crust, I wanted to do something baked. Awhile back I had been promised some rhubarb and picked out a Sour Cream Rhubarb Pie recipe, but the rhubarb never came thru.

My interest in the sour cream pie has persisted, so I decided to make one with strawberries.

Unfortunately, I started cutting up the strawberries, and tasting them and they weren't good. They didn't taste like anything! (I still don't understand how they could smell delicious but have no flavor.)

Luckily I had purchased some blackberries the same day, and they were awesome. (Wish I had just stocked up on those. They followed the cheap rule.) I also had some frozen cherries in the freezer. I've always been suspicious of the frozen fruit pie idea but intrigued to try it, it could really open up the possibilities when things are out of season and I figured this was as good a time as any to give it a try.

First Try: Mixed Berry Sour Cream Pie

9” single crust

Filling:

2 cups sliced strawberries

1 cup frozen sweet cherries, thawed

1 cup blackberries

1 egg

½ cup sugar

1 cup or 8 oz sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

Crumble Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup oats

4 Tbsp butter

Roll out crust and line pie dish, use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the crust

Line with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights. Bake 20 min at 375°

Remove foil and bake another 10-15 min

Meanwhile, combine sour cream, sugar, vanilla, flour, salt, and egg

Soften (but don't melt) butter for crumble topping. Blend with sugar, flour, and oats using a fork or you hands

Fill pie shell with fruit

Pour sour cream mixture over the fruit

Spread crumble mixture evenly across the top

Bake at 425° on bottom oven rack for 20min, then lower temp to 350° and bake until edges puff and top turns golden brown (about another 15-20min for me, but that is ghetto-oven time, so yours might take longer)

The Results:

The flavor was good, but overall this pie did not meet my standards and expectations. I chose to use an egg in the custard mixture for this pie. Looking thru the recipes some people did this to ensure it would set, and I suffer from soggy bottom crust fear so this convinced me to use an egg. Unfortunately, his produced a VERY firm custard, I was looking for something softer.

Also, the amount of crumble I used completely covered the top of the pie. I was looking for a sparser covering of crumble.

Finally, this really needed a fully blind baked bottom crust. I went for more of a par-bake. Easy fix.

The frozen cherries worked wonderfully though, and may be enough evidence for me to give a full-on frozen fruit pie a try sometime.

Luckily for me, there were lots of beautiful strawberries at the farmers market the following Sunday. And of course, in this case, I got to taste them first and pick out some really delicious fruit. So I made this pie again, adjusting according to my previous results.

My second recipe is very similar to the first one. I decided to use all brown sugar, because I thought that would be a better complement to all strawberries. I omitted the egg from the custard and scaled down the crumble. If you want complete crumble coverage, stick with the previous portion.

Second Try:

Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

9” single pie crust

Filling:

3 cups sliced strawberries

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup or 8 oz sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

Crumble Topping:

2 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp flour

3 Tbsp oats

2 Tbsp butter

Roll out crust and line pie dish, use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the crust

Line with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights. Bake 20 min at 375°

Remove foil and bake another 20 min or until the inside is golden brown

Meanwhile, combine sour cream, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt

Soften (but don't melt) butter for crumble topping. Blend with sugar, flour, and oats using a fork or you hands

Fill pie shell with strawberries and pour sour cream mixture over the fruit

Sprinkle crumble mixture evenly across the top

Bake at 425° for 20min, then lower temp to 350° and bake until top turns golden brown and strawberry filling bubbles from underneath the custard

The Verdict: This pie came out awesome. I love the sour cream custard flavor with the strawberries. The only change I would make is to next time cut the strawberries into smaller chunks instead of just slicing because I think smaller pieces would be easier to eat.