Sarah Plato
Tender Pie Dough– makes 1 1/2 pie-2 (9inch rounds)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/2-1 Tsp Sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance non-dairy/soy free butter spread (cold)
1/2 cup Spectrum dairy-free/soy free butter flavored shortening
1/2 cup ice water
Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees. Place the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter spread and shortening and hand mix using a pastry cutter or hand masher- (what I use), until the mixture resembles small crumbs. Add the ice water and continue mixing with the metal masher/pastry cutter until the dough just holds together- not to sticky not too wet. Then pop the bowl into the fridge for 5 mins or so while you clean and flour a counter and get out your rolling pin. Turn out the dough onto your work surface and roll out slightly and work into two discs. Wrap each disc into saran wrap and place flat discs in the fridge for at least 1 hour- can be stored up to 3 weeks. Take out after and hour and roll out to a 9 inch pie plate size. I use a pastry mat to make judging size easy. Drape your dough over your clean arm or rolling pin to transfer to your pie plate then gently press in to fit the pie plate. Fold and trim your edges then flute your edges and prick your bottom and sides with a fork- (since this is a cold pie not a hot one like apple or peach where we would bake the fruit with the crust. This one the crust is baked ahead of time and the pie sets in the fridge.) That’s why it tastes so good when its hot out. 🙂 Bake pie in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 mins or so watching it closely – when it turns a golden brown take it out. You can put a pie ring on it if you see the outer crust getting too brown compared to the center not quite being cooked. Also if you see the center beginning to rise pull it out quickly and prick it more in the raised area… you can also use pie beans as a weight. Then return it to finish baking if necessary. Let it completely cool- can place it in the fridge to speed this up.
Filling: makes 2 -9 inch pies
3 Tbsp Cornstarch
2 sm pkg Strawberry Jello
2 lbs+ of fresh organic super sweet -ripe strawberries (bad berries= bad pie!)
4 Tbsp Sugar
1 1/3 cup water
Wash and prep your berries- cut them how you like them.. I left them whole today but I usually quarter them after cutting off the stems and place them in a large mixing bowl. In a large pot mix Jello, cornstarch and sugar. Stir well then add the water and stir well again. Set on the stove and heat on high until it starts to boil then turn it down to a very low heat- Stirring constantly!!! Very important to stir constantly when the heat is on this mixture. Once the mixture goes from a cloudy state to a clear state turn off the heat. Pour over your prepped strawberries in the large bowl and toss to coat. Then pour into your baked and cooled pie crust. Adjust top berries if necessary to make it look completely filled then pop in the fridge for about 30-1 hr. Enjoy!!!
