Alisa Fleming, www.GoDairyFree.org ~ I still have memories of going strawberry picking with my mother every year while growing up in Portland.  We would pick an entire flat (okay, my mom would pick a flat, I would pick a bucket, and my sister would just sit there eating the berries off the bushes), and my mom would magically transform those bright red berries into a freezer full of homemade jam.  While I loved the jam, a nice Strawberry Pie (such as the one below!) would have been a welcome change of pace.  The following recipe is from The Bob's Red Mill Baking Book.  We have altered it ever so slightly to use margarine rather than butter in the pie filling (making it both dairy-free and vegan), but the rest was left untouched.  Happy strawberry season! ...

Fun Strawberry Facts from Bob's: Did you know that 1 cup of strawberries delivers about 80 milligrams of Vitamin C (136% of your recommended daily intake), as well as 3 grams of Dietary Fiber? Anthocyanins, which give strawberries their color, are powerful antioxidants that can reduce the effects of aging. They are also a good source of manganese, potassium, and folate.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

For years, children in Oregon have earned their spending money picking strawberries in the Willamette Valley. When school lets out for the summer, the school bus still comes—to take the kids to the strawberry fields instead.

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

2 cups Unbleached White Pastry Flour 

1 tsp Sea Salt 

1 cup Chilled Vegetable Shortening 

1/4 cup Ice Water 

Strawberry Pie Filling:

1/2 cup Water 

2 Tbsp plus 1/2 cup Sugar 

*2 Tbsp Arrowroot Starch 

4 cups fresh Strawberries, hulled and thickly sliced 

1 1/2 Tbsp dairy-free Margarine, chilled and diced

2 Tbsp fresh Lemon Juice 

To prepare the pie crust, place flour and salt in medium-size, chilled bowl. Break up chilled vegetable shortening and cut into flour with a fork or a pastry blender until there are pea-sized pieces of dough. Slowly add ice water one tablespoon at a time and blend with fork. Do not overwork; blend until just mixed and dough holds together. Refrigerate dough until you are ready to roll it out.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out a little more than half of the dough into a 12-inch circle. Place over a 9-inch pie plate, center, and gently tuck the dough into the pan. Trim the edges and place in the refrigerator. Roll out the second portion of dough and place and place on parchment paper or floured wax paper on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate until ready to use.

In a small saucepan, combine the water and the 2 tablespoons sugar over low to medium heat. Dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil. Cook down or about 3 or 4 minutes, remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Combine the ½ cup sugar with the arrowroot starch. Place the berries in a large bowl, and toss with the arrowroot mixture. Stir in the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the sugar syrup and gently stir.

Fill the piecrust with the strawberry mixture. Dot with the pieces of butter. Moisten the edges of the second half of the dough, place it over the fruit, and press the top and bottom edges together. Cut a few steam vents in the top of the pie.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°F and bake another 40 to 45 minutes, or until the juices bubble. If the crust begins to darken, cover the pie loosely with foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes. Makes 12 Servings.

*Cornstarch can be substituted for arrowroot starch.