Old Fashion Strawberry Pie

I must admit I don't make pies as much as my family would prefer. Let's face it homemade pies take time to prepare and a while to bake. I'm more of a quick cobbler or crisp type of gal if I'm going to make a dessert. But, when we visit the strawberry patch, a homemade Old Fashion Strawberry Pie is definitely a must!

As is my custom when we go on any family outing, I always make sure I have a dinner in the crockpot ~ trust me y'all, no one wants to come home and cook after spending time away having fun. If you're like our family, eating out just isn't an option, so crockpot meals are the next best option. Make it a 'dump' crockpot meal and that makes it even better! (You know those meals when all you have to do is dump the ingredients into the pot with no prep work ~ my absolute favorite meals!!)

This year we went to the strawberry patch, enjoyed our visit, came back home and prepped the strawberries for the freezer. Once we got them into the freezer, my daughter and I started making the pie ~ completely from scratch, including the crust. We put the pie in the but about the time it was ready for us to remove it from the oven I received a phone call. Welllll wouldn't you know when I retuned from my phone call the above picture is all that was left of my pretty pie. No beautiful pie to take a picture of, just a tiny sliver, all crumpled and mangled. I'm assuming that meant everyone liked the pie since it was nearly gone and I heard zero complaints, lol.

Old Fashion Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

2 nine-inch pie crust

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1/3 cu all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup corn starch

4 cups fresh strawberries washed and sliced thin

2 tbsp cold butter divided

Directions

Place one pie crust in bottom of nine-inch pie plate. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, cornstarch and strawberries in a bowl and toss lightly. Pour strawberry mixture over pie crust. Place butter on top of strawberry mixture. Cover with top pie crust, crimp edges with a fork and poke holes in top of pie crust to allow for venting. Bake 35-45 minutes @ 375* until pie is slightly brown. Wait to cut until cool or pie will be runny.

Even though we're still a few weeks away from the official start of summer, for me, strawberry picking and this Old Fashion Strawberry Pie is our kick-off for summer. While this pie isn't the healthiest version out there, it sure is delicious and worth the splurge. Some things are just worth making the real deal, after all we only live once and moderation is a key component to life. I'm so grateful I have easy recipes like this one to make and share with my family. Food and family truly do go hand in hand.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Easy Southern Pound Cake

There's nothing better than strawberry shortcake to ring in summer ~ other than, maybe watermelon (for those of who may not know I'm slightly obsessed with watermelon, lol).  This 4th of July I was requested to make homemade pound cake to go along with strawberries & syrup also known as strawberry shortcake. So of course I was happy to oblige since food is seriously my love language. It fills me with great joy to prepare food my family likes and requests!

Now, when I was growing up strawberry shortcake looked a whole lot different than my kids are accustomed too. My people are slightly spoiled and I'm not even sure if they've ever had it the way I ate it as a child. The version of strawberry shortcake I enjoyed was simply those little round store-bought pound cakes with fresh strawberries and if we were lucky, some cool whip. Hey, I'm not complaining, I have fond memories of eating those tasty little dessert cakes and could throw down more than my fair share, but like I said this is NOT the rendition of strawberry shortcake my people know and love.

When I get the request for strawberry shortcake it's a little bit more of a labor of love and I'm super okay with that. It begins with a from-scratch pound cake and ends with a sugary cooked strawberry syrup. Since my family can quickly gobble my pound cakes up with or without strawberries, I typically make a double batch and freeze some to enjoy at a later time. Yes, I'm always planning for the next meal, that's the only way to stay ahead of the game with my large crew!

This 4th of July dessert baking was spear headed by my oldest daughter, Tabitha. On a side note folks ~ teach your kids to cook, it's absolutely the BEST to be in the kitchen with your kids as they get older. Yes, it may be a pain when they're younger, but it's a parenting effort that has huge positive returns in the future that you will NOT regret!

My favorite recipe for Pound Cake is actually a hand-me-down from my dear friend Denise. When you find a recipe that works you just got to roll with it no matter where it comes from. So I give a special thanks to her because boy has it become a family favorite!

Easy Southern Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of salted butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions 

Pre-heat oven to 325* Cream butter and sugar, add sour cream and mix. Sift baking soda and flour, add to the cream mixture, alternating with the eggs. Beat one egg at a time. Add vanilla. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan. Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until done.

Notes

I must add a few side notes to how I make these delicious pound cakes. First, I've never actually baked it in the tube pan, I always use my mini pans (which I absolutely LOVE) and regular loaf pans.  When I doubled the recipe for the 4th of July I had enough batter for two regular loaf pans and eight mini loaf pans. I baked them for around an hour. As for the ingredients I use farm fresh eggs and homemade vanilla extract ~ neither of which is necessary. but I do think they add to the yummy flavor of these fabulous little pound cakes. And on a final note, I like to cook mine a little longer so the outside of the cakes are nice and crunchy. Obviously, this is a preference of how you like your pound cakes.

I was quite thankful I had made a double batch of these delicious cakes for our Independence Day celebration because they went FAST! If you're looking for a sweet treat that everyone is sure to love this summer, I highly recommend these pound cakes as they whip up super fast (even if they do take a while to bake) and they happen to be absolutely divine. 😋

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

P.S. I'll share my simple strawberry syrup recipe soon. After all it is the best topping for a fresh baked pound cake!