No-Bake Quick & Easy Strawberry Pie Recipe

I was totally shocked to discover that strawberry pie isn’t as popular as many other fruit pies. Everyone knows and loves strawberry shortcake but when it comes to strawberry pie, it just doesn’t make the list. Of the top 10 most popular pies in the United States, strawberry is lumped together with “all other fruits.” My theory for strawberry pie not being popular is that the quality of most commercially-grown strawberries absolutely sucks. There’s a reason why most commercially-grown strawberries suck but you probably don’t want to hear it.

Strawberries are grown commercially so they’re available in stores year round. To achieve year-round availability, they have to be grown in high‑intensity, highly managed agricultural systems, according to the University of Maryland Extension Service. Unfortunately, in order to supply strawberries to the entire country, most growers pick the fruit before peak ripeness and ultimately use gas to finish the ripening process. The berries never fully reach maturity or maximum flavor because they were picked too early in the growth process.

I live in New England where local strawberries are bountiful. Locally-grown strawberries are nothing like the dried-out berries you’ll find in the supermarket. They’re fresh, loaded with juice, and ready to pop into your mouth or become the centerpiece of strawberry shortcake.

This No-Bake Strawberry Pie recipe calls for fresh strawberries. If you’re able to obtain them locally then your pie will come out a lot better than if you’re using commercially-grown berries from the supermarket. Supermarket strawberries will contain less juice because they’ve dried out. This is due to the low humidity level during storage of the berries in the store. Sorry but there’s no other way to explain it. Locally-picked strawberries will always produce a more flavor, perfect pie than store-bought berries.

What You’ll Need

Utensils & Tools

• 9=inch deep dish pie plate
• Medium bowl
• Medium saucepan
• Wire cooling rack
• Spoon or spatula
• Fork or potato masher
• Measuring cup
• Set of measuring spoons

Key Ingredients

• Fresh strawberries
• Refrigerated pie crusts
• Granulated sugar
• Flour or cornstarch
• Water
• Lemon juice

3 Simple Steps

Prepare the crust

We’ll be using refrigerated pie crusts to keep prep time to an absolute minimum. If you prefer to make your own crust, but all means bake it now. If you haven’t made crust before, check out our article – How To Make Flaky Homemade Pie Crust. Make sure the crust is completely cooled before adding the strawberry filling.

You can also use a frozen pie crust, if that’s your style. A premade graham cracker crust will make a very messy pie. The strawberry juices will make the crust soggy. If you want to scoop the pie out of the plate rather than lift out a slice, by all means try a graham cracker crust.

Make the filling

Clean the strawberries, add a few ingredients, and cook in a saucepan. This step might take 10 minutes depending on the size of the strawberries. Once the filling is ready, pour into the cooled crust.

Let it cool

Allow that sweet, flaky masterpiece to cool at room temperature. This allows the filling to thoroughly thicken.