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Half eaten slice of strawberry pie with whipped cream on top on white plate.

Fresh Strawberry Cream Pie

Yield: 10 to 10 servings
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Chilling Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust (see note):

  • 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (about 12 to 13 rectangle graham crackers/150 to 158 g)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons salted butter, melted

Strawberry Filling:

  • 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and divided (see note)
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 5 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • Pinch salt

Whipped Cream Topping:

  • 3 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cold heavy cream

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • For the crust, in a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar and mix. Stir in the melted butter until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool completely.
  • For the strawberry filling, add 1 1/2 pound (about 5 to 5 1/2 cups) of whole strawberries to a medium saucepan. Chop the remaining 1/2 pound strawberries and set aside.
  • Use a potato masher to coarsely mash the strawberries in the saucepan until the mixture is juicy and the strawberries are in small pieces.
  • Add the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until the mixture has thickened considerably, 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and stir in the reserved chopped strawberries. Let the mixture cool to room temperature (this helps to keep the crust from getting soggy).
  • Spread the strawberry filling evenly into the cooled crust. Chill while making the cream topping.
  • For the whipped cream topping, in a medium bowl with a handheld electric mixer (or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), whip together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the cold heavy cream and mix on low speed until fully combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue to mix until soft peaks form (take care not to over mix).
  • Spread the whipped cream topping over the pie. Loosely cover and refrigerate for at least two hours or up to 12 hours before serving. Serve chilled.

Notes

Crust: you can sub in a traditional pie crust for the graham cracker crust for this recipe. If doing so, the pie crust needs to be blind baked (i.e. weighed down with pie weights or dry beans and baked fully) and cooled before proceeding with the recipe.
Strawberries: for this recipe, you'll use 1 1/2 pounds of the fresh strawberries (these can stay whole) in the filling. The other 1/2 pound (these should be chopped) will get stirred into the filling after it has thickened on the stovetop. 
Pie Layers: you can swap the order of pie filling layers by spreading the cream mixture into the pie crust first and then adding the cooked strawberry mixture on top (make sure the strawberry filling is mostly cooled before spreading on top). If you do, I recommend using a deep 9.5-inch pie plate so the layers fit without spilling over thanks to the different "pie physics" that happen when the pie filling goes on top.