I made this dish, called “Cindy Crawford’s Strawberry pie, at the risk of getting a flood of traffic from porn seekers. To those who came here looking for something of the less clothed variety, I say a bright “Hello!” and warn them that there’s only food porn on this site.
I saw Cindy Crawford making this pie on Oprah three times (yes they run rerun after rerun of Oprah here) and it wasn’t until I saw it for a third time that I thought I’d give this a go. I am naturally suspicious of a Supermodel dishing up cooking advice – someone who used to get paid to not eat telling us what to eat seems somewhat ludicrous but I liked the idea of a strawberry pie. One thing that I thought was hilarious was that her hotel and bar entrepreneur husband apparently wouldn’t eat something if he knew it had rhubarb in it. Snails maybe but harmless rhubarb? Truly odd.
Of course when it’s done on TV it sounds breezily easy and it’s not especially hard, especially as you are making your own pastry, but it does take time to roll out the pastry which I found somewhat resistant to all of my rolling pin manipulations. It’s a good opportunity to get out any frustrations though and picturing someone loathed under your rolling pin will make the time rolling more satisfying. Once the pastry is done, washing and slicing the strawberries takes a bit of time unless of course you’ve got those giant hulking GM strawberries the size of a child’s fist. Cindy made hers with rhubarb but I stuck to just strawberries as the rhubarb I saw at the shops this week was in woeful condition at a criminally high price.
My friend Nic made this a few days before me at the risk of hearing some of her husband’s jokes about “dreaming of Cindy Crawford’s Pie” and both of us forgot the step of adding the cubed butter which doesn’t really matter in the long run. She made the strawberry and rhubarb version which she declared really, really delicious.
If you’re eating it warm from the oven, one word of warning: it is by no means one of those “solid packed” pies, the filling is quite runny and wet as you can see from the picture. Perhaps the addition of cornflour would help thicken it and keep the filling together. The crust however is quite good and as far as pie crusts go as it’s low maintenance (no rolling then putting the the fridge for an hour or blind baking) but tastes as good as, or better than, a regular sweet pie crust. The top is a little crunchy whilst the bottom is sturdy and delicious and does well to soak up the juices without going entirely soggy.
Strawberry Pie
This recipe was originally from Saveur magazine
Ingredients:
Crust
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose or plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 6 tablespoons cold milk
Filling
- 1 1/4 cups plus 2 teaspoons sugar extra for sprinkling
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cups halved strawberries (or 2 cups of strawberries and 2 cups of thinly sliced rhubarb). I originally used 4 1/2 cups of strawberries but the pie runneth over on the edges.
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut in squares
- 2 teaspoons milk
- 1 pie dish, greased
1. To make crust, preheat oven to 400°F/200°C. Mix flour and salt. Measure oil and milk together but don’t stir them together. Add to flour and combine and once combined, divide the dough into two, one slightly bigger round that the other. Roll out crust on greaseproof paper with a rolling pin and place the slightly bigger rolled out round in the base. Set aside the other rolled out round for the top.
2. To make filling combine sugar, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add fruit, stirring to coat. You can do this step ahead of time and set it aside in fridge and drain it later. If you’re adding blueberry or peach, do add lemon zest.
3. Fill crust with filling. Scatter butter (and try not to forget this like my friend Nic and I did). Add top pastry round and pinch edges and seal the pastry and ventilate the top by cutting a hole in the top. Brush with milk and sprinkle extra sugar on top. Bake on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes. If you find the edges are cooking too fast, cover them with tinfoil.
Allow to cool 1 hour before serving if you can resist.
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20 Comments | Add your own
mmm I may have to get myself a pie dish to make this now!
This looks delicious! SOO many strawberries!
I’ve made something similar, but made it with store bought pastry, and had poached rhubarb and strawberry. This has to be my all time favourite Oprah/Nigella recipe: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/food/recipesdesserts/food_20030718_chocolate
leave out the white choc chips as they’re totally unnecessary, and if you like substitute 1 tbs of almond or hazelnut meal to make it slightly chewy texture. These can cook for as little as 12 minutes to as long as 20. The longer you cook, the cakier the texture…serve with a scopp of good quality vanilla icecream!
Mmmm this is better than pictures of Cindy Crawford
Looks and sounds delicious! A must try ^^
Ooooh yummy and strawberries are just coming into season in the shops. I’ll be making this this weekend I think.
Question – I’ve been looking around for somewhere to get a slab of marble for making pastry. Do you know anywhere that sells marble pastry boards?
oh no, what a pity u didn’t bring your strawberry kit. it would have been so much easier to wash, hull and slice…
and i hate rhubarb as well.
Hi Kathy-Yes you’re in the country of pies now!
Hi Cappucino-it was indeed, I think it was 3-4 punnets of strawberries in the end!
Hi Reemski-the original recipe is using rhubarb and strawberry. The pastry is pretty easy to make. I am a bit hesitant about doing my own pastry but the demo on Oprah showed me it was easy.
Oh yes I remember seeing Nigella demo it and I remember everyone that tried it loved it. I made it once ages ago and it was indeed very good.
Hi FFichiban-I totally agree!
Definitely one to try with all of the fabulous fruit coming up for summer.
Hi SydneyGal-Yes there are strawberries everywhere nowadays so I couldn’t resist!
I think places such as the Essential Ingredient might have a marble board, elsewhere there is the chef’s warehouse in Surry Hills and I’ve seen chef supply stores elsewhere-there’s also one in the St Leonards/Crows Nest area.
Hi blythe-Yes the strawberry kit would have been handy (and cute). Maybe during summer when you bring it back?
Have you even eaten rhubarb?
drippy, oozy food porn. i love it. nicely done, cindy crawford, and masterfully done, nqn.
I adore your opening paragraph to this post! So clever, so simple, and yet so funny. I’m still giggling about it & your bright hello.
This pie looks luscious, although I, like you, would be a bit wary of any pie recipe hailing from a ex-supermodel.
I have to say though, it looks like Cindy can make a mean strawberry-rhubarb pie.
i once had a piece of rhubarb tart in denmark and i had a small piece of rhubarb before picking the rest of the pieces off the tart crust. i couldn’t possibly have any more… i can barely manage strawberries.
I know what you mean by the rolling manipulations! I once tried making my mum’s pineapple pie recipe and the rolling almost made me give up on the rest! But I still think strawberries all the way!
yum!
Hi grace-At first I was upset about the ooze but then I embraced it
Thankyou!
Hi Sandie-When I first said to friends, that’s the first thing they thought of
Who’d have thought that a supermodel would actually be cooking a great pie and sharing the recipe? Will wonders never cease?
Hi blythe-Now I’m afraid that’s where I don’t believe you. I don’t think you’ve ever ordered a fruit dessert that didn’t have some sort of chocolate or cream component.
Hi Carolyn-My arms were a bit sore after it! I felt like I should take up weightlifting so that I can roll pastry easier
I’m stunned by the fact that a supermodel can cook or bake…
This really looks fantastic, Lorraine!
I’m famous!
I can vouch that this pie is utterly delicious: everyone bake it NOW!
I am not big on making my own pastry, but the use of oil instead of butter (and the fact that even a supermodel could make it) had me feeling brave. I agree it takes a bit of effort with the rolling, but nothing my weakling arms couldn’t handle.
I’m still giggling that we both forgot the butter. I don’t think I’ll bother with it in the future, and i can feel slightly less guilty about shoveling in a second piece
Hi Patricia-Me too! I know, if I hadn’t seen it for myself on Oprah I wouldn’t have believed it either
Thanks so much!
Hi Nic-Yes you are! I remember we were talking about making it and you dove right in and baked it with great results so I had to make one.
Yes it was just gorgeous and I don’t think it needed the butter at all. So it’s healthy right?
I saw this on Oprah, and was dieing to make it straight away! I finally made it over the weekend, and while it was really tasty I would halve the sugar next time. It was a little jammy and too sweet for my liking – even with the tartness of the rhubarb. I would prefer to taste the freshness of the strawberries. Nethertheless it was all gone a couple of hours later!
Hi Lucinda-I think the sugar in my pie was correct as I just used strawberries and they weren’t very sweet. I wonder can you get sweet strawberries anymore? I don’t care if they’re massive or not, just sweet!
Hi NQN, I grow my own strawberries in summer and they are very sweet! In a total different league to store bought. If you are up to the challenge (mind you it is not very difficult) I think this is the only way to get true strawberry flavour. I buy the old fashion varieties from Diggers, and they even deliver them to my door! They are great for heirloom tomatoes too!
Hi Lucinda-You are very lucky
I wish had space and/or a garden to do that. I’ve been curious about heirloom tomatoes too.
such a great post!
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