My first wedding anniversary is right around the corner, so naturally this calls for pie!  This is a recipe that my husband and I developed together while we were dating.  It’s been through several revisions since then, but the version I’m presenting today is the one we served at our wedding (along with six other varieties of pie, of course).  It’s just the right mixture of strawberry and chocolate, as well as crunchy and smooth.

It’s been awhile since I last made this pie (apparently a whole year, as it turns out), so I had forgotten how simple it is.  It only takes a little bit of sugar to bring out the flavor of the strawberries, and the chocolate is an obvious complement.  Normally, I only use ⅓ cup of sugar, but I decided to increase it a little bit because this batch was particularly tart.  I recommend tasting at least 1 strawberry and making your own assessment (and maybe buying extra, just in case).

You will need the following ingredients:

For the crust:

• 1½ cups chocolate graham crackers or cookies, crushed
• 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 2 lbs. fresh strawberries, rinsed and dried
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn starch

For the topping:

• ⅓ cup heavy cream
• 4 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
• 5-7 strawberries, rinsed and sliced

For baking ambiance:

• Yes, I know it’s exceedingly cheesy, but I had to listen to the Plain White T’s for this bakeventure.  1, 2, 3, 4 is our song, so it just made sense.

Let’s get baking!

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

First, you’ll need to crush your graham crackers or cookies until they have the consistency of sand.  I use a food processor for this, but a blunt instrument is just as effective (it’ll just take longer).  If you crush your cookies by hand, I suggest putting them in a plastic bag and then putting that inside a paper bag to minimize breakage and mess.

Stir the melted butter into the cookie crumbs until the butter is evenly-distributed and the mixture holds a shape when pressed.

Press the cookie mixture into a 9″ pie plate.  If you have another pie plate of the same size, you can press that on top of the crust to distribute it evenly (this works pretty well).  If not, you can use your hands or a rubber spatula to press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides.

Bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, or until it starts to harden.  (I accidentally left mine in the oven for 20 minutes and it turned out fine, so you should be okay erring on the longer side of the estimate.)  Set this aside to cool while you make your strawberry filling.

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch.  Reserve 5-7 of the strawberries for decoration.  Chop the rest up and put them in a large saucepan.  I tend to make my pieces pretty small, but it’s not necessary to invest too much effort into this because the strawberries will break down as they cook.

Heat the strawberries on medium-low until they begin to break down, as mentioned, and released most of their juice.

Stir the sugar and cornstarch mixture into the strawberries and increase the heat to medium-high.

Bring the strawberries to a boil, stirring regularly, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the mixture is roughly the consistency of jam (it will probably be a little thinner).

Pour the strawberry filling into the crust and bake the pie for 10 minutes.  You won’t really see much of a difference in the pie, but I think it helps to firm the filling a little.

Let the pie cool for at least an hour, then prepare the ganache.  Put the chocolate chips in a glass or stoneware bowl and the cream in a small saucepan.  Heat the cream until it just comes to a boil (mine went a little too far, so try to stop yours before it boils this much).

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let them sit for 5 minutes.  Whisk the chocolate and cream until a smooth ganache forms.

Spread the ganache on top of the pie.

Slice the remaining strawberries and decorate as desired (my preferred formation is a pi symbol, naturally).

You can serve this right away, but it will probably be a bit soupy, so your best bet is to refrigerate the pie overnight before serving.

Enjoy!

You can download the printable PDF recipe here: Chocolate Strawberry Pie