Fresh Strawberry Pie with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

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For the pie:

1 9-inch pie shell, baked and cooled

5 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

¼ cup cornstarch

½ cup sugar

¼ cup honey

1 tsp. fresh lemon zest

1/8 tsp. salt

One of the best sights of Spring!

Prepare the piecrust according to the package directions and allow it to cool completely.

In a saucepot, combine half the strawberries and the rest of the ingredients and heat over medium high until the strawberries begin to cook down and it becomes thick and sauce-like.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Fold in the remaining strawberries and pour the mixture into the prepared piecrust.

Spread the strawberry filling evenly and then place the pie into the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours, or until it is completely chilled and set. 

Isn't that pretty? Doesn't it look like it's going to turn into the most amazing pie?

Serve topped with fresh whipped cream.

For the cream:

2 cups (1 pt.) heavy cream

2 vanilla beans

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

6 Tbsp. sifted confectioner’s sugar

Place the heavy cream in a saucepot along with the whole vanilla beans and heat over medium-high heat just until it begins to simmer.

Remove the cream from the heat and allow it to cool.

Take the vanilla beans out of the cream and split them down the middle.

Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla beans and stir the seeds back into the heavy cream.

Cover the heavy cream and place it into the refrigerator to chill for several hours or overnight.

Place a stainless steel bowl into the freezer to chill. Once the bowl is chilled, pour the cream mixture into the bowl.

Use an electric mixer to whip the cream.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any vanilla beans (sad day) so I just started with this step.

Once soft peaks have begun to form, add the vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar.

Continue whipping the cream until it becomes stiff. Serve the cream with the strawberry pie.

Aaaaand then the recipe ended up being a complete fail (See Below). So I got mad a dumped a bunch of the - very good - cream on top of the crumbled remains of my pie dreams.

My Rating: 1/5 "It never set. It just never set. It stayed liquid and gloopy hours - nay, DAYS - after I put it in the fridge. I even put the damn thing in the freezer for a while. So then when I went to cut it everything slopped around, the crust got crumbly, and I ended up with bowls of mixed-up mess topped in delicious cream. I don't know what went wrong, but if anybody has ideas for saving this recipe I'm all ears."