I archetypal tasted Big Boy’s legendary strawberry pastry during a household roadworthy travel done Michigan. It was a sweltering July afternoon, and we stopped astatine a Big Boy edifice to flight the heat. The server suggested their celebrated strawberry pie, and from the infinitesimal that archetypal forkful of juicy berries and buttery crust deed my tongue, I was hooked. Ever since then, I’ve been recreating this nostalgic dessert successful my kitchen, perfecting the look implicit years of summertime baking sessions.

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If you’ve ne'er experienced the joyousness of a Big Boy strawberry pie, you’re successful for a treat. This iconic dessert features plump, caller strawberries encased successful a saccharine homemade glaze, each nestled successful a flaky, buttery crust. Unlike galore strawberry pastry recipes that trust connected artificial strawberry Jello, this mentation uses a scratch-made glaze that lets the earthy spirit of caller berries radiance through.
Why This Recipe Works
This homemade mentation mightiness conscionable beryllium amended than the restaurant’s original! The operation of caller berries and made-from-scratch glaze creates a dessert that’s:
- Bursting with authentic strawberry flavor
- Not overly saccharine oregon artificial tasting
- Easy to marque with elemental ingredients
- Perfect for showcasing seasonal berries
- A guaranteed crowd-pleaser astatine summertime gatherings
Ingredients
Fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and buttery pastry crust spell unneurotic well. These ingredients marque the cleanable springtime pie. Here is what you need:
For the Crust:
- All-purpose flour – Creates the operation for the crust, providing that classical flaky texture
- Powdered sugar – Adds sweetness portion keeping the crust tender, dissimilar granulated sugar, which tin marque it tougher
- Butter – Provides richness and that distinctive buttery spirit portion creating flaky layers erstwhile baked
- Vanilla – Enhances the wide spirit profile, adding extent and warmth to complement the saccharine berries
- Water – Binds the adust ingredients together, helping to signifier a cohesive dough
For the Glaze:
- Granulated sugar – Sweetens the glaze portion helping it execute the close consistency erstwhile cooked
- Salt – Balances the sweetness and enhances the earthy strawberry flavor
- Cornstarch – Acts arsenic a thickening agent, giving the glaze assemblage and allowing it to acceptable properly
- Red nutrient coloring – An optional constituent that enhances the ocular entreaty by giving the glaze a vibrant reddish color
- Water – Dissolves the sweetener and cornstarch, creating the basal for the glaze
For Assembly and Serving:
- Fresh strawberries – The prima constituent that provides caller flavor, texture and earthy sweetness
- Whipped cream – Adds a creamy, airy opposition to the saccharine berries and buttery crust
How to Select Perfect Strawberries
The concealed to an outstanding strawberry pastry lies successful choosing the champion berries. Here’s however to prime strawberries similar a pro:
- Choose integrated erstwhile possible – Conventional strawberries often incorporate residue from pesticides, truthful integrated options are worthy the other cost.
- Look for afloat ripe berries – Unlike immoderate fruits, strawberries don’t proceed to ripen aft harvesting. Select berries that are agleam reddish passim with nary achromatic oregon greenish patches.
- Check for freshness – Fresh strawberries person vibrant greenish caps and a saccharine aroma. Avoid berries with dry, brownish stems oregon those that look dull.
- Inspect each sides of the container – Don’t conscionable justice by the apical layer! Turn the instrumentality implicit to cheque for mold, moisture, oregon damaged berries hiding below.
- Size isn’t everything – While smaller chaotic strawberries are often intensely flavored, galore modern varieties are bred to beryllium some ample and sweet, truthful don’t disregard bigger berries.

How to Make Big Boy Strawberry Pie
- Make the crust by combining flour, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

- Mix good and property into the bottommost and up the sides of a 9-inch pastry pan. Prick each over.
- Bake the crust astatine 350 degrees for astir 10 to 15 minutes oregon until lightly browned. Remove it from the oven and fto it chill completely.
- While the crust is baking, premix water, granulated sugar, salt, cornstarch, and nutrient coloring successful a tiny saucepan, navigator implicit mean heat, stirring constantly, for astir 5 minutes, until thickened. Set speech to cool.

- When the crust is cool, heap the berries successful the crust and determination the thickened glaze implicit the top.
- Refrigerate until the glaze is set.

- Serve with a dollop of whipped pick oregon whipped dessert topping.

Tips for making, baking, and storing a caller strawberry pie
- Are you frightened of making pastry? It’s not a problem. You tin inactive marque this caller strawberry pastry utilizing a premade crust. Try a elemental Saltine cracker crust for thing antithetic but delicious.
- Avoid a soggy bottom. Keeping the bottommost crust from getting excessively bedewed tin beryllium frustrating. Try lightly coating the wrong of the unbaked crust with a beaten ovum and placing the pastry tin connected a preheated baking sheet.
- Store the pastry successful the fridge for up to 5 days. Keep the pastry successful the pastry cookware connected the antagonistic until it cools completely. Wrap it lightly with integrative wrapper and enactment it successful the fridge.
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Big Boy Strawberry Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 ounces butter at country temperature
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Strawberry pastry filling ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon red nutrient coloring
- 1 quart strawberries rinsed, stemmed, and dried
- 1 pint whipped cream for garnish
Instructions
Pie Crust Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the crust by combining the flour, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix good and property into the bottommost and up the sides of a 9-inch pastry pan. Prick each over.
- Bake for astir 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and fto chill completely.
Strawberry Pie Filling Instructions
- While the crust is baking, premix the water, granulated sugar, salt, cornstarch, and nutrient coloring successful a tiny saucepan. Cook implicit mean heat, stirring constantly, for astir 5 minutes, until thickened. Set speech to cool.
- When the crust is cool, heap the berries successful the crust and determination the thickened glaze implicit the top. Refrigerate until the glaze is set. Serve with a dollop of whipped pick oregon whipped dessert topping.
Video
Notes
Troubleshooting Tips
- Runny glaze? Cook the glaze until it’s visibly thickened. If it’s inactive excessively bladed aft cooling, reheat it with a spot much cornstarch.
- Soggy crust? Brush the wrong of your crust with beaten ovum achromatic earlier baking, creating a moisture barrier.
- Are the strawberries turning mushy? Make definite your glaze is wholly cooled earlier pouring it implicit the strawberries. A hot glaze tin navigator and soften the caller berries.
- Is the crust crumbling erstwhile serving? Be definite you’ve pressed the crust firmly into the pan, particularly astir the edges.
Nutrition
Substitutions and Dietary Modifications
- Gluten-Free Option: Substitute the all-purpose flour with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. Add 1/4 spoon of xanthan gum if your blend doesn’t already see it.
- Vegan Variation: Replace the food with a plant-based food instrumentality (not spread) and usage coconut whipped pick alternatively of dairy whipped cream.
- Reduced Sugar: Cut the sweetener successful the glaze by up to 25% without dramatically affecting the set. You tin besides usage a granulated sweetener alternate that measures similar sugar.
- No Food Coloring: Skip the reddish nutrient coloring wholly for a much earthy look, oregon usage a fewer drops of beet foodstuff for earthy coloring.
- Alternative Crusts: Try a graham cracker crust, shortbread crust, oregon adjacent a elemental no-bake cooky crust if you’re abbreviated connected time.
Storage and Make-Ahead Tips
- Refrigerator Storage: This pastry volition support successful the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Cover loosely with integrative wrapper to forestall condensation from dripping onto the pastry surface.
- Freezing: While you tin frost the baked crust, the assembled pastry doesn’t frost good owed to the caller strawberries. They’ll merchandise excessively overmuch moisture erstwhile thawed.
- Make-Ahead Components: Prepare the crust and glaze up to 2 days ahead. Store the baked crust astatine country somesthesia covered successful foil, and support the glaze refrigerated successful an airtight container.
- Reheating: This pastry is served chilled and doesn’t necessitate reheating. If you’ve refrigerated the glaze separately, it whitethorn request to beryllium warmed somewhat to bladed earlier pouring implicit berries.
Do you emotion Strawberries? Check retired these Strawberry Recipes
More Delicious Pie Recipes
- Best Millionaire Pie Recipe
- Baker’s Coconut Custard Pie Recipe
- Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe
- Easy Rhubarb Custard Pie
- Million Dollar Pie
- Chocolate Pie
- Raisin Pie with Sour Cream
- Double Cream Blueberry Pie
- Easy Coconut Cream Pie
Be definite to look astatine adjacent much of my easy pastry recipes and favorite edifice copycat recipes.
Why This Big Boy Strawberry Pie Will Become Your New Tradition
There’s thing magical astir serving a homemade strawberry pastry that looks similar it belongs successful a edifice show case. Each clip I marque this Big Boy-inspired strawberry pie, it takes maine backmost to that archetypal memorable portion – but present I get to make those memories for my household and friends.
This look was submitted by Pat Collins.