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This Fresh Strawberry Pie Recipe is the perfect berry pie for summer. I made this pie without jello so it uses the fruit to naturally gel the pie filling. It’s my GO TO recipe and one that everyone who tastes it loves.

overhead shot of pie with whipped cream and berries around.

You will love this easy pie for so many reasons:

It’s completely from scratch – from the pie crust to the filling
Made without jello or gelatin – the fruit makes it’s own!
Great way to use up fresh summer strawberries

If you love strawberries this is the best way to use them! I cannot think about strawberries and summer without thinking about the strawberry fields in Anaheim – the sweet sticky air of the early summer mornings walking from the campground to Disneyland.

When you’re making a fresh strawberry pie filling, you cook some of the fruit like you would jam. The pectin in the fruit gels it enough when mixed with sugar and cornstarch that you don’t need the gelatin for it to solidify. It’s almost like you’re making an apple pie filling, but with strawberries, and then you mix the filling with more fresh berries to take the shape of the pie. This strawberry pie recipe brings back so many memories and it will bring back your childhood summer memories too!

Ingredients Needed

Fresh Strawberries – it’s always a question of how many strawberries you need for a pie. For this recipe you need 6-8 cups of berries, which is about 2-3 pounds. Buy 3 pounds of berries, just to be safe.
Granulated Sugar for sweetness
Cornstarch for thickening – no gelatin
Water
Pie Crust: you can use any you like but traditionally this is made with a pastry crust – use a store bought crust or make my all butter pie crust.

Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

How to make Strawberry Pie

Crust: Blind Bake your crust according to package or recipe directions.
Berries: Measure out two cups of berries, wash and hull them, then crush them with a potato masher.
Cook the filling: Add the crushed strawberries, sugar, water, and cornstarch to a medium saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until it boils. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
Chill, cover with plastic wrap, and cool completely before continuing. (You can also make this the day before.) The mixture will be very thick once cooled.
Assemble: To assemble strawberry pie, hull and slice the remaining strawberries and place them in a medium bowl. Pour the cooled strawberry pie filling over the top and stir.
Place strawberry mixture in pie dish.
Chill and Serve: Chill for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving. Top with fresh whipped cream before serving.

sliced pie in clear pie plate with whipped cream.

slice of strawberry pie on white plate with fork and dollup of cool whip with full pie behind.

Expert Tips

I blind baked my pie crust on a baking sheet so it’s easy to get into and out of the oven.
You can make the filling (without the added in fresh berries) 24 hours in advance. It needs to cool completely so it’s best to do it ahead. The mixture will be very thick once cooled. It should be COLD before you add the berries or the pie will weep.
If your pie is weepy or watery it’s most likely because you didn’t allow the berries to fully cool. If the mixture is at all warm it’ll cause the fresh berries to weep, making your pie runny.
I don’t recommend using frozen berries in this pie – they will be too wet and cause the pie to be runny.
Don’t assemble the pie until the day you’re going to eat it.
The mixture is thick like jam once cooled overnight. When you mix it with your berries there should be a bit of excess jam but not too much. There is a sweet spot between too much (pie falling apart) and not enough (again, pie falling apart). Add extra berries as needed (my recent pie used 2 1/2 pounds) – this also depends on the size of your berries. While 2 pounds is 2 pounds, different sized berries will take up different amounts of room when sliced.
This pie is not a gelatin pie recipe – without jello the pie texture and stability will be different than that of one made with gelatin, so keep that in mind.