This recipe takes a little from here and there, and makes one good pie! It's a great combination, that tastes like a chocolate-covered strawberry. There are quite a few steps, but they were worth it. I made this for a family barbecue and it was gone in a flash.
Total Time: About 40 minutes to make, but with time in between.
Yield: 8-10 slices
Source: The crust is from the Pioneer Woman.
Ingredients:
- Crust
- 4 cups pretzel sticks, crushed with a rolling pin
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- Chocolate Coating
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp shortening
- Cream Filling
- 1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 container (8oz) Cool Whip
- Strawberry Topping
- 2 lb (a little less) strawberries
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp cornstarch
Steps:
- Crush pretzel sticks in a closed gallon-sized baggie, with a rolling pin.
- You don't want the pieces too big or too small. It's not recommended to do this step in a food processor.
- Melt butter in the microwave for a few seconds.
- Mix pretzel sticks with melted butter and brown sugar.
- Press mixture firmly into the pie pan to make sure the crust will stay together.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes. Let crust cool.
- Melt chocolate chips and shortening. Microwave for 25 seconds.
- Stir. Microwave a little more and stir until smooth.
- Once pie crust is cooled, you are going to "paint" a chocolate layer on the crust.
- Spread the melted chocolate on the crust, covering as much of the crust as you can. Let the chocolate set and cool down before adding the next mixture.
- Mix softened cream cheese and sugar on low speed of electric mixture. Mix until smooth.
- Add half a container of Cool Whip (save the other half for topping the pie, if desired).
- Mix until incorporated and fluffy.
- Pour cream mixture on top of chocolate pretzel crust. Spread to the edges.
- Put the cream filled crust in the refrigerator to set up a bit before adding the strawberries.
- Cut up 1/2 cup of your fresh strawberries. Put in a sauce pan. Smash with a potato masher, if you have one. If not, you can use a fork.
- Add 1/2 cup of water. Heat over medium-high heat. Boil for 1 minute. Take off heat.
- Strain strawberry mixture through fine-mesh sieve. Press down on the berries to get all that juice out.
- Return the strawberry "juice" back to your pan. Add sugar and cornstarch. Whisk until cornstarch is dissolved. Heat over medium-high heat until mixture is thickened.
- Either wait for the mixture to cool in the pan or put in ice bath to speed up the cooling. For ice bath, put mixture in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, add ice and water. Put the smaller container on top of the ice. The surrounding ice will cool it down. Just stir it every few minutes.
- While waiting for the mixture to cool, slice your remaining strawberries.
- Pour the strawberry glaze over your strawberries.
- Let pie set up for a few hours. Serve with Cool Whip on top, if you would like.
- Spoon glazed strawberries over cream mixture.
You can also use white chocolate, if you like. I always paint the chocolate with a pretzel crust or regular flaky pie crust, when I make strawberry pie to make sure the crust doesn't get soggy.