No Bake Strawberry Pie

My Dad's mother used to make a cold strawberry pie with graham cracker crust and whipped cream. He absolutely raves about those pies, so my sister and I have been trying to recreate it for years! Unfortunately she is not around to ask, so we have been trying to make one without much success pretty much every Father's Day. After scouring the web for all different recipes and a little, (read A LOT) of trial and error, I got a good one! This pie tastes soooooo good, it's perfect for summer, and it is really simple!

What You Will Need:

A Pre-Made Graham Cracker Crust (Trust me on this one, they are really hard to make from scratch.)

Corn Starch

Sugar

Water

One Small Package of Strawberry Jello

LOTS of Strawberries

One Container of Cool Whip

First rinse and cut up lots of strawberries. I used a little more than 2 packages, 

but it depends on the size of the berries. The ones I used were pretty big, 

so you may need more if you get small ones. 

Cut them length wise and separate the end slices from the center ones.

Then take the ends of the strawberries and place them skin down on the bottom of the pie crust.

Doing this keeps the bottom of the crust from getting coated in the gelatin and getting soggy.

Now you are going to go ahead and layer in slices of strawberries. 

Make sure to place them in rings around the exterior and work your way into the center of the pie. 

Try to stack a little higher in the center so that it kind of has a peak in the middle. 

The tighter you pack in the strawberries the fewer pockets of strawberry Jello. 

I prefer to tightly pack the strawberries and minimize the gelatin areas. 

I like to have the gelatin be more of a glaze to hold it all together.

If you love Jello, or you are too impatient to individually place strawberry slices, throw them in there!

Once you have the strawberries in there, go ahead and mix:

a cup and a half of water,

a cup and a quarter of sugar,

and three tablespoons of corn starch in a sauce pan.

Once you've got those three ingredients mixed, place the sauce pan on high heat and stir until it boils.

You will see some bubbling around the edges to start, but wait for bubbles in the middle. 

You will see and feel the mixture thicken substantially and it will happen quickly.

Once you've got a thick, bubbling mixture, turn off the heat and stir it to cool it down a bit.

Then go ahead and stir in the packet of Jello.

Now that you've got some thick strawberry goo, go ahead and pour it over top of the strawberries.

Try to coat all of the berries on top, while moving all over the surface and 

letting it get down into the cracks between the berries.

Next you are going to carefully lift your pie, and it will be heavy, 

and stick it in the fridge for 5-6 hours.

You will know it has chilled long enough when you touch some of the Jello on top 

and it does not stick to your finger.

 Then you got to glob on some cool whip and spread it across the top.

You can add a nice fanned out strawberry on top to make it look pretty!

Josh and I were too anxious to taste it, so I forgot the strawberry garnish on top.