Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  

Crust:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. With a rigid pastry blender, cut in the butter until crumbly. Then quickly mix with hands until it forms a dough. Don’t worry if it seems a bit dry. Press dough evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ pie pan. Aim for a uniform thickness on all surfaces and don’t press the dough in too hard.
2. Place pie pan in oven and bake crust for 23 to 26 minutes, or until it is just lightly browned. Remove from oven, to a cooling rack, and let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Layer:

1. In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes on medium-high to high speed.
2. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff.
3. With a spatula, gently fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until evenly combined. Then transfer mixture to the cooled pie shell and spread in an even layer. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (2-4 hours is even better).

Strawberry Topping:

1. If you prefer to dress the pie with only fresh strawberries and no additional glaze (especially nice when you have sweet, beautiful strawberries), skip to Step 8, and omit the powdered sugar and cornstarch.
2. To create strawberry topping with glaze: In a medium bowl, fold together sliced strawberries and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Let stand for 30 minutes, folding gently halfway through.
3. Drain strawberries, saving all accumulated strawberry juice. Add water (if needed) to strawberry juice to equal 1/3 cup of strawberry juice.
4. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/3 cup strawberry juice and cornstarch. If your strawberry juice is not very red, and if you want a deeper red color, add a drop or two of red food coloring. Cook, stirring constantly, until you have a thickened, clear glaze. If the cornstarch forms lumps, simply smoosh out the lumps with a spatula. A small whisk also works well. Once thickened, immediately remove strawberry glaze from heat and let cool completely.
5. You have a few options for incorporating the strawberry glaze: 1) fold the strawberries into all of the strawberry glaze (for a heavier glaze), 2) fold the strawberries into a portion of the strawberry glaze (for a lighter glaze), 3) top cream cheese pie with the sliced strawberries and then drizzle some of the glaze over the top of the berries. See Notes below.

To Serve:

1. If you plan to eat the pie within a few hours after making it, go ahead and add your preferred strawberry topping (using one of the methods from "Strawberry Topping/Step 5") to the center of the cream cheese pie, leaving an inch of bare cream cheese around the perimeter. This helps to keep any strawberry juices from soaking into the crust, which can make the crust soggy. Slice pie into pieces and serve.If you will not be eating all of the pie within a few hours, I recommend leaving the strawberry topping off the pie. To serve, slice individual pieces and place them on dessert plates. Then top the pieces with your preferred strawberry topping (using one of the methods from "Strawberry Topping/Step 5"). This method will give you pie pieces with a cleaner appearance, plus the crust will stay more crisp.