Double Shot

Crust

1 cup chopped filberts

? pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

2 cups all-purpose flour

In a wide, dry frying pan, toast the filberts over medium-low heat, stirring, until they emit a nutty scent and have turned a very light brown. Allow to cool on paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9-by-13-inch or 10-by-14-inch glass pan.

Mix the nuts, melted butter, and flour until thoroughly combined, then press this mixture evenly onto the bottom of the pan.

Bake the crust for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is set and has turned a very light brown. Set aside on a rack to cool completely before filling.

Topping (see note)

1? pounds fresh strawberries, trimmed and hulled

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup water

Mash the strawberries with a potato masher until they are crushed. Measure them; you should have about 2 cups. Mix the sugar with the cornstarch. In a large saucepan, heat the strawberries, sugar mixture, and water over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, raise the heat to medium-high (low altitude) or high (high altitude), and heat to boiling. (The mixture will be very hot, so be careful of splatters.) Stirring constantly, boil the mixture for about one minute, or until the mixture is very thick and begins to clear. (It will not clear completely.) Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl. Allow to cool completely.

Filling

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted twice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2? cups chilled heavy whipping cream

Beat the softened cream cheese with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until it holds soft peaks. (Do not overbeat.) Fold the whipped cream thoroughly into the cream cheese mixture.

To assemble the pie, spread the filling over the cooled crust. Carefully spoon the cooled strawgberry topping over the filling until it is completely covered.

Chill the pie thoroughly, at least 4 hours, before serving. If you are chilling the pie overnight, cover it with plastic wrap, which you remove just before cutting.

MAKES 24 SERVINGS

Note: For the topping, it is best to start with about 2 pounds of strawberries before trimming and hulling. You will end up with about 1? pounds of strawberries. Also, you should prepare the topping before starting on the filling, because it needs to cool completely before being spread on the filling. Finally, this recipe makes about a cup more topping than you need for the pie. Leftover topping must be refrigerated and used within 2 or 3 days. It is delicious on vanilla ice cream or toasted, buttered English muffins.

In-Your-Face Strawberry Pie (II)

Crust

2? cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon salt

? pound (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces and chilled

? cup chilled lard, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces and chilled

¹/₃ cup plus 1 to 3 tablespoons ice water

1 egg white, lightly beaten

Additional sugar

In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade), whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt for 10 seconds.

Drop the first four tablespoons of chilled butter on top of the flour mixture, and cut in with two sharp knives (or pulse in the food processor) just until the mixture looks like tiny crumbs. (In the food processor, this will take less than a minute.) Repeat with the rest of the butter and the lard, keeping each unused portion of each one well chilled until it is time to cut it into the flour. The mixture will look like large crumbs when you finish adding all the butter and lard.

Sprinkle the water over the top of the mixture, and either mix with a spoon or pulse until the mixture just begins to hold together in clumps. If the mixture is too dry to hold together in clumps, add the additional water until it does. Place 12 ounces of this mixture into one 2-gallon zipped plastic bag. (This will be the top crust.) Put the remaining 15 ounces into another 2-gallon zipped plastic bag. (This will be the bottom crust.) If you do not have a scale, put a little bit more than half of the mixture into one bag, and a little bit less than half into the other. Pressing very lightly through the plastic, quickly gather each mixture into a rough circle in the center of the bag. Refrigerate the bags of dough until they are thoroughly chilled.

When you are ready to make the pie, preheat the oven to 425°. Have a rimmed cookie sheet ready to place underneath the pie.

Remove the bag of dough with the larger amount of dough from the refrigerator. Unzip the bag to ventilate it, then quickly roll out the larger crust (still inside the zip bag) to a circle approximately 10 inches in diameter. Using scissors, cut the plastic all the way around the bag and gently lift one side of the plastic. Place the bag, dough side down, in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Gently remove the remaining piece of plastic so that the dough falls into the plate. Make the filling.

Filling

? cup all-purpose flour

? cup cornstarch

1? to 2 cups granulated sugar, depending on the sweetness of the strawberries

6 cups washed, hulled, and halved strawberries