or what you make when you can’t get to Anna Miller’s

In Hawaii there is a restaurant called Anna Miller’s that serves breakfast and other local comfort foods 24-hours a day. We’d often go there in the wee hours of the morning, after doing who knows what all night, to get breakfast before going home and sleeping the day away. Anna Miller’s is also known for its pies, especially the fresh strawberry pie. I’ve searched the internet hoping to find the recipe (or a reasonable facsimile) but I think it must be a closely held secret, one worth keeping. If anyone has the recipe, please, please send it to me!

This pie is one of those things that is more than the sum of its collective parts. It’s a pie crust, pastry cream, fresh strawberries, glaze, and whipped cream. But when it all comes together, perfection.

Since we didn’t have Anna Miller’s recipe, we planned to make a pie with the remaining strawberries and found a recipe in The Joy of Cooking. Unfortunately we didn’t have quite enough berries and had to supplement with store-bought ones.

Of the 100+ cookbooks I own, oddly enough, one I don’t have is The Joy of Cooking. So here is a rough version of what I remember:

Start with 6 cups of strawberries, of which 2 cups are pureed (I used an immersion blender) and 4 cups remain whole berries. We prepared a filling of sugar, water, cornstarch, salt, and the pureed berries, cooked it until it was thickened. In a pre-baked pie shell we placed half the berries, covered by half the filling, then placed the remaining berries and topped it with the last half of the filling. The pie was put into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Just before serving we whipped up some heavy cream and topped the pie.

It was a group project – my sister made the crust, I prepped the strawberries, my aunt prepared the filling, and my cousin made the whipped cream.

It wasn’t an Anna Miller’s strawberry pie, and it certainly wasn’t the prettiest pie we’ve ever made, but it was delicious!