National Strawberry Cream Pie Day

What the day is

National Strawberry Cream Pie Day is observed on September 28. The pie in question is the cold kind: a baked or crumb crust filled with sweetened cream, cream cheese or a custard base, layered or folded with strawberries and chilled until it sets.

It is a different dessert from a glazed strawberry pie, where whole berries sit in a bright red gel. The cream version is paler, softer and richer, and it slices cleanly only when it has been properly chilled.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented, and no founder or sponsoring organization is reliably known. Its late September date is a little contrary, since strawberry season in most of the northern hemisphere runs from late spring into early summer, and the best fruit is long gone by the end of September.

Cream pies as a category belong to the era of the refrigerator. Once home cooks could rely on reliable chilling, no-bake and partly-baked fillings became practical, and the mid-twentieth century produced a long run of them built on cream cheese, whipped topping, condensed milk and gelatin. Those pies are less fashionable than they were, but they hold up well and are considerably more forgiving than pastry.

How to take part

Out of season, this is one dessert where frozen fruit is genuinely a sensible choice.

• Macerate the berries first. Tossing sliced strawberries with a spoonful of sugar for twenty minutes draws out juice and concentrates the flavor.
• Drain them before they go in, or the filling will weep and the crust will soften.
• Chill for longer than you think. Most cream pies need four hours and are better overnight.
• Use a graham or cookie crumb crust if you want to avoid pastry entirely. It suits the filling better than a blind-baked shell.
• Add a little lemon zest or a pinch of salt. Both lift a filling that can otherwise taste flat and only sweet.

If your strawberries are pale supermarket ones, roasting them briefly with sugar before folding them in will get you closer to summer fruit than eating them raw will.