Gluten-Free + Sugar-Free Strawberry Pie

- Danish Recipe

Directions:
1. Ideally, you would make the danish sweet cream and the pie crust the day before and set them in the fridge overnight. 
2. In a saucepan, over medium heat, add the milk, vanilla, and salt. 
3. Stir often with a whisk or a rubber spatula until the milk mixture begins to steam (but not boil). 
4. White the milk mixture heats up, mix together the egg yolk, honey, and corn starch, in a bowl. 
5. When the milk mixture is steaming, remove it from the heat. 
6. While mixing constantly, slowly pour a couple of Tbsp of the heated milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture.  
7. After that, pour the egg yolk mixture into the heated milk mixture. Be sure to mix constantly as you add these two mixtures together. 
8. Place the saucepan back onto the heat and continue to mix it until the mixture becomes a custard; be sure to scrape the sides well as you mix. (As the mixture becomes hotter, it also gets thicker. When the mixture doesn't seem to get any thicker, that is when it is considered a custard.)
9. Cover the saucepan with plastic, pushing the plastic all the way down to the custard and do your best to make sure there are not very many air bubbles. See note #2 for an explination. 
10. Place the covered custard in the fridge until it is fully cooled down (approx. 3 hours). 
11. In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the pie crust with your hands. Cover with plastic and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  
12. Preaheat the oven to 400 *F (200 *C).
13. On a floured surface, roll the pie crust out so that it is a little bit larger than the pie tin. 
14. Put the crust in the pie tin and cut the excess away. 
15. Set the pie crust to the side for now. 
16. In a bowl, mix thoroughly together the marzipan and honey on medium-low speed. 
17. Add the butter, a little bit at a time to avoid any clumps. 
18. Add the egg and mix it in only for 20 seconds or so. 
19. Add the flour and mix everything together to create a smooth marzipan mixture. 
20. Pour the marzipan mixture into the pie crust and spread it out evenly.
21. Bake the pie in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the pie has a slightly darker golden-brown color. 
22. Whip 1 1/4 cup whipped cream until it is stiff - stiff enough that the whipped cream stays in place when you flip the bowl over or that it does the same when you use a spoon. 
23. Add the custard to the whipped cream and mix it thoroughly together. 
24. When the baked pie has fully cooled off, pour or pipe the danish sweet cream onto the entire baked pie so that it creates as dome that is slighly higher in the middle than it is at the edges. 
25. Slice and rinse the strawberries.
26. Decorate the danish sweet cream with the strawberries. 
27. Now the strawberry pie is finished and ready to eat! But, if you would like to use some sugar-free mirror glaze to brush onto the strawberries so that they will last longer and look prettier, click her.  

Notes:
- The custard used in this recipe is the absolute smallest portion that can be made in a saucepan, but you can absolutely double the recipe and use the custard for other things. There are other ways to use this custard; you can simply eat it or you can use it in other recipes as you wish. Some examples of ways to use it as a filling are for various danish pastries, danish layered cake, coux pastry, and many more. Many of which you can find on this same website! 
- When custard is hot, it releases moisture in the form of steam. When cover the custard with plastic wrap so that it is touching the entire custard surface, it inhibits the custards ability to release any steam at all and the custard keeps all of its moisture content.  

- For a stronger strawberry flavor throughout, fold diced strawberries or strawberry jam into the Danish sweet cream. 
- If you want, you can make a larger portion of the pie crust and the marzipan mixture and use them to make various types of danish pies. My absolute favorite is danish rhubarb pie. 

Below are listed substitutes for various ingredients:  

     - Gluten-free flour can be substituted with regular AP flour - for those who are not gluten-free.

     - Honey can be substituted with date syrup or regular white sugar - for those who are not sugar-free.

     - Butter can be substituted with margarine or shortening. 

     - Milk can be substituted with plant-based milks. 

     - Corn starch can be substituted with potato starch, arrowroot powder, or tapioca flour. 

- This pie crust recipe has a shelf life of up to 1 weeks in the fridge when packed in plastic. 
- The marzipan mixture has a shelf life of up to 1 week in the fridge when packed in plastic. 
- This custard has a shelf life of 3-4 days when packaged in an airtight container and placed in the fridge. 
- Whipped cream, danish sweet cream, and sliced strawberrys have a shelf life of 2 days in the fridge when packed in an airtight container.