Fresh Strawberries & Cream Pie

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line two 9-inch pie plates with the two crusts. Crimp the edges. Cut an 11" circle of parchment paper (or foil) and gently place in the pie crust. Fill the circle with dried beans or pie weights.

Bake the crust 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the parchment and beans/weights.

Return the pie to the oven and bake an additional 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Zest the lemon and juice ½ of it. Set aside.

Combine sugar and flour in a medium saucepan. Stir in 1 cup of milk, egg yolks, salt and lemon zest. Whisk until well combined. Add remaining milk.

Stir over medium-low heat until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract, butter and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

While still warm, pour half of the lemon cream into each pie crust. Cool completely.

In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, Jell-O, cornstarch and salt. Whisk in boiling water and bring to boil over high heat. Let boil 3 minutes stirring constantly. Cool completely.

Once completely cool, pour over cut strawberries. Gently spoon strawberries over cream layer and refrigerate pies 4 hours or overnight.

Top with whipped topping if desired.