Secret Ingredient Strawberry Pie

 
     Each time I opened the refrigerator door this weekend I had a box of strawberries that stares at me. They needed to either be eaten or used in a recipe. Unfortunately, they didn't have super flavor soooo they needed a recipe. I decided to make them into pie! I ran across a strawberry pie recipe that used jell-o and 7-up....I thought that was different so I had to give it a try. However, in their recipe they didn't use any actual strawberries in the cooked mixture....so I had to change that. I adapted the recipe to be gluten free and tweaked it and here it is:

Secret Ingredient Strawberry Pie

Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T. cornstarch
10 ounces of lemon lime soda (like 7-up or Sprite - regular or diet)
1 (3 ounce) box of strawberry gelatin
1 pound of fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced
1 gluten free pie crust precooked and cooled
Homemade whipped cream or non-dairy whipped topping

Place the sugar, salt, and 1/2 C of the sliced berries in a small saucepan and let it sit for 5-10 min. This will draw the juices out of the berries. Then use a spoon or a whisk to mash the mixture. Add the cornstarch and 7-up and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and thoroughly whisk in the strawberry gelatin. Set aside to cool (about 10 min.)

Layer the strawberry slices in the precooked, cooled crust. Pour the gelatin mixture evenly all across the top of the strawberries. Chill until set and serve topped with a dollop of whipped cream or Cool Whip.

Shhh....these are your "secret" ingredients

 

While your pie crust is baking, slice your strawberries

Put about 1/2 C. of the sliced berries in a pan with the salt and sugar. Allow them to work on drawing the yummy strawberry juices out. Then mush the berries, add the other ingredients and cook until thickened.

Layer the sliced strawberries in the baked shell

Pour the cooked mixture over the sliced berries (don't overfill yours like I did..oops)

Refrigerate until the pie filling is set.

Top with a dollop of cool whip

 

     This pie is super simple to make if you use a pre-made crust. I just picked up a box of Kinnikinnick ready made crusts. I hope you enjoy this yummy strawberry pie.

 

-Jessica

 

 

 

 

 

Butterscotch pie.......drool!

 

     Butterscotch pie is amazing. It is often times my choice of birthday treats. Butterscotch pie is sort of a misleading name, it tastes nothing like those little yellow/orange candies that you get from a candy dish. It also tastes nothing like butterscotch baking chips. So don't go into this expecting those flavors. This is WAY better!

     This pie recipe comes from what I like to call the old cooking bible. The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. My edition says 1976, which makes it older than me. There are other editions of the New Cookbook, but in my opinion, they are not as great. This is the same cookbook that my Mom used and cooked out of when I was growing up. I searched and searched tag sales and finally found the same edition. It's the best. It comes from a time when people actually COOKED!!! Not like now where people buy food that is already made and just microwave dinner for their families. Pizza rolls are NOT a food group. Anyways....I won't go into that rant. On to the pie..............

     Pie can be sort of intimidating. I think that comes from the crust portion of pie. So I cheated and used these new pie crusts from Kinnikinnick. I saw them at the store a while back and HAD to try them out. Gluten free cooking can be tricky enough, we deserve all the short cuts we can get! Overall the crust was pretty good. All you had to do was defrost it a little, pop it into the oven to bake it and then put in the pie filling. Pretty darn easy! After baking, the crust did have some cracks so that was disappointing, but I used it anyway. I wasn't making pie for a contest or anything.

It wasn't cracked when it went into the oven, but it was cracked when it came out. Darn.

     Butterscotch pie is a basic vanilla cream pie, but you use brown sugar instead of white and the amount of butter is increased by a tablespoon. Traditionally cream pies are topped with meringue, but some people don't care for that so it can be left off.

Butterscotch Pie

3/4 C. Brown Sugar

3 T Cornstarch (my pie filling was slightly runny still, so I am going to increase this to 4 T)

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 C Milk

3 slightly beaten egg yolks (save the whites for your meringue)

3 T. Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 gluten free baked pie shell

Meringue

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually stir in the milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 min. Remove from heat. Take a couple of spoon fulls of the hot mixture and add it into the bowl of yolks. (this is so that your yolks don't cook and get gross when you add them to the pan, it brings their temperature up). Immediately add the yolk mixture back into the pan of hot mixture. Stir to combine and cook for another 2 min. Keep stirring, this is KEY! Remove from the heat. Add butter and vanilla. Stir until all of the butter is melted and combined. Pour into the baked pastry shell. Spread meringue on top of the pie. Bake at 350 deg. for 12-15min. (if you leave the meringue off, there is no need to bake this pie after you fill the shell). Cool the pie completely before serving. It may be jiggly in the middle until it sets up and is completely cool.

Meringue

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

1/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar (I didn't have any, so I left this out and it still worked ok, just didn't get mile high meringue)

6 T Sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beat until stiff and glossy and all sugar has dissolved. Spread the meringue over hot pie filling, sealing to the edge of the pie. Bake at 350 deg. for 12-15 min or until golden in color.



Combine the brown sugar, cornstarch and salt in your pan.

The key when making the pie filling is JUST KEEP STIRRING! You don't want lumpy pie filling.

The cracks are mostly covered up with the yummy filling.

Whip those egg whites until they are stiff and fluffy.

Spread the meringue over the top of the pie filling.

Bake the meringue until it is golden.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself ;)

Mmm Mmmm Mmm!