No-Bake Old-Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

I thought I would just go ahead and get some recipes on, even though I haven't made them up yet, someday........


No-Bake Old-Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie
2 envelopes Know Unflavored Gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1 can (15 ounces) cream of coconut
1 cup (1/2 pint) light cream or half and half
3 eggs
9-inch baked pastry shell or graham cracker crust
4 cups whipped cream or whipped topping
2 tablespoons coconut, toasted


In small saucepan, sprinkle unflavored gelatin over cold water; let stand 1 minute. Sitr over low heat until gelatin is completely dissolved, about 3 minutes.
In blender or food processor, process cream of coconut, light cream and eggs until blended. While processing, through feed cap, gradually add gelatin mixture and process until blended. Chill blender container until mixture is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Turn into pastry shell; chill until firm, about 3 hours. Top with whipped cream and coconut. Makes about 12 servings.

Strawberry Pie x's 3!

Have been wanting to make a strawberry pie that was made long ago at the Lompoc Flower Festival. You see our church group made every year a1000 pies for this festival. Lots of helpers to accomplish the task. Usually by Saturday all the pies would be gone. They are that good. I asked for the recipe and a good friend Doris had it. Then I was looking in my mother's recipe box and found a recipe in my grandmother's handwriting. Plus another from the 1950's cookbook by Barbara Stuart Peterson. So I am putting all three recipes here. I chose to make granny's recipe. Before summer is over I hope to also make the recipe from the Lompoc days. Good memories!

Granny's recipe:
Large Strawberry Pie

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
Mix well and press into 9x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown. Cool.


Wash 3 or 4 boxes strawberries and drain real dry. Slice on crust (save a few for top garnish).

Let come to a boil and stir the whole time:
2 cups sugar
1 - 6 ounce box strawberry Jello
6 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
Let cool just a little pour over strawberries.


Let cool and cover with large bowl of Cool Whip.
Decorate with whole strawberries.


What I did different. I started this pie for the 4th of July picnic. Before I began I looked to see what strawberries I had on hand, none! I did have raspberries and blueberries, so I went with that. Also I realized I only had enough to make 1/2 of recipe.
I took the berries and thawed and drained them. Using the juice to replace the liquid in the recipe. Well as it started to thicken, I noticed the raspberries were too mushy and didn't hold they shape. So I added the gelatin mixture with the berries and it turned into a lovely jam. The crust recipe makes kinda a big sugar cookie. So I spread 1/2 of the jam mixture onto the crust and put some of the cool whip on top. Too sweet! It tasted good, but I didn't want to be responsible for other people buzzing away. So we tossed that pie. (I am using the other 1/2 as jam.) I knew I couldn't turn on the oven again, as it has been over 100 degrees. So I bought a graham cracker crust and made more of the gelatin mixture. This time I spread some of the gelatin mixture on the bottom, then sliced some strawberries for the next layer, some more gelatin mixture on and then put whole strawberries on top. I was going to whip up some whip cream, but never got around to it. Much better and I will be making this again, but with whip cream.

The other recipes:
This recipe I call Lompoc Strawberry Pie, as I will remember it this way from the Lompoc Flower Festival. If anyone else has a recipe from this festival, please let me know and we will compare. Dates I was there: 1986-1989. But this recipe is much older than that as they (the church ladies) made it way before I came.



RUTH'S STRAWBERRY PIE – (This is Ruth VanCamp's recipe)

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
1/4 cup mashed strawberries
Red food coloring (maybe just a drop)*

Mix sugar and cornstarch together. Add water and red food coloring. Cook over low heat until thick.

Add mashed berries.

Fill bottom of baked pie shell with 1/3 of sauce. Fill shell with fresh whole berries (about a pint). Pour remainder of sauce over whole strawberries.


Let chill. Serve with whipped cream.
*Note: not too much red food coloring is needed, if any at all. I didn't use red food coloring in this pie. And I did like Granny's recipe better, it held up well, although if you want not as sweet, I would suggest this recipe.


Recipe from the book called: 1950's Cookbook by Barbara Stuart Peterson
Strawberry Cream Pie
Serves 6
Ingredients:

1 baked single crust pie shell

4 cups strawberries (1 quart)

1 cup sugar

1 ¼ cup cold water (divided)

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Select one cup of the poorer berries, removing stems and washing thoroughly. Place in a pot with the sugar and one cup water. Bring to a boil and slowly boil 15 to 20 minutes. Strain through wire sieve, crushing the berries with a spoon. When all the juice is squeezed from the berries, throw away the pulp (I wouldn’t throw this away, but put in some plain yogurt or in a juice smoothie) and return the juice to the pot. Dissolve the cornstarch in ¼ cup water and add. Stir constantly while adding until the mixture again comes to a boil. Simmer very slowly until it becomes a thick, heavy syrup.

While the syrup is cooking, prepare the rest of the strawberries by washing, removing stems, and removing the little white hard center from the strawberries. This can easily be done with a small, pointed knife. When the strawberries are cleaned and prepared, cut them into halves or quarters, according to the size of the strawberries. Then pour the boiling syrup over them and put into refrigerator to chill.

Whip the whip cream and fill the pie crust with it, spreading level. Then place the cold strawberries and heavy syrup on top of the whipped cream.

Interesting that this recipe is reverse of what I thought. Cream first and then the berries.

Hope you enjoy these and let me know which recipe you like best!

Peachy Crumb Cobbler

Here is another recipe that was on a Duncan Hines card. It sounded good, so I decided to buy the exact ingredients and then go to work! As I was putting in the ingredients in my basket, I noticed that this would of cost over $10 to make, so I did a little switching around. Next time I will make from scratch and save even more. Using a different brand of blueberry muffin mix with canned blueberries, I saved 75 cents, by making my own peach pie filling from canned peaches, I saved $4.


Peachy Crumb Cobbler
1 package Duncan Hines Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix (sorry, but I used a different brand, to save money)
1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cans (1 pound 6 ounces each) peach pie filling (see notes*)
1/2 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used a 1/2 teaspoon here, see notes*)
3 teaspoons almond extract (I only used 1/2 teaspoon, as I didn't want over power the fruit.)
Ice cream, if desire
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl combine dry muffin mix, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in butter, then stir in nuts.

In a 13x9-inch pan combine pie filling, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the almond extract and the drained blueberries.

Spoon the crumb topping over the peaches.



Bake at 350 degrees F, for 35-40 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Serve with ice cream if desired.

NOTES: For the peach pie filling, I used 3 cans (14-ounce size) of peaches and drained and saved the juice. To this juice I cooked in a medium pan and started it boiling. To this I added the called for sugar, almond extract, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg, (1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg). Let this boil for about 1-2 minutes. While that is boiling, take a bowl and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water, stir and dissolve. Add this to the juice mixture and thicken. After this has thickened then I add the peaches and drained blueberries.

My Report: When I make this again, I will not add the sugar to the peaches. And I will only add half of the sugar called for in the topping part. It was too sweet for me, so a little less sugar seems right. I liked the flavor of the peaches with the blueberries. (If you don't want to throw out the blueberry juice, then you can make it into syrup for pancakes or ice cream topping.) I added the nutmeg. I like the flavor of fresh nutmeg with cinnamon. I have always made peach cobbler with pie crust, so this was a good and different change!

Extra note: I didn't care for this the next day, as the crust seemed to soak up the juices and become soggy. So my suggestion is to eat this the very first day!