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Sometimes I shock myself with a 'what was I thinking?' moment. This might be one of them. Without spending too much time digging through my own blog, I am not sure I posted this recipe, even though I thought I did last summer... ? The blogger search feature never seems to work well for me and even the 'label' search never actually brings up all my recipes under that label, so without further adieu I must give you one of my simple strawberry pie recipes. I've been making this one almost exclusively since August 2003 as we like it better than a traditional double crust baked strawberry pie.
Double Layer Strawberry Pie
3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
1 c heavy cream
1 - 9 inch pie shell, baked and cooled
1/3 c white sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/3 c water
1/3 c grenadine syrup
1 T lemon juice
2 c fresh strawberries, hulled
In a mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar with vanilla and almond flavorings. In a separate bowl whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks, don't overbeat. Fold this into the cream cheese mixture. Spread over the cold pie crust.
In a cold saucepan turn the burner to medium heat. Mix the sugar and cornstarch and stir in water until smooth. Add grenadine and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook until thick, which should happen within minutes. Allow to cool then stir the strawberries into the gel and spread over the cream cheese layer.
*I've also stirred the strawberries into the gel and topped the pie and then chilled it. It's fine for 1 day but the gel will melt pink juices onto the white whipped cream if it's stored for too long. This is why you fill the pie just before serving. Simply for presentation.
Also: Many times I've made this when I was out of grenadine. In a pinch I've instead used a bit of amaretto liqueur with some corn syrup to thicken it and added about a tablespoon of dry jello mix and a teaspoon of water. I added this instead of the syrup and it turns out great. I've done this about 10 times and used grenadine the other 10. So improvise with what you have!
