How To Make A Summer Strawberry Cream Pie

It's summer, and strawberries beckon me with their sweet juiciness. If you can pick your own at a berry farm or get them fresh from a farmers' market, strawberry goodness will transcend all your worries about what to wear to the pool or if your SPF is high enough. In addition, a chilled strawberry pie on a summer's night, either all to one's self or shared with people you love, can make a bad day laughable and bring your senses back to what is right in your world. Of course, whose pie is better than anyone else's? Grandma's!

This recipe has a lesson; I tried making a strawberry-lemon cream pie from one of my grandmother's old cookbooks. The problem was that the recipe had left out steps, assuming that the cook trying it out had a Home Economics class under her belt. Also, what was economical and made sense then, didn't make sense in today's kitchen. The gloppy mess that resulted caused me to do some more research on recipes and the history of baking.

The history of...margarine?

All my reading led me to the same conclusions as any historian will tell you: the past was not as awesome as we think it was. It's easy to romanticize Grandma's kitchen because it seems like of all places in the home it would be the most straight forward for purist nostalgia. Instead, we find that margarine has been around since the 18th century, introduced as a cheap substitute for butter in France...

That's right! The noble French, culinary cultural giants, invented the fake version of dairy bliss and what is now anathema in most modern kitchens. And butter substitutes are just the beginning of problems one encounters when trying to translate a recipe from the past to our present.

Some things you can hold on to; some things you can tweak; other things you have to let go of all together.

Since the old recipe didn't work at all, I made my own recipe. The result was marvelously rewarding! It can be a little intimidating spending all that time on something that is a break from the past, but sometimes what we find nostalgic isn't what is best. Learning from the past is essential, but good things can come from striking out on a new path.

Strawberry-Lemon Cream Pie

Short Paste for 9 inch Pie:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 egg yolks

For Strawberry topping:

1 envelope plain gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

4 cups sliced fresh strawberries

3 teaspoons lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

For Lemon Cream:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon flavor

For serving with whipped cream:

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 35

0 degrees.

2. In 9 inch pie plate, place four and sugar.

3. Cut up butter into flour, and incorporate with fingers until flour looks like rough cornmeal.

4. Add egg yolks and toss with fork until dough begins to form.

6. Bake pie shell—without covering or poking holes in bottom—in oven for 30 minutes, until slightly golden.

7. Cool on wire rack when done.

Make strawberry filling:

1. Sprinkle gelatin on top of cold water in small bowl. Allow to soften (about 5 minutes).

2. Place sliced strawberries in 2 quart saucepan with lemon juice and sugar over medium heat.

3. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved (will look like syrup).

4. Immediately stir gelatin into strawberry syrup. Set aside and cool.

Make lemon cream:

1. Beat cream cheese with mixer on high, until smooth.

2. Pour in whipping cream while beating.

3. Add powdered sugar and lemon flavor. Beat until stiff.

Assemble the pie:

1. Spread lemon cream over bottom of pie crust.

2. Spoon strawberry topping over lemon cream. (There will be some leftover which can be refrigerated or frozen to be reheated for ice cream or parfaits, etc.)

3. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When ready to serve:

1. Whip 1 cup whipping cream with 1/4 cup powdered sugar.

2. Spread over pie, and serve.

Bon Appétit!