By Carol Mills
Staff Writer
LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
I made a strawberry pie for the first time a few weeks ago when my strawberries were coming in and it was pretty good.
It was a little too sweet because my fresh strawberries were real ripe when I picked them. If I had made the pie with store bought strawberries, which are picked before they are thoroughly ripe, the pie’s sweetness would have been just right.
I made another strawberry pie a few days after that one was eaten. I used only a half cup of sugar instead of a whole cup and the sweetness was perfect. I actually made a cobbler instead of a pie because it’s quicker than placing a crust in a pie pan and pinching the edges.
I used a pie dough that was ready to bake. I rolled out only one of the two pie doughs that were in the box and placed it on a flat pan and baked it according to the directions. Then I made the filling while the dough was baking. When the filling and crust were done, I broke up the crust into pieces and lined an 8x8 glass pan with them. Then I poured in the filling and topped the pie with the rest of the pieces of crust. Easy as pie.
Here is the simple recipe:
1 cup sugar (adjust to ripeness of berries)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Cook the above ingredients until thick, but not too thick. Add 3 tablespoons strawberry gelatin and cool. Stir in two rounded cups of strawberries. Pour into a pan lined with pieces of crust and top with the remaining crust.
I tried this same recipe recently with peaches and peach gelatin, and it’s good, too. When the blueberries get ripe, I will try this recipe with them and blueberry gelatin. (Jell-O brand is Berry Blue.) And when the blackberries get ripe, and when the raspberries get ripe, and so on. . . . Any berry and accompanying gelatin would work.
Try mixing the strawberries and peaches together or using different kinds of berries together. Jell-O makes a Blackberry Fusion which is a combination of blackberries and raspberries. It could be called Blackberry Fusion Cobbler. I will have to try this one. It probably would be better to have more blackberries in it than raspberries so that one taste is dominate. Or not? I will just have to experiment. Anyway, these cobblers are easy as pie.
cmills@sentinel-echo.com
