I made two of these fresh strawberry pies for a recent pot luck meal at church and they were a huge hit. Here’s the recipe, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
The original recipe for this pie is attributed to Mrs. C. R. Pope and was taken from the famous Talk About Good cookbook published by the Service League of Lafayette, Louisiana. I married a “Louisiana boy” and this was my first Louisiana cookbook as a young bride. It’s still one of my most reliable source for delicious food, Cajun or otherwise. I treasure my mother-in-law Ellen Cottrell’s copy because it is stuffed with additional recipes clipped to the pages, some in her own handwriting.
Baked pie shell
8 ounces cream cheese
Milk (2-3 tablespoons)
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup whipping cream (whipped)
Bake the pie shell according to directions on the package. I use Pet-Ritz frozen shells.
Soften cream cheese with a little milk and spread on baked pie shell. Make sure it’s fairly easy to spread so you don’t break up the pie shell when you try to spread it around.
Wash berries, dip half of the berries in sugar and set them close together on top of the cream cheese. Mash the rest of the berries and add remaining sugar mixed with cornstarch. Bring to a boil and cook about ten minutes. Cool and pour over berries. Chill, slice, and serve each piece topped with whipped cream (if desired).
When transporting this out to someone else’s house, I take a can of Reddi-Whip for convenience instead of whipping cream from scratch, but when I’m at home, it’s easy and delicious to whip some heavy whipping cream for a topping (Obviously, I took the photo before adding the whipped cream).
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