It’s no surprise that this strawberry pie recipe is fantastic! It features fresh strawberries, homemade pie crust and layers of homemade whipped cream with a bit of cream cheese frosting mixed in it. Everything tastes better with cream cheese frosting!

About the Recipe

The recipe is adapted from a family cookbook recipe: Strawberry Pie with Cream Cheese Surprise by Ken’s grand aunt Connie.

I did make a couple of minor changes to the recipes. First, it called for a carton of Cool Whip. I made some homemade whipped cream instead. It also called for a package of strawberry glaze. I made my own glaze from another Strawberry Glaze Pie recipe from The Complete Family Cookbook circa 1969. The recipe in this book is very similar to Connie’s, except Connie’s folds whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture – making it much lighter and fluffier.

And of course, for the pie crust, I used Connie’s pie crust recipe that she included in the cookbook with her peach cobbler recipe. I’ve never made another pie crust recipe since encountering this one. It’s that good!

Every strawberry pie recipe I found called for pre-baking the pie crust. I followed the instructions in Williams-Sonoma Pie & Tart book for pre-baking a pie crust.

Ken was amused I was making this recipe from so many different cookbooks – and decided to take a picture of the process.

How to Make It

Make your pie crust. Mix together your flour and salt. Cut in your shortening.

Then stir in your milk, until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for about 20 minutes.

Hull and slice about four cups of strawberries. Save two cups to the side for the pie.

Roll out your crust between two sheets of wax paper for easier clean up.

Place the crust in the pie tin, and poke it a few times with a fork to prevent rising.

Dust the crust with flour to prevent the parchment paper from sticking to it. Lay a piece of parchment paper on top the pie crust, and fill the pan with rice for weight.

Partially bake the crust for 20 minutes at 375 in the lower third of the oven. Remove the rice and parchment paper. Finish baking the crust until golden, about 7 more minutes. Let cool.

Puree two cups of the sliced strawberries in a food processor.

Put the strawberry puree into a saucepan. Add sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Set aside to cool.

Make your whipped cream. Place two cups of heaving whipping cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Add four tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whisk until soft peaks form.

In another mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar.

Gently fold in half the whipped cream. Save the remaining whipped cream in the refrigerator for the top of the finished pie. Spread the whipped cream and cream cheese mixture into the cooled pie crust.

Arrange sliced strawberries over the top.

Spread the cooled strawberry glaze over the sliced strawberries. Chill pie in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Then when you are ready, you can surprise your family and friends with this fabulous dessert! Just slice and serve with a dollop of the remaining whipped cream. Enjoy!

PS – I have one more surprise to share. The photos in this post were taken by Ken, instead of me – in case you were wondering how I managed to take photos showing both of my hands making pie crust.   If you want to see more of Ken’s photos, check out his blog at kristau.net.

About the Recipe

I’ve had this bread baked in a dutch oven over an open fire, baked in a wood-burning stove and baked in an electric oven, and it turns out perfect every time. I first learned to make this recipe during a wood stove cooking class at Living History Farms. We made it again in another class where we learned to cook over an open fire. And I’ve made it several times in my own oven at home.

The recipe is adapted from Foods of the Frontier by Gertrude Harris. The instructions from the original recipe were somewhat vague – and included no instructions for how hot or how long to bake. I’ll do my best here to provide a bit more detail for baking in a traditional oven; however, bread-baking does vary based on your own oven. I also cheated a bit using a Kitchen Aid mixer to mix and knead the dough, which was a tool we didn’t have in the Living History Farms cooking classes.

How to Make It

Warm a cup of water to precisely 110 degrees. Stir in your yeast, and let “proof” for about 10 to 15 minutes – or until frothy.

Meanwhile melt your butter, and set it aside to cool. Chop your onion and prepare the rest of your ingredients.

Save aside about 1/4 cup of the chopped onion. Mix all of the rest of your ingredients together in a stand mixer with the mixing paddle. Change out the paddle for your dough hook, and knead in the mixer for about 10 minutes. Keep adding flour until the dough is no longer sticky and forms into a ball.

Let the dough rise for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into three parts. Roll into strands, and braid the bread. Let rise for about an hour.

Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with extra onion.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

The weather was perfect. The first true spring day we have had here in Iowa. It was just warm enough, about 70 degrees, completely sunny and not at all windy. The perfect recipe for a great day of outdoor cooking.

We started our class by making Indian Meal Cakes, which is essentially cornbread, using a dutch oven. I love cast-iron cooking, but have never baked before in a dutch oven over an open fire. I was amazed at how well the dutch oven worked for baking.

The corn bread recipe was pretty simple. Basically, we just stirred together corn meal, flour butter, salt, hot water and an egg. Then we added a bunch of milk to moisten the batter, stirred in baking powder to help it rise and added some sugar for a bit of sweetness.  Then we dumped the batter into a well greased dutch oven, and covered it with a lid.

The dutch oven cooking process was interesting. We took some of the coals out of the fire and placed them on the stone hearth. The dutch oven  has three legs on the bottom, and we set it over the hot coals. Then we took more hot coals and placed them on top the pot. Finally, we covered the top of the coals with soot to help insulate the heat.

Then we let it bake for about 40 minutes.

Checking if the bread is done is a little trickier in a dutch oven. It’s not as easy as opening the door of your oven and sticking a toothpick in your quick bread. With the dutch oven, you had to first carefully remove the coals and ash from the top of the pan to avoid getting it on your bread. We did this only to see the bread was not quite done, so we had to re-do the coals all over again to keep baking it.

But it’s definitely worth the effort. The corn bread came out tender and delicious. We also made an onion bread, which was even better. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of that recipe. I was too busy eating it – that I forgot to take a picture. Take my word for it – it was delicious! I’ll bake the onion bread again sometime and post that recipe when I’m able to restrain myself enough to get a photo to go with the post.

In the meantime, here’s the recipe for the corn bread. It’s adapted from The American Frugal Housewife, which is available for free through Project Gutenberg. The original version uses different quantities – and molasses.

I’m guessing you could adapt this to a conventional oven pretty easily. I’d try baking it at 350 or 375 for 40 minutes.

Who knew there were so many ways you could use cranberries? Since Christmas I have made cranberry sauce, cranberry mojitos, cranberry cosmopolitans, cranberry turkey wraps, cranberry lemonade, cranberry roasted chicken, mini cranberry cobblers, cranberry oatmeal, cranberry orange bread, cranberry crepes, waffles with cranberry sauce — and this cranberry coffee cake.

About the Recipe

During the summer when blueberries are in season, I typically make a blueberry buckle, which is essentially a blueberry coffee cake. Then for Christmas, I received a wonderful old church cook book that used to belong to Ken’s great grandmother and included many different recipes for coffee cake. I thought one of the coffee cake recipes could be easily modified to make a cranberry buckle. I took one of the recipes for a basic streusel coffee cake — and added loads of cranberries, sliced almonds, a bit of cinnamon and butter. The original recipe called for shortening, but my inner Paula Deen made me replace it with butter.

The Step-by-Step

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Mix in the butter and cinnamon.

In another bowl, mix together the egg, vanilla and milk, and add to the flour mixture.

Stir in 1 cup of the cranberries into the batter.

Spread half the batter into a greased 8-inch square baking dish.

In another bowl, mix together the topping ingredients.

Sprinkle half the topping on the batter in the pan.

Sprinkle the remaining cranberries on top.

Cover with the remaining batter.

Sprinkle the last of the topping on top.

Bake at a 375-degree oven for 35-40 minutes, and then let cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Cut and serve.

Then enjoy a slice.

Or two.

About the Recipe

I still have what feels like bushels of cranberries to use up after making a simple cranberry syrup for cranberry mojitos for Christmas. Not wanting to waste any of the delicious cranberries, I’ve been on a quest for recipes using cranberries. Then I found Pioneer Woman’s Nantucket Cranberry Pie recipe! Now there is no way Ken and I could (or should I say should) eat an entire pie with just the two of us, so I made a few adjustments to the recipe to make these two personal-sized cranberry cobblers.

For this variation, I basically cut the ingredients for the full-size pie in half, then made these substitutions: Instead of all pecans, I used a mix of pecans and almonds since that was what I had on hand. Instead of the almond extract, I used vanilla extract – again, because that is what I had. I thought with the addition of the real almonds, the almond extract wouldn’t be missed.

The Step-by-Step

First, butter two ramekins.

Put your cranberries in the bottom. You may want to use a few less than I did, as my cobblers overflowed a bit while baking. That didn’t impact the taste though.

Sprinkle chopped nuts over the cranberries.

Sprinkle sugar over the nuts.

Stir together the remaining sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and salt to make the cookie top.

Pour the batter on top the filling.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool about 10 minutes, and then enjoy!

Nothing brightens up a dreary winter day than a bright summery drink – like this cranberry lemonade. It tastes just like a sweet tart candy, if you like that kind of thing. I certainly do!

About This Recipe

I actually came up with this recipe by way of a happy accident. For Christmas this year, I decided to make the family a festive cocktail to have prior to dinner, and found a fabulous-looking cranberry mojito recipe on the blog Nutmeg Nanny. It was chock full of red cranberries and green mint, making it the perfect Christmas colors. But I misread the recipe. I thought the ingredients listed were for one drink, so I quadrupled it for the number of guests I would be having over. Part of the recipe calls for making a cranberry simple syrup, using eight ounces of cranberries. So, I took that times four for 32 ounces of cranberries. That seemed like a lot of cranberries, but I proceeded anyway.  I ended up with about a half gallon of simple syrup.

Then as I continued reading the recipe and got to the part where it called for adding the simple syrup to the drink, it only asked for two ounces per drink! What was I going to do with the cranberry syrup I had left? There was no way we could drink that many mojitos without incurring a serious hangover, so after one (or two) drinks each, I stashed the remaining pitcher of syrup in the refrigerator. The next day I came up with this non-alcoholic cranberry lemonade. You could, of course, also add some rum or vodka to kick it up a notch.

The Cast of Characters

There are only five ingredients in this recipe: the cranberry simple syrup, lemon juice, lemon-lime soda, a wedge of lemon, and cranberries for garnish. You can find the recipe for the cranberry simple syrup on Nutmeg Nanny’s cranberry mojito post.

The Step-by-Step

Start by putting about an 1/8 of a cup of lemon juice in the bottom of your favorite drinking glass.

Fill the glass about 3/4 full with crushed ice, and add 1/4 cup of the cranberry syrup.

Fill the glass with lemon-lime soda.

Squeeze a bit of fresh lemon on top.

Stir with a straw.

Garnish with fresh lemon and cranberries.

Enjoy!

About the Recipe
This recipe is adapted from the Latticed Cherry Pie recipe in one of my favorite baking cookbooks, What’s Cooking Baking. I highly recommend this cookbook. It includes all the must-have basic baking recipes, from cakes and pies to cookies and bread. Another recipe I have tried and blogged about from this book is Iced Cupcakes, which I made to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Will and Kate last year.

The Latticed Cherry Pie is fantastic too, especially with the addition of peach schnapps, vanilla extract and cinnamon. The original recipe called for cherry brandy, almond extract and allspice instead. I’m sure it would be good that way too, but I didn’t have any cherry brandy or almond extract on hand.

I also did not make the pie crust recipe from the What’s Cooking Baking cookbook. I made my go-to pie crust recipe from Ken’s family cookbook instead. It’s the same one I used for my Peach Pie and Blueberry Pie.

The Step-by-Step
Start making the pie crust by mixing together the flour and salt. Then cut in the shortening.

Stir in the milk to moisten. Then divide into two parts and wrap in saran wrap. Store in the refrigerator while you make the pie filling.

Rinse about 2 1/2 pounds of sweet, dark cherries.

Remove the pits. This part is the “pits.” I like to use a paper clip to scoop out the pits. It works pretty well but is still quite messy. Be careful not to get the cherry juice on anything. It stains terribly.

Place half the pitted cherries into a saucepan with sugar. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Stir in the peach schnapps, vanilla extract and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, combine the cornstarch and water.

Then add the cornstarch mixture to the cherries. Heat and stir until the filling boils and thickens.

Let the filling cool while you roll out the pie crust into the bottom of a greased pie pan.

Stir the remaining cherries into the cooked ones, and pour the filling into the pie crust.

Dot the top of the cherries with butter.

Roll out the other pie crust and cut into strips.

Place the strips on top of the pie in a lattice pattern. Crimp the edges of the pie crust.

Brush the top of the crust with beaten egg.

Place the pie on a foil covered baking sheet to prevent spills. Then cover the entire pie with another sheet of foil and bake in the oven at 425 for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for 15 more minutes until golden brown.

Let cool slightly before slicing and enjoying.

Have an abundance of summer zucchini? You could make a plain zucchini bread. Or, better yet, you could make Chocolate Chip Cranberry Banana Zucchini Bread!

About the Recipe

I started with a Banana Zucchini Bread recipe from Allrecipes. I had some zucchini from the farmer’s market I wanted to use, along with a few ripe bananas. Then I remembered I also had half a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry and a bag of cranberries in the freezer. As Emeril Lagasse would say, I decided to “kick it up a notch.”

The Play-by-Play

Start by shredding the zucchini. Hopefully you have a food processor. It makes the job much easier.

Then mash your bananas. I like to use a potato masher for the job.

In a stand mixer, add the eggs, vegetable oil, white sugar, brown sugar and bananas.

Mix until well blended.

Add in shredded zucchini.

Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Fold in cranberries and chocolate chips.

Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about an hour.

Let the baked loaves cool a bit in the pans on a wire rack.

Remove the loaves from the pans.

Slice and serve!

Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe?

About the Recipe
I started with a blueberry pie recipe from Allrecipes, and I added a bit of lemon juice and zest to the blueberry mixture. For the crust, I used the same family recipe for pie crust I used in my Peach Cobbler Pie post. It is by far the most flaky and tender pie crust I’ve ever made and is now my go-to pie crust recipe.

The Play-by-Play

First, make the pie crust by stirring together the flour and salt. Then cut the shortening into the flour.

Stir in a half cup of milk, and divide the dough into two parts. Wrap in saran wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Next, make the pie filing by rinsing 4 cups of fresh blueberries.

Stir together sugar, corn starch, salt and cinnamon, and stir into the berries.

Then stir in the lemon zest and juice.

Finally, assemble the pie by rolling out half of the dough into the bottom of a pie pan.

Tip: Before adding the berries, I placed a pie bird into the center of the crust to let any steam escape while baking and to prevent the crust from puffing up.

Pour the blueberry mixture into the pie crust.

Cut up a tablespoon of butter and sprinkle on top the berries. Then, roll out the top crust, and place on top the pie.

Crimp together the edges of the crust.

Bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes.

Slice and serve.

Enjoy!

It’s treat day at work on Monday! I love treat days. It gives me the chance to bake without having too many sweets hanging around the house the rest of the week to tempt me. There will be plenty of people to share them with at work.

It also gives me a chance to try out a new recipe. I realize making a recipe for the first time to share with others is risky. Fortunately, everything turned out OK. It’s hard to go wrong with banana, caramel, pecans, coconut and chocolate frosting.

About the Recipe

This is a recipe I adapted from a family cookbook. The original recipe was by Ken’s mom’s cousin Connie and was called First-Prize Banana Cake. I can see why it won a first prize. It is a two-layer cake with a caramel pecan center. It also has toasted coconut on top and bottom, with chocolate frosting around the sides.

I decided to adapt the cake into two different types of cupcakes. One with a toasted coconut top and another with a chocolate cream cheese frosting.

The Play-by-Play

In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a stand mixer, cream together shortening and sugar.

Add eggs, one at a time, to the shortening and sugar mixture.

Blend in the bananas and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk.

Stir in the pecans.

Scoop the batter into the greased and floured muffin tins.

Sprinkle half of the cupcakes with coconut.

Bake for 15 minutes or until done.

Let the cupcakes cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the pecan filling. Combine sugar, flour, evaporated milk and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly.

Add chopped pecans, salt, vanilla and coconut extract, and let cool.

Once the cupcakes and filling are cool, cut the cupcakes in half.

Spread a spoonful of filling on one half of each cupcake and put back together.

Your coconut ones are complete!

For the plain ones, make the chocolate icing. Combine cream cheese, butter, powder sugar, cocoa and vanilla in a stand mixer until smooth.

Spread over each plain cupcake and top with one pecan.

Enjoy!

Tips & Tricks

• About the frosting: Blend the butter and cream cheese together first. Then gradually add the powdered sugar and cocoa. Don’t add it all at once like I did, or you will end up with a powdered sugar snow storm in your kitchen. You’ll notice in the picture above a light dusting of powdered sugar all over my counter.