Berry season is still in full swing here in Michigan, so I normally have an assortment of berries hanging out in my fridge that are on their last minutes of life. So I decided to try a pie that was meant to be served with a sprinkle of last-minute berries over the top.
This is Strawberry Satin Pie!
AuthorRetroRuth
From Farm Journal's Cooking For Company, 1968
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Cover bottom of the baked pie shell with almonds.
Cover almonds with Creamy Satin Filling. Chill overnight.
Slice strawberries in halves, reserving a few perfect berries for the center of the pie. Arrange on filling in layers, starting at the outer edge. Place some berries cut side up to make a pattern. Cover with shiny glaze. Refrigerate 1 hour or until serving time.
Yield: 8 servings
Combine sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt in a saucepan.
Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture is thick and bubbling.
Stir a little of this hot mixture into the egg, then add to hot mixture and cook until just bubbling hot again.
Cool, then chill thoroughly. This mixture will be very thick. Beat with mixer or rotary beater until smooth.
Fold in whipped cream and vanilla.
Crush fresh strawberries. Add water and cook 2 minutes; strain through a sieve. Combine sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir in berry juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick and clear. Cool; spoon carefully over strawberries in the pie.
Ingredients
Directions
Cover bottom of the baked pie shell with almonds.
Cover almonds with Creamy Satin Filling. Chill overnight.
Slice strawberries in halves, reserving a few perfect berries for the center of the pie. Arrange on filling in layers, starting at the outer edge. Place some berries cut side up to make a pattern. Cover with shiny glaze. Refrigerate 1 hour or until serving time.
Yield: 8 servings
Combine sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt in a saucepan.
Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture is thick and bubbling.
Stir a little of this hot mixture into the egg, then add to hot mixture and cook until just bubbling hot again.
Cool, then chill thoroughly. This mixture will be very thick. Beat with mixer or rotary beater until smooth.
Fold in whipped cream and vanilla.
Crush fresh strawberries. Add water and cook 2 minutes; strain through a sieve. Combine sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir in berry juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick and clear. Cool; spoon carefully over strawberries in the pie.
Notes
I was intrigued by this pie because it had nuts at the bottom, and I love nuts in a pie. I was out of almonds, so I threw down some pecans. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an extra pie crust laying around, and I didn’t have time to make one, so this pie is crustless! I was more interested in the filling anyway, but in retrospect, I should have used a graham cracker shell. But you know what, it’s summer. Eating desserts that are a slop of pudding and berries in a bowl is pretty much mandatory.
Which is good, because as I was leaning over the pot to cook this, I realized it was really just pudding. Fancy pudding, but just cooked pudding.
But who doesn’t love pudding pie? Even when we have to put alphabet macaroni in pudding pie, it’s still really good. So I forged on.
And I wasn’t disappointed. It was a lovely pudding and made a really pretty pie.
I also didn’t have quite enough berries for the glaze, so I opted to not strain it to keep some of the bulk. I just picked out the biggest of the strawberry hunks.
Less than perfect, but this smelled absolutely amazing. I added in the straggling raspberries I had in the fridge as well, and it gave the glaze a truly delicious smell.
So delicious, that we didn’t wait for the pie to chill overnight.
“What is in this?”
“Amazing goodness. Why?”
“It tastes a little off.”
“Really!?! Like what?”
“Bitter and sour. It’s very strange, it’s just the aftertaste.”
And he was right. The aftertaste was surprisingly sour. But I wasn’t giving up on my satin pie. We decided to leave it sit for twelve hours in the fridge in case it needed to do some magic while we weren’t looking.
Here it is, twelve hours later. As you can see, it would have sliced beautifully if I would have taken the time to crust up. Oh well, there is always next time.
I shoved another piece down Tom’s throat. This time it was met with success!
“There, now it’s better. In fact, it’s amazing.”
The Verdict: Amazing After Ageing
From The Tasting Notes –
Take those directions seriously, because this pie needs to sit for a bit to morph into its final form. Even without the crust it actually kept some sort of slice form, and the filling was very creamy and light. It meshed perfectly with the strawberries. The raspberries were a bit of a wild card. Some bites with raspberries were great, and some were a little bit less so. It might have been the quality of the berries I had, but overall I would say this is a strawberry-only pie. I am kind of excited for the peach season, though. I think I am going to see how this pie goes with peaches. And I will even make a crust!
When you make the peach version, try ginger snaps. Crush them, like you would graham crackers for a graham cracker crust, and blend the crumbs with some melted butter & then mould into your pie plate. Baking it will crisp up the crust which is kinda nice with a cream/custard base filling, but absolutely not necessary. Seriously. Ginger snaps.
That is an amazing suggestion!
I can’t believe I liked the Instagram post and forgot to come over here. 😂 This pie looks delicious, especially with the glaze.
I wonder how it would be to skip the middle man and make a nut crust. I could totally see peaches and almonds. I’ll also agree with Claudia that gingersnaps and peaches go really well together. I often use crushed gingersnaps as part of the topping for a peach crumble.