First things first: This recipe comes courtesy of one of my grandmother’s sisters. I have vague recollections of her, mostly from the various and sundry weddings and funerals I attended growing up. One thing is for certain—she has a special place in my heart thanks to this recipe.
A caveat before we get started: I used a graham cracker crust with this one because, ultimately, I’m not super wild about standard pie crusts—and I don’t make enough pies to improve my technique enough to make them better.
Here’s what you’ll need:
½ Cup Sugar
1 Pkg. Gelatin
½ Cup Water
10 oz. Frozen Berries
Juice of Half a Lemon
1 Cup Whipping Cream
Mix together sugar and gelatin in a saucepan. Whisk in water and heat to just below the boiling point, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Add frozen berries and lemon juice and allow to cool until mixture is slightly thickened.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into berry mixture.
Pour into either a baked or graham cracker crumb pie shell and chill.
This dessert is really much better than I thought it would be. I’m not typically wild about any dessert that contains gelatin because the texture is usually…suboptimal, but I think the use of whipped cream mitigates the textural shortcomings. Overall, this was a nice surprise.
Look at you, with the beautiful whipped cream piping in the cover photo. I bet this was delicious.
Curious do you think fresh berries would be better? Did you burn off some of the moisture from the frozen berries?
No, I think frozen is better because you need the cold shock of the frozen berries to cool down the gelatin mixture so it thickens properly while thawing the berries at the same time. Otherwise, you’re more prone to cooking fresh berries with the hot mixture than anything else.