Mile High Strawberry Pie

My friend, JoAnn, shared her mother-in-law, Marie Poolman's, recipe with me. She said she tried her first piece in 1964. I don't know which impressed me more, that she remembered the date of her first taste of the pie, or realizing that the recipe went back that far.

Since I was having dinner guests, I had a good reason to make it and let you know firsthand how it came out. Mile High is a great description! JoAnn said Marie would dress up a served piece with a sliced, fanned strawberry, a piece of mint and additional whipped cream.

INGREDIENTS:

Crust - Sift into 10" pie pan

1 ½ c. flour

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Add ½ c. oil and 2 Tbsp milk – beat until well blended and add to flour mixture. Spread with fingers until plate is lined. Bake 10 minutes at 425 degrees.

Filling-Beat 2 egg whites until stiff

Add 1 box frozen strawberries, partially thawed

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 c. sugar

Beat all together for 15 minutes, EXACTLY.**, fold in 1 cup whipped cream, measured after whipped till stiff. Pile high in cooled pie shell and freeze until firm. Serve frozen.

MY NOTES:

Quoting JoAnn, "You can claim it is low calorie as all the whipped air has zero calories."

Here is what I did differently. I used two cups of prepared, but no sugar added, strawberries from Klickers. I wasn't sure of the measurement of the frozen box of strawberries so I guessed. The crust went together nicely and I baked it in our toaster/convection oven as not to heat up the house.

I bought a half-pint of whipping cream before I read the description. It said 30% whipping cream. Hmmmm. I went to the store and the 'heavy" whipping cream had 36% so I used what I had already bought. It whipped up to almost two cups so I used all of it. I'm sure Marie probably skimmed cream off the top of whole milk and used that. The fact that I used more than a cup of whipped cream made the pie lose some of its body, but it was still huge and my guests didn't complain.

**At first I cringed about beating the mixture for 15 minutes but I see why. It continues to beat air into the mixture until it is fluffy. I put my Iphone beside me and Facebooked until the timer went off.

This pie is light, flavorful and refreshing. Everyone had a second piece.

ENJOY