This is one of the finest tasting strawberry pies, often referred to as “fresh” strawberry pie. The reason is that half strawberries used in the filling are left just trimmed and uncooked. They’re folded into a kind of strawberry jam, a thickened mixture of pureed strawberries, sugar, cornstarch and water that’s boiled until thickened and clear.
Fresh Strawberry Pie
It seemed like strawberries magically appeared at the farmers’ markets several weeks ago, earlier than usual. They were just a trickle then, but they’re now in full force. And in the weeks ahead I’ll share my favorite strawberry dessert recipes.
Their usual destination is in pies, shortcakes and such. But I came across a strawberry cobbler recipe in the charming collection of recipes from “Mama Dip’s Kitchen” by Mildred Council. She was a highly revered cook from Chapel Hill, North Carolina (she passed last month at 89) where her eponymous restaurant is still legendary, serving up stellar home-cooking, simple, sweet and divine.
Her recipe for fresh strawberry cobbler is a perfect example of her exacting sense of simple flavors. The recipe, however, has several elements that I never follow. For one, the cobbler crust is made with shortening. I never use just shortening in pie dough, though I’m sure many of you do. I prefer a butter crust or one with butter and lard.
Strawberry cobbler
Coca-Cola cake is one of those vintage American recipes that you don’t see often. I’ve never made it until I came across the recipe on the food blog, Southern Kitchen. Coke, butter, oil, buttermilk, cocoa, eggs flour and lots of sugar–what could be bad? Upon first bite I proclaimed this one of the best cakes ever, a fine example of a classic sheet cake.
Coca-Cola cake originated not in Atlantic, the home of Coke, but in Charleston, West Virginia, according to the food writer Kate Williams, editor of Southern Kitchen, and whose recipe I followed. It’s been around since the 1950s and occasionally found in regional cookbooks, newspaper and magazine articles.
The cake is so sweet it really needs nothing else, though you might be tempted to serve a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
An extremely moist cake it’s topped with a very sweet chocolate icing that’s truly addictive if not responsible for instant waist-gain. Toasted pecans are sprinkled on top of the frosting on the finished cake but the original recipe was to stir it into the frosting. I think I like that method better than the one instructed to use.
Coca-cola Cake
