I’ve made pies galore this strawberry season. (You l can look them up in the search feature Search strawberry.) The standard double crust pie filled with nothing but strawberries is always a take-away favorite. I’m not a fan of its frequent partner, rhubarb; I prefer each on its own. There’s cobblers, a gloried pie assembled differently from pie. And there’s the wide world of what’s usually called fresh strawberry pie. Uncooked berries are mixed in with a thickened strawberry mixture and piled into a prebaked pastry case. I have three versions: a cornstarch thickened mixture of crushed strawberries with lots of sugar; another type uses Sprite as the flavoring agent in the cooked berries. Both of these versions direct you to pour the cooked mixture over trimmed uncooked berries already in the shell.
Past posts of strawberry pie: Clockwise, left–cooked berries over fresh, classic strawberry lattice-topped pie and fresh strawberry pie flavored with Sprite
Strawberry cobbler
Sometimes I’l use a cookie crumb crust, which since the pie fillings have to chill the standard pastry doesn’t not fare well in the refrigerator, losing some of its flaky texture. Cookie crumbs benefit by chilling. It’s up to you which way to go.
Another version is to cook the strawberries and then fold uncooked berries into this. It’s not that much different from the other versions.
Then there’s this little gem featured here. You don’t need to turn on the oven for a lengthy period other than give the cookie crumb filling 5 minutes in the oven to firm up. The mixture is sweetened condense milk, strawberry puree, sugar, lime juice and rind,, sour cream–and that’s it. Chill the mixture for several hours and you’ve got the ultimate icebox strawberry tart.
Strawberry icebox tarts
I used store-bought vanilla wafers for the cookie crust. But try Social Tea Biscuits, shortbread and other varieties that you crush with some blanched almonds. I’ve thought of making this as a pie, putting the crumbs into a pie plate and filling with the mousse mixture.
The recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Butter Beans to Blackberries” by Ronni Lundy. She calls the dessert Strawberry Romanoff Icebox Tarts.
Ingredients
- Crust
- 3/4 cups crushed vanilla wafers or other cookie
- Handful of blanched almond pieces (about 1/8 cup)
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- Filling
- 12 or more,as needed, ripe strawberries, hulled
- 1 lime, juiced and zest
- 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and arrange six 1 cup ramekins on a baking sheet.
- Crush the cookies and almonds in a blender or food processor until fine crumbs. Transfer to a bowl and add melted butter, stirring to combine until it holds together. Add more butter if necessary.
- Put the crumb mixture into the cups, and press down with your fingers. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes until the crust is lightly golden and firmed up. Let these cool completely on a rack before filling.
- Save 6 perfect berries and put aside. These will top the filling. Take 6 to 8 large berries, and cut into quarters. Put these in a blender or food processor to puree. You should have 1/2 cup of puree. Add more berries if needed to reach 1/2 cup.
- Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a medium large mixing bowl and pour in the strawberry puree. Mix with a rubber spatula. Add the lime juice and zest. Fold in the sour cream. Pour this evenly into the 6 custard cups. Top each with a hulled berry. Assemble on a small cookie sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
