With heat advisories peppering the weather reports this past week, I found myself in serious need of a cool, summer dessert that wouldn’t heat my kitchen past its breaking point.
I guess I didn’t really “need” it, but when the heat index is pushing into the triple digits, I often search for something sweet to try to cool things down a bit. Of course, I’m nearly always in search of something sweet.
This time, I opted for a non-ice-cream treat, which is rare for me, and I instead reached for a box of strawberry gelatin sitting in my pantry.
I was in the mood for a slice of pie, and since I’d recently found a recipe for a gelatin pie I wanted to try, I decided it was high time to whip one up.
The recipe I found was on the blog “Spaceships and Laser Beams.” You can find the original post at https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/no-bake-strawberry-jello-pie/. I changed absolutely nothing, except I realized quickly that there is way too much filling produced by this recipe for just one pie, so I added an additional crust. If you’d rather make just one, you’ll just have leftover filling that you can let setup in the fridge and eat in non-pie form.
Strawberry Gelatin Pie
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup boiling water
- 3- ounce package strawberry gelatin
- 1 cup ice cold water
- 16 ounces frozen whipped topping defrosted
- 2 prepared 9-inch graham cracker crusts
Instructions
- Add the gelatin to the 2/3 cup of boiling water and stir until it is completely dissolved.
- In a large bowl, combine the gelatin and cold water and stir it until it begins to thicken just a little. Add in the whipped topping and stir well.
- Refrigerate the filling for 30 minutes to let it begin to set up.
- Stir the filling and spoon evenly into the two crusts.
- Refrigerate the pies for at least three hours or overnight before slicing.
- Store covered in the refrigerator.
This is one of those recipes that would be perfect for a beginning cook, especially if you do like I did and boil the water in the microwave instead of on the stovetop.
I also lazily created my ice water by putting a cube in my one-cup measuring cup, filling it with cold water, and waiting. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to dissolve into nice, super cold water.
If you’ve never tried a gelatin pie before, it’s incredibly airy, making it the perfect, light after-dinner treat, and since it’s such a pretty shade of pink, it’s a nice addition to the table. You could easily decorate it with some more whipped cream if you wanted to.
And, while I won’t claim this as a health food, I did use the low-fat whipped topping and a reduced-fat graham cracker crust, so despite the fact that it’s most certainly still a dessert, it didn’t pack the calorie wallop that most pies tend to have.
Plus, it did cool me down, for at least a couple minutes, which was nice, but full disclosure, if Mother Nature persists with this balmy weather, it will probably take more than one slice to do the job.
This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 22, 2019.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
