Feasting on Art Recipe Contest
1 Mar
Pierre Auguste Renoir, Strawberries, 1905 oil on canvas, 46 x 28 cm, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France
Strawberry Lemon Many-Layered Pie
It took me a while to decide what type of dish to create for Feasting on Art‘s Recipe Contest. Feasting on Art takes inspiration from still art food paintings and turns them into delicious recipes, and had challenged her readers to do so as well, with the above painting as our inspiration. From what we call tell from the painting, we need to have lemons, strawberries, and some mystery item from the container with the spoon (sugar? cream?).
I really wanted to do something savory with strawberries, but couldn’t settle on anything. I went for sweet dessert instead (the natural thing to do with strawberries), but couldn’t decide on which type of strawberry pie to create – so I combined them all together (with delicious results)!
Richest Crust Ever
- Dough pie crust (store-bought or make your own)
- Graham cracker pie crust (store-bought or make your own)
- 12 oz bag of chocolate chips
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 14 oz bag caramel candies
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- chopped nuts (optional)
Bake the dough pie crust as per instructions.
Meanwhile, mix chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in microwave for two or three minutes, until melty, then mix together until it turns into a nice creamy fudge.
After the pie crust is browned and cooled, add a layer of fudge to the bottom and sides of the pie crust. Put the rest of the fudge in a greased pan and put in the fridge and you’ll have fudge later!
Add a layer of graham cracker pie crust on top of the fudge.
Mix the caramels with the cream and microwave for two or three minutes, again until melty enough to make a nice caramel layer (add nuts afterwards), and pour it on top of the graham cracker layer.
This crust is so deliciously rich, you could eat just the pie crust as a dessert.
Strawberry Cream Layer
- 2/3 C boiling water
- 1 pkg strawberry jello
- 1/2 C cold water + 1/2 C ice PLUS
- Whipped cream
- Strawberries, chopped
Mix boiling water with jello til jello is dissolved. Mix with cold water and ice. Add whipped cream and strawberries until you get a nice, creamy consistency and then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Lemon Cheesecake Layer
- ¾ cup sugar
- 8 ounces softened cream cheese (softened)
- 1 (3 oz) package lemon jello
- ¾ cup water (boiling)
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ¼ cup lemon juice (I used 1/2 of a lemon, squeezed)
- 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk (chilled)
Mix jello and water until jello is dissolved, then mix everything else together. Set aside in fridge until ready to add to pie.
Strawberry Pie Filling
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 TB cornstarch
- 1 cup liquid cranberry/raspberry concentrate, thawed
- 3/4 cups water
- 4 cups strawberries
Heat all ingredients over medium heat until it turns into a nice gooey thickness. Set aside until ready to add to pie.
Toppings
- Additional strawberries
- Whip cream
Layers Upon Layers
You can add the layers in whatever order you prefer. This recipe is chaotic, so the measurements will leave you with leftover pie filling, caramel, fudge, strawberry cream, lemon cheesecake, strawberry filling, and even whip cream. So far, we’ve made caramel covered apples with the caramel, and the fudge has quickly disappeared.
The Verdict
As happens often in chaotic cooking, some of the creamy layers weren’t as sturdy as I would have liked, but oh, the taste! The crust was decidedly AWESOME, though, and the strawberry layers were pleasantly contrasted by the bittersweetness of the lemon layer. All taste testers were thoroughly impressed (and the children really enjoyed helping make this).
Inspirations:
