Great Aunt Ruth's Raspberry Cream Pie

As I write this we are sitting in a hotel room, waiting to take off for our new home in Algiers. All our things have been packed up and either shipped ahead of us or put into storage, so we'll be living out of suitcases for quite a while. (Watching all our furniture get wrapped in masses of brown paper and tape was a bit like watching a Christo installation).

In the meantime, we'll leave you with Paul's Great Aunt Ruth's raspberry cream pie. This pie is super simple and easy to make and perfect for summer. Basically, the pie relies on a reaction between lemon juice (acid) and sweetened condensed milk, which thicken into a custard. This easy custard formation is one of the things sweetened condensed milk was invented to do. Raspberries are blended into the custard, and before serving the whole pie is topped with spiked whipped cream. We usually make this a few times during the summer, especially for barbeques. 

We hope to be back blogging about markets in Algiers as soon as we get settled. Until then, we encourage you to have some pie!



Paul's Great Aunt Ruth's Raspberry Cream Pie
The raspberries will sort of fall apart and melt into the custard, which is a good thing.

1 pre-baked pie shell, from your favorite recipe
1 bag (16 oz) frozen raspberries, defrosted
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pint heavy cream
3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar,  or to taste
a dash of framboise (raspberry eau de vie), or vanilla extract

1. Prepare your pie crust and let cool.
2. Drain off 1/4 cup of juice from the bag of frozen raspberries. There will still be a little bit of juice in the bag with the raspberries.
3. Combine sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice in a bowl. Fold in the raspberries, combining well. Pour into pie shell and chill for at least 3 hours in the fridge, until set.
4. Whip cream to soft peaks. Slowly add the powdered sugar, beating cream to stiff peaks. Fold in the eau de vie. Top pie with whipped cream. Chill until ready to serve.