I don’t know about where you live, but around here it’s been seriously hot and humid. We’re talking frizzy hair, sweaty body, lethargic brain kind of hot. The kind of hot where you just wanna lay on the grass under a sprinkler all day, eat ice cream till your tongue freezes, or consume half a frozen fruit pie before you remember to take pictures of it. Yeah,that kind of hot.
Maybe the heat’s made me a little wacky, or maybe I was already a little wacky, but for some reason lately I’ve had the urge to bake a pie. A pie with fresh raspberries and juicy peaches.
Bake a pie in this heat? Probably not the best idea. But I still want pie!
It seemed I was destined to lead a pieless existence until the weather cooled off. But wait…I have the perfect solution. A pie baked on the grill! Recently I’ve been obsessed with the idea of baking some kind of dessert on my grill. I think it started when I got this cool griddle accessory for my grill. Other people may think pancakes, potatoes, or sausages when they see a griddle. Not me, I think pie. Not the fancy kind of pie with crimped edges and a pretty lattice crust, but the rustic kind where jagged edges of dough fold up over the fruit and the filling threatens to burst out the sides. I think the proper term is a Crostata. But since I’m not very proper I’ll just call it a rustic pie or tart. Here’s the thing though. It was too hot to even turn on the grill. The thought of standing over the hot grates and attending to my pie/tart was unbearable. So I abandoned that idea too.
Right about now you’re probably wondering why I’m even telling you about this pie on a grill idea since I didn’t actually make it. Umm…well, maybe cause I’m still thinking about it and ideas shared out in the world are much more likely to come to fruition then ones left rattling around in my head. The thing is that I still very much want to make a pie on the grill. But this heat has left me cranky, impatient, and craving something cold & refreshing. So for now a frozen no-bake fresh fruit pie will have to stand in as substitute. A pretty yummy substitute. And crazy easy to make…even on a hot, sweltering day.
You start with a graham cracker crust. Store bought or homemade, it doesn’t matter. I made my own by combining melted butter with graham crackers, brown sugar and bit of cinnamon. I then patted it into a pie plate and stuck it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. See, I told you- no bake!
Next comes the filling. Cool whip, vanilla yogurt and raspberry-peach puree. Simple, simple, simple.
More fresh fruit on top and then in the freezer it goes. Now comes the hard part- waiting for it to freeze. My advice? Have a popsicle while you’re waiting…or two, or three. Or better yet, sneak into your neighbors yard and jump in their pool. Splash around for a few hours and when you come back the pie will be ready. Tell them I said it was alright.
Peach & Frozen Raspberry Pie
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups graham crackers crushed
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter melted + more for the pie plate
- 1 8 ounce 3 cups container low-fat Cool Whip, room temperature
- 16 ounces low-fat vanilla yogurt
- 2 cups fresh raspberries divided
- 2 peaches 1 roughly chopped & 1 cut into thin slices
Instructions
- Make the crust: Butter an 8-inch pie plate and set aside. Place the graham crackers in a large sealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. In a medium size bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Stir well and press the mixture into the prepared pie plate. Pop the crust in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- Make the filling: In a food processor, puree 1 cup of raspberries with one peach. In a large bowl combine the Cool Whip and vanilla yogurt. Fold in the fruit puree and stir until it turns a uniform color.
- Remove the crust from the freezer and pour in the filling. Level with a rubber spatula. Place the remaining fruit on top of the pie in any sot of configuration you like. Cover with plastic wrap and place the pie in the freezer for at least 4 hours.
