Description
A pastel cherry vanilla cream pink pie is a delicious vintage dessert. Pink meringue for Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 baked (homemade, even if misshapen!) 9-inch pie crust shell
- Scant ¾ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 cups low-fat (1%) milk
- 4 egg yolks, beaten
- 1 ½ teaspoons good-quality vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 tablespoon maraschino cherry juice (I used Tillen Farms Merry Maraschino Cherries with no dyes or preservatives)
- 1 tablespoon pickled beet juice
- For Meringue:
- 3 egg whites at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon pickled beet juice
Instructions
- In a saucepan, stir together sugar and cornstarch. Whisk in milk and cook, stirring constantly until bubbles pop the surface. Continue to cook over medium heat for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Whisk 1 cup of hot mixture into the egg yolks.
- Pour egg yolk mixture back into hot milk mixture and whisk. Bring barely to a boil and cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, butter, cherry juice and 1 tablespoon beet juice. Pour into pie crust shell.
- For meringue, in a large bowl, combine egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tarter. Beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form – about 1 minute. Gradually add 6 tablespoons sugar while beating on high. Beat about 4 minutes more until stiff glossy peaks form. Mix in 1 teaspoon beet juice.
- Immediately spread meringue over warm pudding in pie crust and spread to seal the edges. Make fancy curly-topped designs in meringue and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 15 minutes.