Strawberry Cream Pie and a spot of cleaning

As a Friday treat, I'd like to share with you my Strawberry Cream Pie that I made last night. I don't often get the chance to make sweet treats, even thouh I consider it one of my hobbies. But as we are going away this weekend (we are off to Yorkshire for 4 days), I made this dreamy pie last night to take along.

The recipe for this is a bit of a mixture between two recipes I found, it takes a bit of time, but not too much effort... here it is:

You will need:
Pastry case (you can of course make your own or buy a ready made one)
85 g cream cheese
65 g confectioners sugar
3 ml vanilla extract
200 ml double cream
2 punnets of strawberries
One packet of strawberry jelly (gelatin)

And this is what you do...

• Once you've got your pastry case ready (I used ready rolled frozen pastry, but next time I'll have a go at making my own), whisk the cream until soft peaks form and set aside.


• Use about 4-5 ripe strawberries, and put them in a blender to make some strawberry juice.
  Beat the cream cheese, strawberry juice and confectioners sugar together. Stir in the vanilla extract then fold in the cream.


• Pour your strawberry cream mixture into the pastry case, and refrigerate over night or until it has set.


• Dissolve the jelly as instructed on the packet but using only 1/2 the amount of water. Allow the jelly to cool, and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour (okay so I cheated by sticking it in the freezer for 10 minutes).


• Slice the rest of the strawberries in half, and arrange over the top of the filling.


• Brush the strawberry jelly (I used a silicone brush) over the strawberries, filling in the gaps between the strawberries where the pie filling is showing... you wont be using all the jelly, so save the rest for later or eat it now.


• Refrigerate and serve within a day.
  

If you're not so sure about the measurements, make use of my measurement conversion cards that you can print off here.

So that's the recipe done, but I hope you didn't think I was going to write a post without a bit of cleaning or home keeping? When a recipe requires some waiting for things to set or bake, make use of that time do a bit of cleaning...

While I was waiting for my pastry to bake, I decided to do a bit of odd-spot cleaning. For ages now it's been bothering me that dirt gathers in the sides of the dishwasher. I see it when I open the machine, but it's not visible when the machine is closed. It's those sealed bits that the dishwasher itself doesn't wash, nor does it get a clean when I wipe the outside of the machine. Similarly the rubber seals around the fridge... how do they get that dirty? So I grabbed a cloth, and a spray bottle filled with water and some dish washing liquid and set about cleaning all the little corners and edges of things that are hidden from view. It certainly did feel good afterwards, not because the kitchen looked clean (it didn't look any different in fact) but because I knew that there are a few less places where bacteria are lurking in my kitchen! Now that's worth a slice of strawberry pie!

I'm away until for a few days for a break, but I'll be back with another post on Tuesday. Happy weekend!