Adventures In Elegance

Adventuring with new recipes is part of what makes homemaking enjoyable. Each discovery helps to add your special touch to the foods you serve to family and friends.

With foods like sparkling-bright canned fruit pie fillings available to you, it’s easy and fun to create new dishes. These fresh-fruit pie fillings can be used in a myriad of ways right from the can ... as toppings for cheese cakes, sauces for sundaes or ham slices or as rich fillings for quick-to-fix pies. You’ll want to try them, too, as the master ingredients in breads and cakes, cookies and pretty party desserts. Sample the offerings here and then go adventuring on your own; canned fruit pie fillings can add the magic that will set your meals apart from the rest.

Heavenly Homebaked Breads

Set a mood that’s both glamorous and homey with the warm fragrance and taste of breads fresh from your oven. They’re wonderful any time, for any occasion!

Bonny Berry Bread

Cream butter and sugar; beat in egg. Blend in milk. Sift together dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Spread half the batter in a greased 8x8x2-inch pan; cover with ¾ can blueberry pie filling. Spread remaining batter over pie filling; top with remaining pie filling. Mix ½ cup sugar, ½ cup flour and ½ teaspoon cinnamon; cut in 2 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle crumb mixture over bread. Bake at 375° for 30 to 40 minutes.

Kwicky Cherry Kolaches

Unroll packaged refrigerator roll dough; place 1 square made up of 2 triangles on a floured surface. Roll or pat to even dough and make a 6-inch square; cut in half as marked to make 2 triangles. Place triangles on ungreased baking sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of cherry pie filling in the center of the triangle. Pick up the 2 long ends, fold over filling, bringing them together at the center point to form a square; pinch edges to seal. Repeat with remaining rolls and pie filling. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until browned. Blend orange juice and confectioners’ sugar; drizzle over the hot rolls to glaze. Makes 16 rolls.

Note: Make up half the recipe using one can of rolls; cover and refrigerate the remaining pie filling to use another day in fresh rolls.

Dutch Apple Coffee Cake

Mix coffee cake or hot roll mix according to package directions, using 1 cup water. Stir in melted butter and beaten egg. Let rise in warm spot until double in size (about 1 hour). Spoon into a buttered 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Spoon apple pie filling over batter. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over pie filling. Top with chopped pecans. Cover and place in a warm spot until double in size (about 30 or 40 minutes). Bake in a 400° oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing, if desired.

Perfectly Marvelous Pies

Apple and cherry, lemon and raisin—what wonderful pies there are to make! Each can become a specialty of yours, a discovery in elegant eating that’s well worth your while to prepare.

Spicy Frozen Raisin Pie

Combine pie filling, spices and vanilla; stir in pecans. Fold in whipped evaporated milk. Mound into prepared crust. Freeze until firm.

Peanut Crunch Apple Pie

Blend peanut butter, butter and brown sugar into flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. Spoon apple pie filling into unbaked crust; sprinkle peanut butter mixture over pie filling. Bake in a 400° oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until filling is hot and pastry browned.

Pineapple Sundae Pie

Combine vanilla pudding mix, small amount of milk and 2 egg yolks; blend well. Add remaining milk and cook, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Add pineapple-orange gelatin and stir until dissolved; cool. Blend in sour cream. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into pudding mixture. Pour into baked pie shell. Chill. When ready to serve, cut pie into wedges and spoon pineapple pie filling over each. Top with whipped cream, chopped pecans and cherries.

Rainbow Cherry Pie

Fill pie shell with pie filling; bake in a 425° oven for 25 minutes. Cool and chill. Heat milk almost to boiling. Add marshmallows and stir until they are softened and partially melted. Cool. Fold into whipped cream. Spread cream mixture over top of chilled pie.

Glazed Raisin-Cherry Pie

Roll out pastry for bottom crust and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Combine pie fillings and lemon peel; spoon into pastry. Roll out remaining pastry; slash and adjust over filling; trim and crimp edge. Bake in a 400° oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool pie for 15 to 20 minutes. Combine sugar, water and butter in a saucepan; heat until sugar is dissolved. Combine cornstarch and water; add to hot mixture and heat until thickened. Stir in the lemon juice. Spread over pie.

Swedish Apple Cake

(It’s really a pie!)

Cream butter and 3 tablespoons sugar together; add egg yolks and mix well. Add flour, almonds and lemon peel. Mix until flour is moistened. Press onto the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes or until browned. Combine apple pie filling and lemon juice; heat to boiling. Spread jam over baked crust and top with hot apple mix. Beat egg whites until fluffy; gradually add ¼ cup sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over apples, sealing to the edge. Bake in 350° oven for 18 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned. Makes 9-inch pie.

Fabulous Festive Desserts

Sometimes it’s the occasion that dictates the dessert; at other times a truly spectacular treat will be enough to turn a casual gathering into a party. One thing we’re certain of ... each of these gala desserts is delectable!

Peach Smoothee

Beat pie filling and condensed milk together until peaches are crushed. Mix in lemon juice, pecans and candied ginger. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into 3 ice cube trays and freeze until firm. Makes 1½ quarts.

Mincemeat Filled Cookies

Cream shortening and sugars together until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Sift dry ingredients together; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Wrap dough in waxed paper and chill well. Roll ¼ of dough at a time on a floured surface to ⅛-inch thickness. Cut with a 2½-inch round cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Combine pie filling and marmalade; place 1 tablespoon of mixture on each cooky. Roll ¼ of dough as directed; cut with 2½-inch cutter and cut a small hole in center of each cooky with a small cutter. Place over filling, centering hole; seal edges by pressing with a fork. Bake at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Makes 4½ dozen.

Berry Squares

Put half the cake squares in a 9x9x2-inch pan. Spoon pie filling over cake; top with remaining cake squares. Combine pudding mix, milk and sour cream; beat until smooth. Spoon over cake. Chill several hours. Cut into squares. Makes 9 servings.

Icy Lemon Soufflé

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Beat in the pie filling until smooth. Cool. Fold in egg whites and whipped cream. Pour into a 1½ quart soufflé dish or casserole. Chill until firm or for several hours.

Apple Fruit Cake

Melt butter in a saucepan; add apple pie filling and sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until sugar melts; cool. Sift together dry ingredients. Mix raisins, currants, pecans, candied fruits and cherries with dry ingredients. Combine apple mixture and dry ingredients. Pour into foil-lined 9-inch tube pan. Bake at 300° for 90 minutes or until done. Serve with butter sauce if desired.

Butter Sauce

Cream butter; gradually add sifted confectioners’ sugar, creaming until fluffy. Stir cold water into cornstarch; cook and stir until clear and thick. Stir hot mixture into butter mixture; add vanilla and vinegar. Serve warm. Makes about ¾ cup.

Dessert Pancakes

Combine eggs, water and cake mix. Beat until smooth. Drop by tablespoons onto a hot greased griddle and bake on each side. Heat pie filling, butter and lemon juice together. Spoon filling between and on top of stacks of 4 pancakes each. Keep warm until serving time. Stir ice cream to soften and spoon over pancake stacks. Makes 40 2½ inch pancakes, or ten servings.

Collector’s Corner

• Use cherry or blueberry pie fillings to top a towering angel food cake filled with vanilla pudding. They’re good, too, spooned over brownies capped with vanilla ice cream.

• Spoon peach pie filling into well-greased muffin pans with chopped pecans and a dot of butter. Top with a biscuit from a roll of refrigerated biscuits and bake as directed on package. When baked, let stand a few minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.

• Combine a can of pineapple pie filling with 2 cups shredded coconut and ¾ teaspoon curry powder. Heat and serve the fragrant sauce over chicken with rice.

• For a really terrific sauce, heat together a can each of mincemeat pie filling and drained mandarin oranges. This is good spooned over pound cake; superb as a sauce over pear halves centered with scoops of ice cream.

• Strawberry filling is perfect for valentine-shaped meringue shells.

• Heated raisin pie filling adds a glory note to everything from broiled ham slices to old-fashioned bread pudding.

• Apple pie filling is a shelf standby you won’t want to do without after you have tried it, heated with ½ cup honey and ½ cup butter, spooned generously over Sunday morning waffles.

There’s no doubt about it, each can of fruit pie filling you open is the wonderful beginning to a whole new world of delightful, applause-winning dishes. Try them and find out for yourself.

The Pie Filling Institute
333 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
60601

Transcriber’s Notes

• Silently corrected a few typos.
• Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.
• In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.