The frozen fruit case at your grocer’s has so many interesting juices and juice combinations that it’s a shame to relegate them only to the juice pitcher. Over the years we’ve learned that with juice concentrates, we can boost flavors or create flavor combinations to make wonderful pies, cobblers, and crisps. In this article, we’ll tell you three ways that we’ve used frozen concentrates to create exciting new pies and give you sample recipes.
- Cream cheese pies made with frozen fruit juice
- Ice cream pies made with frozen fruit juice concentrate
- Fruit pies made with frozen fruit juice concentrate
You’ll find that with all three methods, you can make delightful pies. Let your imagination roam. There are so many possibilities for great pies that you can experiment forever. Just take the sample recipes we’ll give you here and start switching flavors.
How to Make Cream Cheese Pies with Frozen Fruit Juice Concentrate
Years ago, we discovered pink lemonade pies. They were simple concoctions made with pink lemonade concentrate mixed into a cream cheese filling and then loaded into a graham cracker crumb crust. They were easy, very good, and pretty. With a few tweakings, we created our own recipe. It is now one of the oldest, most popular recipes on our site. Over the years, we haven’t changed it but now we do make it most times in a nine-inch glass based springform pan instead of a deep dish pie pan. With a crumb crust, it’s nice to be able to present and slice the pie on the glass base. It makes for a much neater presentation.
For Saint Patrick’s Day one year we made a green version of our lemonade pie. We called it a “Leprechaun Pie.” It can be made with either lemonade or limeade and colored with green food coloring. The coconut on top is stained with green food coloring. This pie is perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day and–with its bright, spring green coloring–it’s a nice pie to make in the spring. This pie, made with limeade, has tones similar to a key lime pie.
But again, these recipes should be considered types. Explore other fruit juice concentrates. A guava cream cheese pie is an interesting variation.
How to Make Ice Cream Pies with Juice Concentrates
The concept here is similar to the cream cheese pie. Instead of cream cheese, ice cream or frozen yogurt is used. Again, consider this a concept, not just a recipe, and try different juices and ice cream flavors.
Adding Fruit Juice Concentrate to Fruit Pies
For a burst of flavor or to introduce a complementary flavor, you can add fruit juice concentrates to your fruit pies. The juice becomes the basis for the slurry surrounding the fruit. Since it is concentrated, not diluted with water, the slurry can pack a punch.
We often add apple juice concentrate to our apple pies. We like the added flavor.
The following recipe is one of our favorites: Raspberry Peach Pie with a Streusel Topping. The raspberry slurry is tart, the peaches are sweet, and the combination is terrific.
What You’ll Need
You’ll need pie pans. We prefer to make these pies in 9-inch springform pans. Use one with a glass base so that you can cut and serve right on the base. Our favorite is our Candy Apple Red Silicone Springform Pan but metal springform pans with glass bases work fine too.
Our Professional Pie Crust Mix makes a great, easy pie crust and you add only water. If you don’t over mix it, it will make a very nice, flakey crust.
If you are making a nut crust where you want the nuts chopped finely, use a plunger-type nut chopper. We sell several styles.
You’ll need a quality rolling pin, either to roll out the crust or to crush the crackers. If you are using a baked pastry crust, you will want a pie weight chain or ceramic pie weight beads to keep the crust from bubbling in the oven.
