Homemade Strawberry & Creme Pies

Amanda is a twenty-something wife of Peter and future mom of “Baby K.” She blogs about frugal living, simple recipes, and health and wellness over at Crunchy Hippie Life and enjoys using her RN degree to teach people about health and wellness. Guilty pleasures include mint M&Ms and apparently cream cheese.

Confession time: I love McDonalds treats. Specifically the strawberries and cream pies, which are usually only available around Valentine’s Day but thankfully stuck around all through the spring and most of the summer this year. They have been the subject of many a pregnancy craving.

And now they are gone. And I am left without a 2/$1 strawberry pie deal for the remainder of this pregnancy.

Or am I?

When Jamie and I were talking about topics for this guest post, she suggested I create a dessert, preferably one that would be toddler-friendly. This is my first child so I’m not sure that I can really qualify this recipe as being “toddler-friendly”, but it is something they can hold in their hands and feed themselves, so that could count.

In any case, it’s a strawberries and cream pie! So there’s that.

I experimented a bit with shape options. At first I wanted one in a similar shape as the McDonald’s version so I did a “braiding” technique, but I found that most of the filling leaked out during the baking. I also made a “turnover” which worked well, but my favorite style ended up being the classic “pop tart.”

It’s a really simple recipe:

Copy-Cat McDonald's Strawberry & Creme Pie

 

Ingredients:
Crust:
either 2 rolls of premade dough or a homemade version (I made this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butter-flaky-pie-crust/ but make enough for 2 pies)

Filling:
Strawberry preserves
4oz cream cheese, softened
2 TBSP (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract OR a few drops of food-grade essential oil of your choice (I used lemon)

Optional but nice:
2-3 TBSP butter
2-3 TBSP sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the butter and cream cheese together until blended, then slowly add the powdered sugar until it becomes a thick frosting. Add the vanilla or essential oil (I used 3-4 drops of lemon).

Prepare the pie crust as directed. Roll dough out on the counter and cut into desired shapes. Put the bottom layer on a baking sheet, prepared either with a silpat or parchment paper. Scoop out 1-2 tablespoons of cream cheese mixture, top with 1-2 tablespoons of strawberry preserves (the amount depends on the size of the crust, or how much you like cream cheese!). Top with the second layer of crust, and press the edges together with your fingers. If you feel so inclined, poke 3 small cuts in the top layer to allow steam to escape. Repeat until you are out of crust. (You will probably have extra cream cheese)

Melt the extra butter and brush over all the pies, and sprinkle sugar lightly over the top.

 Bake for 25-30 minutes until crust is starting to turn golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy (and if you really like cream cheese, serve with a bit of the extra on the side!).

These are delicious hot or cold. Store any extras in the fridge.