Grandma's Cherry Cheese Pie

Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie

Dorcas Annette Walker

My first taste of cherry cheese pie was at my grandmother’s house. I fell instantly in love with the smooth creamy cheese texture topped by red cherries. In fact everyone who tasted my Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie was swept under its culinary spell. It quickly became a tradition for every family reunion that my grandmother made several of her cherry cheese pies. Even my daughter, who didn’t like cherries, loved my Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie.

We have a family story about Dawn and her cherries that we still laugh about today. Our daughter wouldn’t eat the cherries, but would suck the juice off and then spit her cherries out. My husband on the other hand didn’t believe in letting any food go to waste. The first time Dana noticed Dawn’s cherries sitting in a row along the edge of her plate my husband paused between bites of his pie to ask her if she wanted them. When my daughter said, “no”, Dana told me to give them to him. I began to ask him if he really wanted her spit out cherries, but my husband interrupted me and told me to pass her cherries to him. So like a good wife I did as he asked. This went on for years. Every time we’d have my Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie I’d scoop up Dawn’s spit out cherries and give them to Dana as he devoured his piece of pie. So it was quite a shock to our entire family when suddenly one day as we were all enjoying a piece of my Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie and I was in the process of passing along Dawn’s cherries, Dana suddenly stopped me to question, “Is she spitting out her cherries?” When I affirmed so, Dana gave me a look of utter disgust and demanded, “Then why are you passing them to me. I don’t want her cherries after she’s spit them out!” It wasn’t until my kids backed me up that my husband realized that for years he had been consuming our daughter’s spit out cherries. So even if you don’t like cherries you’ll still love my Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie. Her pie takes only five minutes to whip up and will make a perfect Valentine dessert.

Grandma’s Cherry Cheese Pie

Beat until smooth:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese
1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Then add:
1/3 c concentrated lemon juice
Mix on high a couple of minutes until firm. Pour cheese mixture into one baked pie shell. Chill for a couple of hours then layer 1 can of cherry pie filling on top and serve!

Weekly tip: You can always substitute strawberries or blueberries whenever a recipe calls for cherry pie filling or instead of using condensed milk and lemon juice substitute 1 c of powdered sugar and one 8 oz container of cool whip!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Mountain Cookin page and blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com