For my next Jell-O adventure I decided to pick one from the 1942 Good
Housekeeping cookbook. Recently when I
was at the store I noticed how beautiful the strawberries looked. So, since it is strawberry season I picked “Strawberry
Cheese Dessert Salad.” This is one of
those recipes that can be a little deceiving.
The recipe is very short and seems very simple, but once you get going
you realize it takes a few more steps and equipment than what you originally
thought. The recipe calls for two cups
of strawberries cut thinly….a bit time consuming.
Then it wants the heavy cream whipped, which
for me requires getting out the electric mixer because you can bet that I won’t
whip that by hand like my great grandmother probably did!
But other than that it’s a straight forward
recipe.
The only other issue I ran into
was the cream cheese addition (and yes, I did use cream cheese instead of
cottage cheese). It was a bit hard to
mix it into the other ingredients because it was a lot harder texture and
created lumps.
This recipe called
for the addition of a lemon cream dressing.
It also recommended serving the salad on a bed of lettuce. I decided to make the dressing but I decided
the lettuce leaf décor was a little too fifties housewife for me!
With the start of
this blog I decided I needed to give myself a present. I bought a couple of molds in order to make
pretty Jell-O. Once the first one
arrived I made this salad. Luckily there
were no disasters awaiting me during the making of it. So I poured the completed mixture into my new
wave like mold and placed it in the fridge for the night.
I decided to unmold
it and make the dressing at my parents’ house.
I thought it was fitting to try my salad with my mom since it came from
her grandmother’s cookbook. Again the
dressing was a little deceiving, whip the cream again, chill the lemon mixture
then fold in the whipped cream.
I also
ran into problems unmolding the Jell-O.
It took sliding a knife around the sides and dipping the mold in warm
water twice. So, when it finally did
plop out it was pretty runny. After I
chilled it for a while it was still runny.
I wonder if the cream and the cream cheese made the texture thin. (Again, I have a problem with the texture!!)
So I sliced it,
added a dollop of the dressing, and served it to my mom and me. We both thought it was wonderful!! Adding the cream dressing to the creamy Jell-O
was a bit indulgent and not quite necessary, but it tasted fine. I then took some to my boyfriend and he
enjoyed it too! So this one is quite a
success! My recommendation is to make
the lemon dressing but I would just serve that with plain fruit. I think this “salad” is a great dessert
alternative!
I would give
Strawberry Cheese Dessert Salad 4 out of 4 stars!!
The recipe follows
Strawberry Cheese
Dessert Salad
From The Good
Housekeeping Cook Book ©1942
2 C. Hulled, washed Strawberries
6 T. Granulated Sugar
1 Envelope plain, unflavored gelatin (1 T.)
¼ C. Cold Water
¼ C. boiling water
1 T. lemon juice
¼ t. Salt
¾ c. canned crushed pineapple, undrained
6 oz. pkg. cream cheese or 2/3 C. cottage cheese
½ c. heavy cream, whipped
Lettuce
24 hulled, washed whole strawberries
Lemon Cream Dressing (recipe follows)
Cut the 2 c. strawberries into thin crosswise slices and add
the sugar. Soak the gelatin in the cold
water 5 min, then add the boiling water and stir until the gelatin is
dissolved. Add lemon juice, salt,
pineapple, and sugared berries. Chill
until it begins to thicken, then add cheese and beat with egg beater until well
mixed. Fold in the cream and turn into a
2 qt. mold which has been rinsed in cold water.
Chill until firm, then unmold on lettuce, garnish with whole
strawberries and serve with Lemon Cream Dressing.
Lemon Cream Dressing
3 T. Lemon Juice
3 T. granulated sugar
1 egg, well-beaten
1 c. heavy cream, whipped
Combine lemon juice, sugar, and egg in double boiler and
cook over hot, not boiling, water until thick.
Chill and combine with the whipped cream. Serve with fruit salads. Serves 6-8.
