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When I first set up housekeeping, straight out of college, I got my first job as a lowly file clerk. The department was made up primarily of women, all of them older than my parents. An only child, raised around adults, I tended to gravitate toward older people, and really enjoyed talking to these women from whom I learned a great deal. They had a vast amount of experience in cooking and baking, and would often share simple recipes with me. One woman in particular, Genevieve Dienstbach (now long gone), gave me this easy, but crowd pleasing dessert. I made it a lot in the 70s and 80s, and then forgot about it until I was rummaging around in my old recipe box, and found it at the bottom in a crumpled wad. I smoothed it out as well as I could and made it. It’s not fancy, but it is good, simple, comforting, and brought back a lot of memories.
Pistachio Dream Pie
Crust
½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 c. flour
½ c. chopped pecans
Bottom layer
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 8-oz. container Cool Whip, thawed
Middle Layer
2 3.4-oz. pkgs. instant pistachio pudding
2 ½ c. milk
Top Layer
1 8-oz. container Cool Whip, thawed
1/3 c. chopped pistachios
Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a medium-size bowl, beat together all of the crust ingredients until a
smooth dough forms. Spread into the bottom of a 9” x 9” glass baking dish. Bake for 22-25
minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely.
Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy, about 2
minutes. Fold the Cool Whip into the cream cheese mixture until combined;
spread over cooled crust.
In another bowl, beat the milk and pudding on low speed for 30 seconds, and
then increase the speed to medium-high and continue beating for 2 additional
minutes. Spread the pudding mixture over the cream cheese layer.
Spread the Cool Whip over the pudding layer and sprinkle with chopped
pistachios.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least four hours,
preferably overnight.
5 comments:
Yes I used to make this a lot too! I usually made it with chocolate pudding. Yours looks spring-y and delicious. I gravitated toward older people too. My brothers were 10 and 5 years older than I was, so it was a little bit like I was the only child. ;)
I love recipes like that - they harken back to a more domestic time, when women swapped recipes and came over for coffee. I have many like that, in my MIL's beautiful cursive writing. This looks like a church supper pie and I will definitely bookmark it!
Layers of creaminess and goodness..I have never had a pistachio cream pie and you have me crave some big time!
Yes, the cool whip pies were very popular in the 70's and 80's and I remember eating them fondly. It is so much fun coming across old recipes. This is a good one.
I've never seen Instant Pistachio Pudding in the stores here. Although I've never looked for it. I will search for it after seeing this lovely dessert.
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