Every year, I have a group of girlfriends come over to watch The Oscars. We drink lots of wine, we all bring an appetizer or dish to share, we all critique the styles of the rich and famous on the red carpet and wager who will or will not win each award.  It’s very good fun.

This year was different though, for my life changed forever on Oscars night, when my friend Lauren brought over the most amazing pie I have ever tasted. And you all know how I feel about pie.   If I rank the importance of all my favorite things in life, it basically goes (1) family (2) friends (3) disneyland (4) pie.

The pie she brought over was a Huckleberry Cream Pie from the Snohomish Pie Company, which is an amazing local bakery here.  It was the flakiest ever crust, a very light, amazing cream filling, and topped with an amazing berry topping.  I immediately started trying to think about how to replicate it.

Since huckleberries are not easy to come by here, in fact, I’ve never once seen them in the store, I decided I was going to do this with raspberries.  You could honestly sub the raspberries in this for almost anything- blackberries would be bomb. Blueberries, strawberries- any berry.  It took me some time to figure out, but I believe the filling was a stabilized whipped cream.  At first I thought Bavarian Cream, but it was too thick and custardy- not light and fluffy.  I finally settled on whipped cream stabilized with cream cheese.

Whether or not this is an exact duplicate, it tasted pretty damn close to perfect to me.  I am in love with this pie now and will make it again and again. I hope you all will too. And please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t comment and ask me if Cool Whip will work as a replacement for the whipped cream. It won’t. It won’t. It won’t. 😉

Ingredients:

• 1 pre-baked 9 inch pie crust (I always use this one.)

Filling:

• 1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped and lightly sweetened

Raspberry Topping:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2-1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, divided

Directions:
Bake your pie crust and set aside to cool completely.

Next, make your raspberry topping- In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water and 1-1/2 cups raspberries. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Transfer to a bowl; refrigerate until chilled.

While your berry mixture is chilling, make your cream filling. I whip and sweeten my one cup of heavy cream first, then I scrape it out of the mixer and set it aside.

Then, in the same mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, lemon zest and vanilla until light and fluffy. Fold in whipped cream. Spread into crust. Top with the berry mixture. Chill until serving.

This whole pie was eaten in two days at my house but it was just as perfect as it had been on day one after a full 24 hours in the fridge.