I decided to do one last pawpaw recipe before the season is over. After last week’s pawpaw cream pie, I wondered what it would be like to cross it with strawberry pretzel salad.
When I approached the Two Boots Farm stand I felt a little bad. Colorful edible flowers sat alluringly displayed in plastic clamshells. Cartons of shisito peppers were laid out. Behind the pawpaw table, another table of offerings. When I reached out later, Elisa from Two Boots farm told me ” Yes, sometimes I think people oversee our flowers when they are hunting for the pawpaws (two very different customers really). But we do have a lot of social media followers that I suspect found us because of pawpaws but they started asking us for wedding flower quotes or joining our flower share. In September people flock to us for the pawpaws but if I look at the sales numbers cut flowers are still our best selling item this time of the year.”
I ended up working with pectin to make a vegetarian recipe that could easily be made vegan. It could also be made with milk gelatin (minus cinnamon) for those who don’t want to deal with the pectin.
Recipe:
- 2 Cups pretzels, coarsely crushed
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- .5 Cup melted butter
- 2 ripe pawpaws
- 1 cups milk
- 1 can condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons pectin
Mix crushed pretzels, sugar, and melted butter and press into 9 or 10″ pie pan. Bake at 400° for 6 minutes.
When cooled, cover with paw paw pulp.
Put milk and condensed milk into saucepan and heat until it comes to a simmer, stirring to mix. Turn off heat, add pectin powder and vanilla, and mix with an immersion blender until blended smooth. Let cool slightly before pouring over crust.
Chill until set, preferably 24 hours to let flavors mingle, serve topped with whipped cream.
To make vegan, follow this recipe for the pectin jelly, using oat, soy milk, etc., and substitute a plant-based product for the butter in the crust. Top with flaked coconut.
