Frosty Cranberry Pie
What is Frosty Cranberry Pie?
Frosty Cranberry Pie is a super cool frozen dessert that looks like pink cotton candy in a pie crust. You grind up cranberries with sugar, mix them with soft cream cheese, then add in whipped cream until it’s all fluffy and light. It goes in the freezer until it’s firm but not rock hard, then you slice it up. The outside is crunchy from the graham cracker crust, but the inside is smooth and creamy with little pops of tart cranberry. It’s not heavy like regular pie.
Some important notes and added tips on the recipe. These details might seem small but when added up they really do make a big difference in how the recipe turns out. Temperature, mixing amount, mixing type etc, all need to be done just right:
Why Frosty Cranberry Pie Has So Many Names
This recipe gets called all kinds of different things because Southern grandmas all had their own special name for it. Some say “Pink Fluff Pie” because of the pretty color, others call it “Cranberry Icebox Pie” since it goes in the freezer like the old iceboxes before fridges. “Frozen Cranberry Delight” and “Ambrosia Freeze” are popular too because it tastes like the fancy fruit salad at church dinners. It started in the 1950s when ladies in the South wanted something light after big holiday meals, and everyone wrote it down a little different on their recipe cards. No matter the name, it’s always the same creamy, frozen cranberry dessert.
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Lemon Frosty Pie
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Strawberry Fluff Pie
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Pineapple Coconut Dream
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Orange Creamsicle Pie
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Chocolate Cranberry Pie
And here they are:
Lemon Frosty Pie
Strawberry Fluff Pie
Tropical Pineapple
Orange Creamsicle
Chocolate Frosty
Why Frosty Cranberry Pie Isn’t Famous
Frosty Cranberry Pie isn’t as famous as cranberry sauce or muffins, or any of the other holiday, cranberry cousin desserts because people think frozen desserts are for summer, not Christmas. Everyone expects hot pies with crusts from the oven, not something cold that goes in the freezer. It’s also a Southern recipe from the 1950s, so Northern families who make the same old recipes every year never heard of it. Plus, it looks too pretty and pink — people think “that can’t be real pie” so they skip it for stuff they already know.
People Love It Once They Try It
But when someone brave takes a bite, they go crazy for it. It’s cold & creamy and very much like light ice cream, and it’s not heavy after turkey dinner. Once families taste it, they get stubborn about making it every year, as if to say “This is OUR secret pie now,” which is great to hear. It spreads quietly at church potlucks and book club parties, so more people discover it that way. The ones who know it won’t give it up for anything, even if the whole world still eats the same old same old.
Happy Holidays and try this one out if you haven’t already.
– Cranby
