Under cook's hand, berries stay low-fat in this pie

Frankie Wagner, a decorated cook from Virginia Beach, offered up these low-cal strawberry recipes. Wagner, a member of The Pilot’s 2008 State Fair Dream Team of cake bakers, won a ribbon at the fair for her devil’s food cake.

These, needless to say, are a little lighter.

SUGAR-FREE STRAWBERRY PIE
Makes enough filling for one 9-inch pie
-2 cups water
-1 cup sugar or 1 cup Splenda
-2 tablespoons cornstarch
-1 3-ounce package regular or sugar-free strawberry Jell-O
-1 quart rinsed, hulled and sliced strawberries (about 1 1/2 pounds)
-Whipped cream or sugar-free Cool Whip
-Reduced-fat graham cracker crust (recipe below)

Combine water, sugar or Splenda, and cornstarch in saucepan on top of stove on medium heat. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and boil until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Add Jell-O, stirring to dissolve, and then refrigerate until partially set. Add berries and pour into pie shell. Refrigerate until firm.

Serve with whipped cream or sugar-free Cool Whip, as desired.

REDUCED-FAT GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
Makes one 9-inch pie crust
-1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
-1/4 cup sugar or Splenda
-1/4 cup (1/2 stick) light butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients until well blended. Press firmly onto bottom and up the side of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake 8 minutes or until lightly browned; cool completely.

STRAWBERRY JAM WITHOUT PECTIN
Makes about 3 pints
-4 cups rinsed and hulled strawberries, crushed (about 2 quarts fresh; 1 quart weighs about1 1/2 pounds
-2 cups sugar
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Crush berries and measure into a large kettle. Add sugar and lemon juice; stir well. On medium-high heat, boil rapidly, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Add 1 tablespoon butter or margarine to boiling liquid to keep foam down.

A candy or deep-fat thermometer can be used to judge doneness. The jam is done when the temperature reaches 221 degrees, or 9 degrees above the boiling point of water. Remove from heat; skim off foam. Pour into containers, seal and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Hint: You can also make this with Splenda, but watch it carefully because it will burn very easily if your fire is too hot. The reason is because Splenda does not create moisture as sugar does.