For our retro recipe of the week we wanted something summery,cool, light and refreshing so we chose a broken glass salad. Certainly not gourmet cuisine, but most retro favorites were not. I know there will be some of you who are horrified that I am giving you a Jell-o recipe. For those of you who remember the blast from the past Jell-o recipes that were all the rage in times gone by, you are probably going to be happy to have found this again. For those of you who remember Jell-o as what you got on your cafeteria or hospital tray, please forgive the indulgence into a favorite from a long time ago and give it a try.
My grandmother used to make this for every holiday. Her recipe was written on a post office form 3759 from 1966 that you would fill in and drop in the mail to request a zip code of an address from the US Postal Service. For those of you who love old forms, I have attached a scan of the postal form and attached it to the bottom of this post and you can click on it to enlarge.
I assume it is named “Broken Glass” as the bright colors of the brightly colored Jell-o squares wrapped in the pineapple creamy blanket resemble a stained glass window. Why it got a “salad” tossed into the name I can only assume was due to the tossing of all of the pie ingredients in together.
Over the years I have only found a couple of people who remember this one. If you do, please let us know.
Crust
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick butter
1/3 cup sugar
Pie Filling
1 package Strawberry Jell-o
1 package Lime Jell-o
1 package Orange Jell-o
1 cup pineapple juice
1 envelope plain gelatin
1 cup of cold milk
2 envelopes of Dream Whip
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
- Prepare each package of Jell-o separately using 1 1/2 cups of hot water for each. Stir to make sure all of the Jell-o is completely dissolved. Pour each into a separate pan to in a thin layer. You can use 9″ cake pans or any other pan that will give you a layer around 1/4 inch thick. Put in the refrigerator and let cool until completely set.
- Prepare crust by mixing the graham cracker crumbs and sugar together, then adding the melted butter. Pat the mixture into a deep pie plate to form a crust. The filing for the pie will be a lot, so you will need to go high, or you can use a rectangular glass pan to spread out a little more.
- With a knife, cut the firm Jell-o in a grid pattern to form squares of about 1/4 inch square. They certainly do not need to be perfect as the imperfection of size adds to the look of the “broken glass”. With a spatula remove all of the Jell-o pieces from the pans into one large bowl of the combined flavors. Place the bowl back in the refrigerator and keep cold until needed again.
- Mix 1 cup pineapple juice with the envelope of unflavored gelatin and 1/4 cup of cold water. Heat until the gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and let it stand until it has a cloudy or milky look. Make sure it is completely cooled before pouring into the final mixture.
- Chill beaters and then beat 1 cup of cold milk with 2 envelopes of Dream Whip. Beat until it peaks. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and mix. Fold in the pineapple mix and Jell-o. Pour into the pie shell. Refrigerate to let set another 1-2 hours.
