Orange Dessert may come close to mother’s parfait

A little while ago, Peggy Drinkwater in Greenbush wrote asking for a recipe for something called Orange Parfait that she remembered her mother making. It needed orange gelatin, canned milk and oranges mixed together, with a graham cracker crust underneath.

Several helpful souls, including Pauline Sodermark in Corinth, Carol Johnson of Millinocket and Sharon Smith from Monroe, scouted around in their kitchens, memories and on the Internet and sent me a few variations on a summer dessert theme. So I tried out the one that seemed closest, a recipe recorded from memory, and made a fabulous glop which shook my confidence and delighted the pigs. The problem was none of the recipes had all the elements Peggy recalled. “Alas,” I thought, “maybe this is a lost recipe.”

But I kept on dubbing around, and here is something that tastes pretty good and might come close to Peggy’s mother’s parfait. I hope she’ll let us know. I shared this dessert with a young family in my acquaintance. Eva, the 8-year-old, loved the crust. Six-year-old Olivia loved the top part, and Isabel, the 4-year-old, loved the whole thing.

Essentially it is Rachel’s Orange Dessert from Carol, with whipped cream folded in, and poured over a graham cracker crust and chilled until set. Carol found this recipe written on a torn half-sheet of paper among her mother-in-law’s recipes and thinks it might date to the 1960s.

This dessert benefits from a garnish of some whipped cream and more mandarin oranges, some sliced strawberries or a sprinkling of blueberries. In fact, if you use an 11-ounce can of oranges, drained, you can use half of them in the filling and half on top.

If you make this in a 9-by-9-inch pan or in a 9-inch pie plate, you might have a little filling left over to put into pretty glass dishes for dessert another night. It is easily doubled for a 9-by-13-inch pan. If you prefer, you can even leave the whole graham cracker crust part out of the equation but then it wouldn’t be much like what Peggy remembered.

Looking for …

Susan Chase asks: “I am trying to locate a recipe for a cake a friend made for birthdays when I was a little girl. The cake was called “Oogle” Cake and was a combination of chocolate and white or yellow, as I remember. I have not been able to locate anything like this. Thanks for your help.”

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848, or e-mail tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.

Rachel?s Orange Dessert

Graham cracker crust:

1 1/2 cups of crushed graham crackers (about 9 crackers)

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

6 tablespoons of butter, melted

Toss the crackers and confectioners sugar together in a bowl, and stir in the melted butter until well mixed. Press into a 9-by-9-inch baking pan, and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:

1 package orange (or lemon) flavored gelatin dessert

1 cup boiling water

1/3 cup orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup crushed pineapple

1/2 cup mandarin oranges

1/2 cup of whipping cream

Mix the gelatin and hot water together until the gelatin is well dissolved, and then stir in the orange juice concentrate. When the mixture begins to thicken, stir in the fruits, and allow to thicken further in the fridge. Whip the cream until fairly firm and fold into the thickening gelatin mixture. Pour into the crust-lined pan and set in the fridge to chill.