Alaskan cooks innovate, especially in remote places. They find ways to make do with what they have on hand. Church and community cookbook recipes, especially in the first half of the 20th century, are full of cakes baked without eggs or butter and re-imagined uses for old coffee, bacon grease, and stale bread. One recipe I’ve come across a number of times that piqued my curiosity is for Tang pie. It calls for Tang, whipped topping, condensed milk, and sour cream or cream cheese. Was it good? I had to know.
If you grew up in Alaska, then you probably have a soft spot for Tang, which is a pretty Alaskatastic drink. (I have a soft spot, hence the name of this column.) Born from the mind of prolific and influential mid-century food chemist William A. Mitchell, the drink mix, which packs 100 percent of your daily value of vitamin C, really took off when John Glenn took it to space in 1962. In Alaska, where flow-in produce was expensive, it soon became ubiquitous because of its practicality, nutritional value, and portability. It has long been associated with the Iditarod, with several mushers serving as Tang spokespeople. Adventurer Joe Redington Sr. even had a dog named Tang. Hot, spiced Tang, also known as “Russian tea,” is still served along the trail.
Around the same time that Tang became a thing, Mitchell also invented Cool Whip, a whipped topping that traveled well, lasted longer than cream, and traveled frozen. It also made a lot of sense in Alaska. (Its older cousin, Dream Whip, which came as a shelf stable powder, was also used in lots of Alaska’s mid-century recipes.) Tang pie combined these two trendy, relatively shelf-stable, scientifically derived foods into a modern-seeming dessert that didn’t take women very long to whip up.
For this Drinks issue, I decided to re-make a Tang pie recipe without Cool Whip, and it turned out way more delicious than I expected, with an airy texture and a spot-on nostalgic creamsicle taste. I dusted it with some powdered freeze-dried raspberries for an extra glow-up. It became the unexpected queen of the pie table.
While testing recipes, I also tried making a version of this pie with eggs, custard-style, subbing Tang into a recipe for Atlantic Beach pie, which is an East Coast citrus pie in a saltine crust. It was a very close second, but I decided it strayed too far from the original. This Tang pie recipe was also quicker, requiring the crust to be baked for only 7 minutes. If you use a store-bought crust, it’s about as fast as whipping cream. One cool substitution you could try, borrowing from Atlantic Beach pie, is a sleeve of saltine crumbs instead of Graham crackers in the crust. The crust recipe is the same, just bake it for twice as long. It adds a perfect amount of salty crunch.
Originally published in Edible Alaska issue no. 34, Winter 2024.
Ingredients
- 1 Graham cracker pie crust (recipe follows)
- Tang-flavored filling (recipe follows)
- Vanilla whipped cream topping (recipe follows)
- ¼ cup freeze-dried raspberries, for garnish
- 1 sleeve Graham crackers, finely crushed ( about ½ cup)
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 4 teaspoons cold water
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) heavy whipping cream, cold
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- ¼ cup powdered Tang
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350° F. In a small bowl, combine Graham cracker crumbs, softened butter, and sugar. Mix by hand into a paste-like consistency. Press into an 8-inch pie pan so it evenly covers the bottom and sides. Place in the freezer for 5−10 minutes. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from the oven.
In a small, microwavable bowl, mix water and gelatin and set aside for 5 minutes, until gelatin blooms. Then microwave the bowl for 10 seconds. The gelatin should go from a gel to a clear liquid.
Add whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar to the bowl of a standing mixer and whip on high. As the cream is beginning to thicken, add the gelatin. Whip until the cream forms firm peaks. (Do not allow it to begin to separate!)
In a large bowl, place condensed milk, cream, and Tang. Mix to combine. Then fold in sour cream. Mix until totally combined and smooth.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form.
Make the crust and allow it to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. When the crust is cool, place the filling into the crust and spread it evenly. Refrigerate pie for at least 6 hours to set.
When ready to serve, prepare the topping, plop it in the center of the pie, and spread it outward evenly. For the garnish, put the raspberries in a medium mesh sieve. Holding the sieve over the top of the pie, rub the raspberries back and forth, grating them into a fine magenta powder that decorates the whipped cream topping.
