Bill Smith’s Daddy’s Sweet Potato Pie

Crook's Corner Chef Bill Smith's Daddy's pie: Ideal for Thanksgiving, but so good I make it and eat it all year-round. Leigh Beisch's gorgeous photo from "Southern Pies"

Pumpkin pie suits me fine, and I gladly eat it all year long. With Thanksgiving meals on my mind this week, I wanted to share a simple treasure that my friend Bill Smith shared with me about 3 years ago. When he was in his early 60′s, my father began making the pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, and he continued that tradition as long as his health permitted, which means well into his 80′s. He just decided to try it, buying frozen pie shells from the grocery store and following the recipe on the side of a can of pureed pumpkin. I loved that, and when I asked Bill for a pie recipe and he offered that his father is Mr. Sweet Potato Pie, it delighted me because of the Dad-connection, as well as because of the fact that I adore sweet potato pie. Sweet potatoes in any form (including with minimarshmallows) please me deeply, and sweet potato pie is high on my list of everyday sweet pleasures.

I featured Bill’s recipe here on my blog a little over one year ago, when my pie book had just been published and I was making and posting a number of pies to celebrate its debut. For this one, I made it in mini-muffin tins, to share that simple way of making a wonderful home-baked dessert that is easy to share at gatherings. No cutting pieces and transporting them to plates with trepidation: you pop those pie-ettes out of their muffin-tin-positions and you have a hand-held sweet that looks lovely and allows people not only to choose and eat fork-free, but also to enjoy small bites when there are many treats from which to choose.

There are two schools of sweet potato pie preparation, one swearing by roasting/baking the sweet potatoes, and the other devoted to boiling them. I have tried both ways and gotten excellent results each time. I like baking because I can put in more than I need and have a baked sweet potato or two or three in the fridge for speedy microwave lunch on hand. I like boiling because it keeps them right there where I can check on them easily with the fork-test, and because I love peeling a boiled potato, when the skin slips right off and you see the smooth perfection of sweet-potato’s inside color and shape, sans peel, as if they just took off their winter coats. This all reminds me to go visit Mr. Stanley Hughes of Pine Knot Farms at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market this week, as he is the grower and purveyor of the very finest sweet potatoes in the whole wide world, right up the road about 20 miles north of here in Hurdle Mills, NC. I need to stock up for fall lunches, for Thanksgiving casserole preparation, and for some just-because-it’s-Thursday/Saturday/gorgeous autumn day sweet potato pie.

Bill Smith’s Daddy’s Sweet Potato Pie

1 9-inch unbaked piecrust

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 /4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract, or vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the flour, spices, baking powder and salt in a little bowl and use a fork to mix them well. In a medium bowl, lighten the sweet potatoes by beating them well with a whisk, an electric mixer, or a big wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, and stir well each time to mix them evenly. Add the sugar and beat to mix well. Add the sugar-and-spice mixture, the sweetened condensed milk , melted butter, and lemon or vanilla extract. Mix everything together evenly and well. (If using a mixer, use low speed.) Pour the thick filling into the piecrust. Place in the 350 degree oven and bake until the filling puffs up (especially around the edges, and is firm enough that it jiggles only a little at the center, 40 to 50 minutes. You can test it by inserting a wooden tooth pick or a bamboo or wooden skewer or even the blade of a paring knife in the center; it should come out clean, no filling sticking too it. (That would mean it needs longer cooking time to cook through to the center.)  Place on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel, and cool to room temperature.

This pie recipe is adapted from Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes, from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan,(Chronicle Books, October 2010).  Copyright: Nancie McDermott, all rights reserved.

Nancie’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry season makes North Carolina people happy, and with good reason. At this point in the heart of May, farmer’s markets tend to have a bountiful supply such that even the tardy-arriving market-goers have a good chance of finding sweet ripe strawberries, enough to eat, sprinkle on cereal, cook into jam, and bake into pies. You can find pick-your-own strawberry patches as well, here in Piedmont North Carolina, though I confess to having offered grateful prayers to the people who’ve gone in there and done the picking by the time I go looking for a berry supply.

Rhubarb grows happily in this area, but since I needed to bake my pies last night, I sought out rhubarb at my local Whole Foods, and they had lovely red stalks galore. Ripe rhubarb varies in its redness, ranging from an avocado-green to lipstick-red, and while the flavor isn’t affected, the red color does add eye-candy. When paired with strawberries as in this pie, you’ll get red-gorgeousness aplenty, regardless of what your rhubarb brings to the pastry. This is a tic-tac-toe-board pie, not a proper lattice-top pie, since carefully criscrossing and interweaving the pastry strips is something I admire greatly in others but cannot actually do with great skill. Nobody complained, and this pie disappeared at this morning’s Triangle Food Bloggers First Annual Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength. Great cause, great company from my fellow food-folk, and great goodies. More on that to come…

Nancie’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

 Pastry for a 9-inch double-crust pie

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups chopped fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 1 pound)

2 cups hulled and chopped fresh strawberries, cut into 1-inch chunks

(1 pint, about 8 ounces)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch chunks

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust, leaving a 1-inch overhang.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt, and use a fork or a whisk to stir them together well. Add the rhubarb, strawberries, and lemon juice and mix very gently using a large spoon. Scrape the mixture into the piecrust, and distribute the butter bits evenly over the strawberry-rhubarb filling. Top the filling with a lattice crust; or simply lay out a tic-tac-toe crust, placing strips in one direction, and then laying the other-directional strips on top of the first batch.

Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch spills, and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until the pink filling bubbles up and the pastry is golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes more. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let it cool for at least 15minutes. Serve it warm or at room temperature.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Notes:

I’ve made this using frozen fruit, both the strawberries and the rhubarb, with great results. If using frozen, don’t defrost — chop any gigantic chunks of fruit while they are still frozen, or just leave them whole. Don’t worry if your rhubarb isn’t fire-engine red— the flavor will be there and it’s a fantastic pie, no matter what.

Brooklyn’s “Four & Twenty Blackbirds” = Pie Heaven

Salty Honey Pie at "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" --- worth the journey from anywhere to Brooklyn, NY, USA

Why do I deeply trust anything suggested by my friend Nicole Taylor, food writer,  host of Heritage Radio Network’s “Hot Grease”, and food justice activist? Because during a recent visit to New York City, she told me to check out Four & Twenty Blackbirds in Gowanus, Brooklyn, cause she knows I love pie. The shop’s website (www.birdsblack.com) gave directions for subway travelers,

No need for the minivan --- the New York subway system was our Pie-Express.

so we headed for the F train on a recent sunny afternoon and found our way to 439 3rd Avenue, a white-painted brick building at 8th Street.

No wonder so many people were waiting in line for the pies made by Emily and Melissa Elsen. No wonder Nicole Taylor gave me her advice to make the trip. Do the same if and when you can.

 

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Order pie at the counter and find a seat.

Get in line (it goes fast) and either make wise choices, or do as we three did: order all five pies they were serving that day.

We did just that, and given the distance between Piedmont North Carolina and Gowanus, Brooklyn, I’m so glad we did.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

 

Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie

 

Pie doesn’t need to be Southern to be fantastic and worth a journey to get it. The Elsen sisters know just what to do to make pie magic. Of course, they are originally  from SOUTH Dakota. Just sayin’.

 

Cranberry Sage Pie with whipped cream. I shared. Honest.

This is the place...

The Elsen sisters of Four & Twenty Blackbirds have shared the recipe for their extraordinarily wonderful Salty Honey Pie in this February 2011 story by Lisa M. Collins in the South Brooklyn Post:

http://southbrooklynpost.com/food-drink/pie-mavens-share-recipe/

Why not stir up and bake yourself a Salty Honey Pie, and then sit and read Sandra Nygaard’s fine feature story (South Brooklyn Post, March 20, 2011) for deep dish on Four & Twenty Blackbirds, what it’s like and how it grew?

http://southbrooklynpost.com/food-drink/fourtwenty-blackbirds-pie/

To follow Nicole Taylor, you’ve got four options:

1) her weekly radio  broadcast/podcasts  (http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/23-Hot-Grease)

2) on Facebook (@ Food Culturist )

3) on Twitter (@foodculturist) and

4) at her website (http://www.foodculturist.com/).

Pi Day ? Try an Osgood Pie

An old-school member of the chess-pie family, Osgood Pie is a simple stir-up of pecans, raisins, butter, sugar and eggs.

It’s been a long time since I sat in Mrs. Holder’s geometry class, learning about proofs, formulas, and recipes for figuring out the area of a square, the volume of a cylinder, and the meaning of ‘rhombus’, a word I like very much but never seem to use. Geometry appealed to me with its graphics and literal applications, and possibly in a subliminal way for its applications in the world of food. Same with fractions years earlier — immediately applicable to sharing food. With the image of a pan of brownies or a beautiful pie in mind, I could get right to my mathematical work. I remember the phrase “Pi R Square”, though I couldn’t now explain it even if you promised me a round-the-world plane ticket. But Pi Day? That is my kind of math phrase, and inspired me to get up this morning and make a pie.

In terms of seasonal ingredients, right now it’s early spring here in North Carolina, and local fruit means apples from last fall. Rhubarb is surely up somewhere, but since I don’t have a pie plant out in the backyard (To-Do List entry: plant rhubarb for next spring), that didn’t work for a pi day pie. Browsing recipes we had to cut from my book, Southern Pies, I came across Osgood Pie, an old-school recipe that was standard in Southern kitchens but widely popular across the midwest as well. It’s in the chess family, which means it’s a very simple pie depending on butter, sugar, and eggs to bring great happiness to baker and to eaters. Raisins and pecans are longtime standards in Southern kitchens, and called on for dessert pleasures in between the seasons for strawberries, peaches, figs, and plums. I stirred this up with a fork, on 3/14, Pi Day. Though Pi Day, celebrated since 1989, gives a shout-out to a number (3.14159….) which has no end, this pie does have an end. It can only be cut into a finite number of pieces: 6, or 18, or 12, and because of its satisfying homestyle flavor, it will last only a very finite day or two on your kitchen counter. The name, Osgood Pie? Nobody knows. My favorite legend is that the person who first sampled it hollered out “Oh! So Good!” Could be — it is very good.

Osgood Pie

Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust

3/4 cup (4 ounces) raisins

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened (4 ounces/1 stick)

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (3ounces) chopped pecans

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with piecrust, then crimp the edges decoratively, or set out a prepared unbaked piecrust. Put the raisins in a small bowl and add hot water to cover them. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.

In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and butter. Use a fork or a whisk to mix them well. Add the eggs one by one, beating well each time. Add the vinegar and salt and stir well. Drain the raisins and add them to the filling along with the pecans, and stir well to combine everything into a thick, chunky filling.

Pour it into the piecrust and place the pie in the middle of the 400 degree F oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the pie is puffed, lightly browned, and firm, 30 to 40 minutes more. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool to room temperature.

Makes 1 9-inch pie

Three Swingin Chicks’ 20-Minute Apple Pie

Janice Cole's 20-minute apple pie is gorgeously good, and so beautiful coming out of the oven in my cast-iron skillet.

My friend Janice Cole writes a delightful and unique blog, one you will want to visit often. Here is where you’ll find it:

http://threeswinginchicks.blogspot.com/

Not only will you find excellent recipes from a superb food writer and great smart cook, you will also be able to befriend and follow the Three Swingin’ Chicks. I’ll let you discover Janice and her girls by clicking over to her blog for a visit. I’m here today to talk about Janice’s wonderful, simple, rewarding apple pie recently posted there. Had I only read the headline “20-Minute Apple Pie” out in the world, I’d have passed it by with a snort and a “yeah, right!”. But it was from Janice and it came with a most tempting photograph; and this being pie month, I knew I had a job to do…

Serve this apple in bowls, for breakfast as well as for dessert. Warm is nice, with ice cream, whipped cream or a generous pour of cream or evaporated milk.

I picked up a few Granny Smith apples and a box of frozen puff pastry from the grocery store, and the following night, I turned on the oven, set out the puff pastry to thaw, peeled and sliced the apples, mixed up the spice-sugar mixture, and put it all into my trusty cast iron skillet. Twenty minutes was all the prep time needed, indeed, and cooking time was only 35 or 40 minutes, the last few minutes perfumed by that fine fall fragrance of baking apples and cinnamon. It browned handsomely, even in my gas-fired oven, which doesn’t always provide for me in that department, and the pie came out juicy and divinely delicious. If you know or read Janice Cole, you won’t be surprised that her recipes are excellent, but you’ll be grateful, as am I, and you will stock up on frozen puff pastry and keep a bowl of tart apples on the dining room table, both as centerpiece and as ticket to a busy-night, easy-as, A-is-for-apple pie. And while it cools down just a little bit, you can click over to check up on the girls, those three swingin’ chicks at Janice’s place on the web.

Autumn pleasure in a bowl.

Janice Cole’s 20-Minute Apple Pie

from “Three Swingin’ Chicks”

http://threeswinginchicks.blogspot.com/2010/10/20-minute-apple-pie.html

Janice writes: “This pie is topped with a puff pastry crust over an apple crisp-style filling made with tart apples, raisins, brown sugar, and spices. Serve it topped with cinnamon ice cream or with plain yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon.

4 medium to large tart apples, peeled, sliced
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus additional for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 sheet puff pastry (from 17.3 oz. pkg.) thawed according to package directions
milk to brush over crust
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Heat oven to 425ºF. Spray a 9×2-inch deep dish casserole or pie plate with nonstick cooking spray. Toss the apples, raisins, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl. Pile the apple mixture into the casserole.

Lay the puff pastry over the top of the casserole and trim away the excess pastry with a small knife or scissors. Brush the pastry with milk, sprinkle with granulated sugar and lightly dust with cinnamon. Lightly score pastry with knife to decorate, if desired, and make a small vent hole in the center.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the apples are tender. Cool 30 minutes on wire rack to serve warm, or cool completely.

Serves 6  ”

This recipe comes from Janice Cole’s blog,  ”Three Swingin’ Chicks”   http://threeswinginchicks.blogspot.com/ . Used with permission. Copyright Janice Cole 2010, all rights reserved.

Fresh Fig Pie

 

Juicy and deeply flavorful, fresh fig pie can be made with small figs from a Southern fig bush, or with brown turkey or mission figs

It’s too late for figs here in Piedmont North Carolina, the late summer season having passed us by — though with warmer than usual days popping up now and then, it can be difficult to tell. They come and go quickly, and by the time we’ve eaten them fresh off the tree, or wrapped in proscuitto or chopped up and mixed with toasted cumin for a delicious salsa, or canned a few batches as fig preserves or fig jam, they are gone for the year. Fresh market still had some beautiful deep purple mission figs and greenish-reddish-brownish brown turkey figs, and chopped up coarsely and tossed with sugar, flour, a bit of cinnamon, a splash of lemon juice and bits of butter, they made a fine pie. The color and flavor remind me of the muscadine pie from last week, but they have their own figginess and distinctive quality as well. Just wonderful as is, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream or plump cloud of whipped cream would stretch the juicy filling just a tad bit further and would not be turned down around here.  To prepare the figs, cut away and discard the stem end and a very thin slice of the blossom end; then halve them lengthwise and crosswise to make generous chunks.

Ripe brown turkey figs, soon to be stemmed and chopped coarsely for fresh fig pie

Nancie’s Fresh Fig Pie

Pastry for a double-crust pie

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups very coarsely chopped fresh ripe figs (about 1 1/2 pounds)

2 tablespoons lemon juice, or cider vinegar or white vinegar

1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into bits

Heat the oven to 375 degress F. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt, and stir with a fork to mix well. In a medium bowl, combine the figs and the sugar-flour mixture, and toss gently to mix them evenly. Pour the figs into the piecrust, and mound them up toward the center in to a little pile. Pour lemon juice over the figs, and dot with the bits of butter. Cover with the top crust and press the sides together to seal them well. Trim and fold the edges under firmly; then crimp to seal the pie, or press the edges down with the tines of a fork to seal them and make a pretty design. Use a fork or a knife to make steam vents so that steam and juicy filling can escape as the pie cooks. Place in the 375 degree F oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake until the filling is thick and juicy and bubbling out around the top of the pie, and until the crust is golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and cool to room temperature.

Copyright Nancie McDermott, October 2010, all rights reserved.

Peanut Pie

 

Sweet and salty and good as it can be, Southern peanut pie is the real delicious deal.

Though not equal to the grand dame of Southern piedom, pecan pie, peanut pie has long had a loyal and enthusiastic following, and it quickly  earns a place of honor anytime it’s given a chance. Peanut pie is another variation on the chess pie theme, with coarsely-chopped dry-roasted peanuts stirred into a sugar-butter-eggs mixture. Baked until the nuts create a handsome textured covering for a sweetly silken filling, it makes for a salty-sweet flavor that was cherished long before salted caramel came into its current vogue on the sweet culinary stage. You’ll find peanut pie throughout the South, wherever peanuts are grown, but the state of Virginia has a particular affection for this fine confection. One place to enjoy this classic is the Virginia Diner in Wakefield, Virginia, about sixty miles southwest of Richmond on Route 460. Family-owned since 1929, the Virginia Diner serves up homestyle Southern cooking everyday except Christmas, and is particularly famous for its classic peanut pie.  A visit to their website at        http://www.vadinerrestaurant.com/ will give you a virtual taste of their cooking and ambience, and may cause you to look for your car keys if you are homesick for good old-time Southern food. They serve their signature peanut pie warm with both whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream; I like peanut pie with whipped cream or just plain, speaking for myself. Like its fellow pies in the chess pie family, peanut pie will puff up and seem dry around the edges, and be fairly firm all the way through once it is done. The puffy quality fades away, but no matter, the finished pie evens out to a beautiful and tasty state.

Nancie’s Peanut Pie

 

1 unbaked piecrust

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 cup dark corn syrup

2 tablespoons molasses, or 2 additional tablespoons dark corn syrup

1/4 cup butter, melted (1/2 stick/4 tablespoons)

*1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped dry-roasted peanuts (if unsalted, add about 1/4 teaspoon salt)

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Stir with a fork to mix them together well. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs well. Add the dark corn syrup, molasses, and melted butter and stir with a fork or a whisk to mix them together evenly. Add the sugar mixture and stir to dissolve the sugar and combine everything together evenly and well. Stir in the chopped peanuts and mix well. Pour the filling into the piecrust. Place in the 375 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat and bake until the filling is puffed up all over, fairly firm throughout, and crust and filling are nicely browned, 40 to 50 minutes. Place on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towl, and cool to room temperature.

*Note on Peanuts:

You can leave them whole, but most recipes suggest coarsely chopping them. You can do this with a cleaver or a chef’s knife, or use a rolling pin or large unopened can to crush them.  First place about 1/3 of the peanuts inside a sturdy resealable plastic bag. Have them at the bottom of the bag and lay bag on its side. Leave it unsealed. Roll over the peanuts with the rolling pin or unopened can, so that many of the nuts are crushed, or partly crushed, while a few remain whole. Pour into a small bowl and set aside until needed.

Muscadine Grape Hull Pie

 

Muscadine Grape Hull Pie, juicy and wonderful, worthy of the time it takes. I love the old-school way it uses everything but the seeds.

 

This pie is an heirloom well worth dusting off and setting out in a place of honor at today’s table. Made with a dedication to thrift and flavor, it uses the thick, sturdy hulls of the muscadine grape, which is native to North America and still thriving both out in the wild, and in domesticated varieties tended on backyard grape arbors throughout the South. You’ll find them referred to as slipskin grapes, since a firm squeeze on a plump, ripe grape causes the juicy seed-filled grape to pop right out. Though muscadine skins are too tough to chew up when eating the grapes out of hand, thrifty and flavor-conscious cooks figured out how to make use of them along with the grape pulp. They separated skins from pulp, and then cooked the pulp just enough to squeeze out and discard the big round seeds. Then pulp and hulls were cooked with sugar, a bit of flour, and butter, to make a thick, juicy pie.

Between the steps involved in preparation, the shortness of their season in early fall, and the challenges for most cooks of even finding these heirloom grapes nowadays, the practical pie has faded from its status through the first half of the 20th century as a common Southern home dessert. They’re out there, though, so look for muscadine grapes in farmers’ markets and at roadside stands throughout the South, as well as in grocery stores and specialty food stores, through the first half of the fall. For this pie, I found deep purple muscadine grapes at the local Whole Foods market, from a commercial grower in Georgia. Look for the lovely golden-hued scuppernong grapes as well; they will work just fine, being simply a delicious grape version within the muscadine grape family.

 

This pie comes out saucey, much like a cobbler, so consider serving it in shallow bowls. Ice cream, whipped cream, or a splash of half and half or evaporated milk to put that sauce to good use.

 

Here’s a look at some steps in the process. You can skip to the end if you’re ready for the recipe.

 

Muscadine Grape Hull Pie in the works: Big white bowl of whole grapes; small saucer of stemmed tops, cut and discarded to ease the squeezing out of pulp; pan of grape pulp with seeds, ready for first cooking; bowl of muscadine grape hulls reserved for adding to filling once seeds are removed from pulp

 

 

Muscadine grapes with stem ends trimmed off; ready to squeeze out pulp for cooking and seeding, with hulls reserved for pie filling

 

 

Juicy pulp ready for cooking, to soften it and help release the seeds

 

 

Hulls from muscadine grapes, ready to be added to the cooked, seeded pulp and then simmered down into pie filling

 

 

Grape hulls, seeded pulp and juices, cooked to soften them before adding sugar/flour mixture and turning into piecrust

 

Nancie’s Muscadine Grape Hull Pie

Pastry for a double-crust pie

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups muscadine grapes (about 2 pounds), rinsed

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, or cider vinegar or white vinegar

3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into bits

 

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place bottom crust into a pie pan, with the edge of the piecrust hanging over the edge of the pan by about 1 inch. Mix the sugar, flour and salt in a small bowl and stir with a fork to mix them well.

Holding it over a medium bowl, squeeze a grape with its stem end down, so that the pulp pops out and falls into the bowl. (If the pulp doesn’t pop right out with only a squeeze, cut the stem ends off the grapes and discard the ends. Then squeeze the grape and the pulp should pop right out.)  Set the hulls aside in a bowl, and place the grape pulp and juices into a medium saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons of water to the pan and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Cook until the pulp has soften and begun to break down, so that the seeds can be easily separated, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl let cool until you can handle them. Work through the bowl of pulp, extracting and discarding the large round seeds.

Add the grape hulls to the saucepan, and continue cooking to soften the hulls, for 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar mixture. Pour the grape filling into the piecrust . (Do not overfill it. Reserve any excess and make a small pie in a custard cup, or cook just the fruit as a simple pudding to eat with cream.) Scatter the bits of butter over the pie filling, and cover with the top crust. Press hard all around the pie to seal up the crust. Crimp the edges or press them with the tines of a fork to seal it well. Make slits in the top of the pie so that juices can bubble up and steam can escape. Place the pie on a baking sheet lined with foil, so that any juices have somewhere to go besides the bottom of the stove.

Bake the pie at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees, and continue baking until the filling is thickened and bubbling hot, and the crust is nicely browned, 40 to 50 minutes. Set the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel, and let it cool completely.

Lemon Icebox Pie for

Meringue gives Lemon Icebox Pie an old-timey touch, but whipped cream works wonderfully as well. Or serve it as is, plainly irresistibly good.

For a do-ahead, pleasing and simple to make pie, lemon icebox pie — well, I almost said “…takes the cake!”, but I will make that… has little competition. Lemon juice, grated lemon rind, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks make a devinely bright and intense filling, and the egg whites decorate the pie beautifully, while adding the soft sweet flourish that meringue provides for just a bit of extra work. If you don’t make meringue this time, freeze the egg whites for a future meringue, or a batch of macaroons. A baked pie shell makes an equally good base for this pie.

As beautiful as it is delicious, this pie can be made in advance and baked, then refrigerated overnight. Top it with meringue for quick baking, or whipped cream for a speedy flourish.

Nancie’s Lemon Icebox Pie

1 graham cracker piecrust

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind, or finely chopped lemon zest

3 egg whites

3 tablespoons sugar

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the sweetened condensed milk, the egg yolks, the lemon juice and the lemon rind in a medium bowl. Use a fork or a whisk to mix everything together evenly and well. Pour the filling into the graham cracker piecrust, and bake at 325 degrees F. for 25 minutes, until the pie is firm and set.

No meringue?

Set aside on a cooling rack or folded kitchen towel and cool to room temperature. Then cover and chill until serving time. If using whipped cream, make it and add it to the top of the pie within about 2 hours of serving time; the closer to serving time, the better.

Meringue?

If you are making meringue, set pie aside while you prepare it. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl, and use an electric mixer to beat them at medium speed until they are bubbly, about 1 minute. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until they turn white and thicken up like pure cream. Add about 1 tablespoon of the sugar and continue beating until they swell up and begin holding rounded shapes. Add the rest of the sugar gradually, while beating the egg whites. Continue beating until you have a rich thick, shiny  meringue which holds curly little peaks. Spread on the pie, making sure to seal it to the edges of the crust all the way around. Mound it up in the middle and use the back of a spoon or a butter knife to pull out little curls and swirls, or whatever pleases you. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the meringue is handsomely browned.  Cool to room temperature; then cover carefully and chill until shortly before serving time.

Pumpkin Pie for October 13th

 

 

Pumpkin Pie relegated to a narrow "Halloween/Thanksgiving/Winter holidays" window? I think not! Works for me, fall-winter-spring, and breakfast-lunch-dinner.

 

Pumpkin pie gets a headstart at my house, and always disappears quickly. This particular pie involves a small experiment, a substitution of coconut milk for evaporated milk that I’ve been meaning to try. I love getting people to cook, or cook more, or cook differently, and one issue that can get in the way is: The Stuff. The ingredients, the components, the list of what’s needed  before the cooking can begin, or proceed, or get finished. Whenever I can offer an a), b), or c) choice to cooks, I love to do it.  When I looked in my pantry for the evaporated milk I usually use in pumpkin pie, I noticed unsweetened coconut milk on the same shelf, and decided to find out whether I could subsitute coconut milk for evaporated in this pie. I did so, and was pleased with how it worked. No difference in flavor, no “coconutty!” sensations, as the flavor of coconut milk is a general richness rather than a strong taste. Using coconut milk in place of dairy products means that a given dish can become vegan, and accessible to people who for whom dairy products present problems. (Canned unsweetened coconut milk sometimes separates as it sits on the shelf. If that’s the case, stir with a fork to bring the contents of the can together into a smooth, thick creamy liquid; then measure and use in the recipe.)

Since I’m on the subject of what will work in place of what, let me share a solid-gold source for cooks who like to know what’s what and how ingredients work and can be interchanged. The Food Substitutions Bible 2nd Edition is a superb culinary reference book by my friend David Joachim. I’ve received review copies of both the original version several years back, and the second edition just published this month. It’s a book I count on, both as I cook and as I write about food. For details, check out David’s website here: http://www.davejoachim.com/books.php

Nancie’s Pumpkin Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch piecrust

 

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups pumpkin puree

3/4 cup evaporated milk, or unsweetened coconut milk

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

2 eggs, beaten well

 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a small bowl. Stir with a fork to mix everything well, and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, evaporated milk or coconut milk, honey or syrup, and eggs. Using a fork, a whisk, or a wooden spoon, stir to combine everything well. Add the sugar mixture and stir until everything comes together into a thick, smooth filling. Pour into the piecrust and bake at 350 degrees F until the pie is puffed around the edges, and the filling is firm and set — a little jiggle in the middle will work. Place on a cooling rack or folded kitchen towel and cool to room temperature.