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These are the pies of our lives |
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Written by Amy Culbertson, MCT
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Tuesday, 26 June 2007 |
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 The movie "Waitress" has restored pies to the public consciousness — though for many of us, especially in Texas, they had never left.
Pies are a central motif of this indie comedy, in which Keri Russell's winsome small-town pie savant Jenna dreams up pies and names them for different situations in her life - "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie," to mention one.
We figured readers could do that too, and we were right.
When we put out the call for entries in our "Pies of Our Lives" contest, we got pie names and stories both heartwarming and hilarious, as well as recipes that made us want to flour our rolling pins and fire up our ovens.
We giggled at "Caught My Lousy Cheatin' Husband at the Ball Park With His Girlfriend Pie" and "Thank Heaven for My 5 A.M. Running Buddies or I'd Certainly Be in Long-Term Therapy Pie." Our judges, factoring in the appeal of the recipe itself as well as the cleverness of the title and how well the story was connected to the recipe, picked three winners and two runners-up.
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CRAWLING BACK TO ME PIE
Megan Lemmon, Euless, Texas
Shawn and I met in June of 2003. I had just left Austin to come to the University of Texas at Arlington, and he had just landed a radio job in Dallas. We dated until October, and then he decided it was not going to work. I really was starting to like him, but I understood he had other things going on in his life.
I continued to hang out with his co-worker's girlfriend, so it was not weird when I was invited to his boss's Thanksgiving bash. I made this pie for the first time, and it was a huge success. It might have been the pie, or maybe my undeniable charm, but the next day he called, saying he wanted to try dating again.
We bought a house the next summer, and we are getting married Oct. 21. Every time I make this pie, I think of that party, and him, and I am so glad that he finally came to his senses.
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CRAWLING BACK TO ME PIE
"The deep-dish piecrust does not need to be defrosted, but the frozen rolled piecrust that will go over the tall apple filling should be defrosted in the refrigerator before using so it is easier to handle"
Serves 10
5 medium-size Gala apples, peeled, cut into thin slices
5 medium-size Granny Smith apples, peeled, cut into wedges and then cut into thin slices
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Juice and zest of 1 small lemon
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 Mrs. Smith's deep-dish frozen piecrust (no need to defrost)
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 sheet Pillsbury frozen rolled piecrust, defrosted
1 large egg, beaten
1 to 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine apples, granulated sugar, flour, lemon juice and zest and spices. Toss well. Pour apple mixture into piecrust, piling high into a domed shape and scraping all juices into pie. Dot with butter.
3. Unroll Pillsbury piecrust and lay it over the top of the apple mound. Gently stretch the crust to make sure it covers the filling completely and meets with the bottom crust all the way around. Pinch edges of both crusts together (using a fork makes it easy). Cut 3 to 5 small steam vents in the top dough. Brush beaten egg on top crust and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
4. Place pie on a cookie sheet; bake 1 hour. Let cool; serve with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 332 calories, 13 grams fat, 53 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams protein, 25 milligrams cholesterol, 264 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber, 34 percent of calories from fat.
— Megan Lemmon, Euless, Texas
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Mom's $200 Peanut Butter Pie Tasted Best When Eaten Off My Best Friend's Front Porch
— Bonnie Bishop Case, Bluff Dale, Texas
Life in a small Texas town in the `50s was even sweeter when Mom made her famous peanut butter cream pies. Any time someone needed to have a fundraiser, Mom would graciously agree to donate two of her incredible peanut butter pies.
Every year at our church fundraiser auction, the men would have bidding wars over my mom's pies. Frequently, one of Mom's pies would bring $200-plus. The men would talk all year about them and anticipate the melt-in-your-mouth first bite after they had outbid their competitors.
My best memory of her pies happened when I was a teenager. On the way to the church for a youth-group fundraiser, with a pie fresh from the oven, my best friend and I decided to stop by her house to show the pie to her mom. I had almost made it up her front-porch steps when it happened: I can still see that pie going up into the air and landing upside down. On my friend's front porch.
My friend and I looked at each other with "I can't believe this is happening" eyes, and then, as all teenagers do ... we started giggling. I told her we were not going to let Mom's pie go to waste and asked her to go inside and bring back two spoons!
I don't think any pie Mom made tasted any better than that one shared with my best friend on her front porch.
MOM'S $200 PEANUT BUTTER PIE TASTED BEST WHEN EATEN OFF MY BEST FRIEND'S FRONT PORCH
"The original recipe was created by my mom, Juanita Bishop, and prepared and served with generous helpings of love for her family and friends for over 50 years. At 84, Mom isn't able to cook anymore; my sister, Judy Butler, and I are proud to carry on her cooking legacy"
Serves 4 "tall Texans" or 6 "steel magnolias"
Filling:
1 cup sugar
3 rounded tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
2 cups whole milk
3 to 4 rounded tablespoons peanut butter (Mom always used Jif Creamy)
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pre-baked pie shell, homemade or purchased Meringue:3 egg whites
2 teaspoons sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar Filling:
1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, flour, salt and egg yolks, adding a little milk and stirring constantly until you have a thick, smooth paste. Add the rest of the milk slowly, continuing to stir until all is blended. Stir in peanut butter and butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (nonstop stirring is critical to this recipe). When the mixture starts to thicken, lower the heat and cook slowly, continuing to stir until filling is the consistency of pudding.
2. Pour filling into pre-baked, cooled pie shell
Meringue:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg whites with sugar and cream of tartar until very thick. Spread on top of pie and bake at 300 degrees until meringue is lightly browned. If you prefer, you may bake the pie without the meringue and top with whipped cream or refrigerated topping after it has cooled.
Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 4: 656 calories, 29 grams fat, 85 grams carbohydrates, 15 grams protein, 184 milligrams cholesterol, 551 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber, 39 percent of calories from fat.
— Bonnie Bishop Case, Bluff Dale, Texas
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Storm Clouds Overhead Southern Chess Pie
— Deb McNeill, Haslet, Texas
Storms in the Texas Panhandle can be vicious: hail, high winds, flooding rains. As a newlywed, I lived with my husband in a mobile home on a farm 30 miles from town. Storms are loud and rowdy in Texas, but from within a mobile home, they sound much worse than they really are, especially if you are all alone. Every noise is amplified by the metal roof.
To keep my nerves from coming unraveled, I learned to bake pies during storms. Sometimes I'd make three or four pies, if the storms lasted a long time. With a gas oven, I could cook even when the power went out.
With the radio blaring weather reports and the storms raging outside, I baked good old-fashioned comfort food.
STORM CLOUDS OVERHEAD SOUTHERN CHESS PIE
Serves 6 to 8, depending on how greedy everyone is
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 unbaked pie shell (see Better Than My Mother's Piecrust recipe)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar and flour. Beat in eggs, milk, vanilla and butter. Fold in nuts.
3. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 375 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes, until just set.
Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 6: 576 calories, 37 grams fat, 59 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams protein, 104 milligrams cholesterol, 381 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber, 57 percent of calories from fat.
— Deb McNeill, Haslet, Texas
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BETTER THAN MY MOTHER'S PIE CRUST
"My mother never could make good piecrust. Eventually, she quit trying and simply ordered pies from a shop. However, I wanted to master the art of the crust. As a newlywed, I found this recipe. We've been enjoying it ever since"
Yields 2 generous piecrusts
1 ¼ cup shortening
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vinegar
1. In a large bowl by hand or in the bowl of a food processor, cut shortening into flour and salt until it looks like coarse cornmeal.
2. In a separate small bowl, beat water, egg and vinegar together; stir liquid mixture into flour mixture.
3. Gather dough into a large ball and chill.
4. Pinch off enough dough to form a crust (about ½ of the ball) and roll out to fit pan.
5. If your recipe calls for a baked pie shell, bake crust in a preheated 425-degree oven for 10-12 minutes; otherwise, proceed with the pie recipe. The remaining dough can be refrigerated, tightly sealed, for 2 to 3 weeks.
Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 6 servings per pie: 308 calories, 22 grams fat, 24 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, 16 milligrams cholesterol, 183 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber, 64 percent of calories from fat.
— Deb McNeill, Haslet | Only registered users can write comments.
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