Black Bottom Lemon Pie

I first came across this recipe in a copy of the 1932 Woodward and Lothrop Cookbook and Kitchen Guide for the Busy Woman in the library of Sandy Spring Museum in Sandy Spring, Maryland, where I was doing fieldwork at the time. The cookbook, written by Mabel Claire, was of local publication, as Woodward and Lathrop was a Washington, D.C. department store, first opening in 1887. The implication of the subtitle, according to author of The American History Cookbook Mark Zanger, was that these recipes were for the woman who worked outside of the home, kept no garden, nor had much stockpiled in the way of stored, preserved food. She was likely a city-dweller, and was also living in the midst of the Great Depression. Hence, this collection offers recipes that are generally quick and thrifty, calling for a modest number of ingredients and none too fancy. The cookbook does make up for this frugality by offering innovative recipes, as evidenced in the lemon-chocolate pairing in this Black Bottom Lemon Pie.



The classic Black Bottom Pie features a chocolate bottom layer, covered with vanilla custard, and sometimes topped with whipped cream. This version is said to have originated in southern California, first appearing in print in the 1928 Los Angeles Times. I couldn't find much about the origins of Black Bottom Pie with a lemon layer, but four years later, Mabel Claire included it in her cookbook, calling it a "New taste thrill-- chocolate in lemon meringue pie. It's a gourmet treat." Today, the pie has been popularized by Emily and Melissa Elsen of 4 and 20 Blackbirds, who offer it in their Brooklyn shop and include a recipe in their cookbook.

Here, I stuck closely to Claire's version, adding some cornstarch to thicken the yellow custard, and including more specific directions-- particularly for blind baking and refrigeration (the original did not call for it). What I certainly kept, and what may be the most ingenious part of the recipe is the lattice meringue, a style I've never found elsewhere.

Black Bottom Lemon Pie

Adapted from The Woodward and Lothrop Cookbook and Kitchen Guide for the Busy Woman

Ingredients

Nothing in the House pie crust, halved

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

4 eggs, separated

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon lemon peel 

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

For the crust:
1. Prepare half of Nothing in the House pie crust as per the directions, reserving the leftover egg for an egg wash and saving other half of the recipe in the freezer for a future pie. Chill dough at least one hour before rolling and fitting into a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Prick crust with fork all over the bottom. Place pie pan in the freezer for 1 hour to set before baking. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Remove crust from freezer, line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Blind bake crust for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove paper and weights and brush with egg wash. Return crust to oven and bake for 5-8 more minutes more or until fully baked, puffed, and golden brown. Let cool while you prepare the filling.

For the filling:
1. Melt chocolate over hot water in the top of a double boiler.  Spread evenly over the bottom of the baked and cooled pie shell and set aside.

2. In the top of a double boiler, beat egg yolks until thick. Add lemon juice and water, mixing well to combine. Stir in lemon peel, 1/2 cup of sugar, and cornstarch. Cook over hot (not boiling) water, stirring constantly until thick, about 15 minutes. Remove from water and heat and let cool.

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until frothy. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar gradually, beating constantly until stiff glossy peaks form. Fold half of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until combined and pour over chocolate bottom in pie shell.

4. Spoon remaining egg white mixture into pastry tube and make a lattice design on top of the lemon filling.

5. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned. Let cool to room temperature and chill in refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving. Enjoy!

Related recipes:
Black Bottom Pie
Lemon Chess Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie Cake
Levon Helm's Lemon Icebox Pie

Sally's Lemon Meringue Pie Cake

This post comes from my dear friend Sally Anne Morgan of Asheville, NC (you may remember her from her previous guest post). Sally is an old-time fiddler-- with The Black Twig Pickers and otherwise, guitar player, and singer, as well as a talented artist (as evidenced by the above "multimedia" visual). She also runs the letterpress company Ratbee Press and Design, and bakes a fine pie, cake, and as it turns out, also pie cake! She made this lemon confection for our third annual women's old-time musician's retreat last month. More from Sally....

Last week, I packed up my fiddle, guitar, bottle of Elijah Craig, selection of vinyl records, and KitchenAid mixer to head to Wingina, Virginia for our third annual Women’s Weekend. In Wingina. Yes. As always, it was a time of celebration, empowerment, music and merry making, and lots and lots of talking and eating.

One of my contributions to the culinary spread was a layer cake. I must admit I messed up the steps in mixing the cake batter, which resulted in a slightly denser cake than I was aiming for. I’ll blame my mistakes on the fact that I was trying to sing harmony with the lovely Lorie while reading the recipe off my I-phone and operating the stand mixer, all at once. But the fluffiness of the meringue topping and delightful tartness of the lemon curd filling made up for it. 

Originally I wanted to make a pink strawberry cake with whipped cream because, Wingina. But I ended up cobbling this recipe together as several of us have dairy allergies or sensitivities. It uses butter, which was okay with everyone, and lots and lots of eggs, but no cream or milk. Plus, lemons seemed more seasonally appropriate, and I have always loved Lemon Meringue Pie (this is essentially the cake version). And I love that my mouth puckers even when thinking of lemons.



Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd and Meringue Icing

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Fine Cooking

Make this the day before you plan to bake the cake, or the morning of.

Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Directions
1. The trick to this recipe is to use the electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes, then slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for about a minute. Mix in the lemon juice. It will look curdled but should smooth out as it cooks. (Some recipes don’t call for beating it all together beforehand, which results in uneven cooking of the eggs, and then you need to strain it all)

2. For the next step, you need to stir constantly. In a medium sized saucepan, cook over low heat until it looks smooth as the butter melts. Increase to medium heat, keep stirring. It takes about 15 minutes until it is thick and reaches about 170 degrees. Don’t let it boil.

3. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest. Pour into a mason jar and chill in the refrigerator. It will thicken more as it cools.

Lemon Chiffon Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large egg yolks at room temperature
8 large egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper or newspaper.

2. Sift the flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking powder and salt together twice into a large bowl.

3. Using your mixer, beat the yolks, water, oil, zest and vanilla on high speed until smooth. Stir into the flour mixture until smooth. In another large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks are formed. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and beat on high speed until the peaks are stiff but not dry.

4. Use a rubber spatula to fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remaining whites. Do so gently, only until the egg whites are no longer visible. Overdoing it will deflate the egg whites, and yield a denser, shorter cake.

5. Pour the batter into the cake pans and spread evenly. Bake them until the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Check every five minutes after the first thirty minutes.

6. Let cakes cool for at least an hour. When completely cool, run a knife around the sides to release, then flip out onto a plate. If the cake rises too much in the oven, after it is cooled, using a very sharp knife or a good serrated knife, cut off the domed top to make a flat surface. I secretly like doing this because I can taste the cake before everyone else.

Meringue Icing & Cake Assembly

I looked up several recipes for a topping for the cake before deciding the one from this recipe. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but it got amazingly fluffy, light,  and voluminous, and was really really easy! The egg whites as basically raw, so be sure to use non-factory farm eggs.

I was unsure of how well this topping would hold up over time, as I assembled the cake a couple hours before it was served. It held up just fine for probably 4-5 hours. By the next morning when some of us wanted cake for breakfast, it looked slightly worse for wear-- not too bad, but a tiny bit deflated. Just keep this in mind – you can’t assemble this cake a whole day in advance.

Ingredients
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 cup water
Dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Combine 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and dash of salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring just until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 240° (about 4 minutes).

 2. Combine cream of tartar and 3 egg whites in large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating at high speed until medium peaks form (this took several minutes)

3. Gradually pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg white mixture, beating first at medium speed and then at high speed until stiff peaks form. Beat in ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

4. Assembling the cake:  With the cake fully cooled, and topping and filling both ready, place one of your two layers on a plate or cake stand, and cut strips of parchment paper to put around it (this will make cleaning up topping that drips much easier).

5. Fold about ½ a cup of the meringue into 1 cup of the lemon curd, and slather on the bottom cake layer using a spatula. Gently place the second cake layer on top, and cover with meringue. You can load the topping on pretty thick at the top if you want, I think mine was about 1 1/2 inches high at the center. Smooth with a spatula.

Note: If you're the kind of person who has a pocket blow-torch, you can use it to brown the edges of the cake. Alas, I am sans blow torch. I wouldn't try putting it in the broiler-- that seems too risky for a cake (not to mention if it's on a cake stand!), but it's fine fresh. I added thinly sliced a lemon to the top of the cake, which looked nice. You could sprinkle some lemon zest around if you prefer, or leave it bare. Enjoy!

Related recipes:
Lemon Chess Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lime and Raspberry Italian Meringue Pie
Pecan Layer Cake with Salted Caramel Filling and Vanilla Buttercream

Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies

It's mid-March and I'm looking out to icicles dripping from my roof and the sounds of the neighbor kids having a snow ball fight on their snow day. Signs of spring have been showing themselves--I've spotted crocuses about town, rhubarb is claiming its place at grocery stores and farmers' markets, and spring cookbook review copies have started to appear on my doorstep-- but they've so far been slow and sparse. 

We had so much fun working on our Design*Sponge piece that Morgan and Elizabeth and I vowed to do more collaborations. All feeling the onslaught of the cold, we wanted to do something floral and springy, that might inspire daffodils and bike rides and short sleeves, if only in our minds.



I've been keen on lavender-lemon combinations, and a recipe for Tiny Lemon Meringue Pie Cookies from April Carter's beautiful book trEATs: Delicious Food Gifts To Make At Home (more on the book soon) had recently caught my eye. Morgan added a cocktail of Hendrick's gin, grapefruit juice, and rosewater, which we dubbed The Petal Pusher, and Elizabeth contributed a bright and sunny handpainted table runner. What could beckon spring better than that trio?

For The Petal Pusher recipe, visit Morgan's Panda Head Blog here and to learn how to make your own hand painted table runner, check out the tutorial on Elizabeth's tumblr. For the cookie recipe, read on!

I adapted April Carter's recipe by making the cookies a little bigger (mostly because I didn't have a smaller cookie cutter) and adding lavender buds to the dough. April calls for using Instant Royal Icing Sugar, which I had to go to a specialty cake shop to get, but you could also just make it from scratch. I didn't make my icing stiff enough to begin with, which is why the icing is a little more globby than "meringue peaked," but it still tasted good!

Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies
Adapted from TrEATs by April Carter

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients
For the cookies:
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 large egg yolks
grated zest of 2 small lemons
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons lavender buds + additional to decorate, if desired

For the "meringue" icing:
200g (7 oz.) Instant Royal Icing Sugar (also called Royal Icing Mix)
2-3 Tablespoons water
Yellow nonpareils or sprinkles to decorate, if desired

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 340 degrees F and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment, mix the butter and sugar until the mixture pale and fluffy. Add the yolks and mix well to combine, then add the lemon zest.

3. In another medium-size bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir to combine. Gradually add the flower mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the lavender buds until incorporated.

4. Turn the dough out on floured surface parchment paper and knead until smooth (it can be a bit crumbly, so add a little sprinkle of water if it's too dry to work with). Roll out onto the parchment until it is about 1/4 inch thick (you may have to do this in 2 rounds, depending on the size of your surface). Place another sheet of parchment on top of dough, transfer to the baking sheets, and chill in the freezer about 10 minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the freezer and cut into 2'' circles using a fluted biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter of your choice). Transfer to the lined baking sheet and chill in the freezer another 10 minutes before baking.

6. Bake cookies in the oven for 3-5 minutes until firm yet still pale. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

7. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the Instant Royal Icing Sugar (or make your own royal icing from scratch) with the water to form a smooth paste for piping. Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with the 1M star icing tip. Ice a single peak on each cookie and sprinkle with non pareils and lavender buds to decorate. Allow to set hard before packaging.



Related recipes:
Dark Chocolate Lavender Tart with a Lemon Cardamom Crust
Lemon-Ginger Meringue Tartlets
Lemon Meringue Pie

Photos by Morgan Hungerford West

6th Annual Blacksburg Pie Auction

I'm thrilled to have this post about the 6th Annual Blackburg, Virginia Pie Auction from my friend Sally Anne Morgan, an artist,  square dance caller, and old-time fiddler of Black Twig Pickers fame. I'm hoping there will be more contributions and collaborations from her in the future, both in pie and music. But without further ado...

Blacksburg Pie Bonanza

The 6th annual auction to stop mountaintop removal coal mining

By Sally Anne Morgan

 For the sixth year running, nestled in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, a little bit of pie magic was taking place. The town of Blacksburg, Virginia had its annual pie auction.  Six years is a long time for a college town like ours, but the auction seems to have grown in popularity every year, probably due to the combination of outstanding pies and good causes.

The auction works like this: volunteers bake a bunch of beautiful, creative, delicious pies and bring them to the location, a popular restaurant downtown. People come in, eat dinner, admire the pies for a bit, and then the magic happens: our wonderful auctioneer starts the bidding. People go nuts, compelled by generosity, friendly competition, and a craving for dessert. The bidding starts anywhere from $10- $20, and pies have sold from $20 to even $100. Sometimes its obvious why some pies go for so much, like the deer heart mincemeat pie, from my friend's first hunt, or the professionally baked lemon meringue and pomegranate pie. Sometimes it's by pure supply and demand: the only pecan pie went for a killing. And sometimes, it's just the energy in the room: people outbid their friends, outbid their enemies, and outbid themselves in the heat of the moment.

I contributed four pies, which took most of the day to bake. First I made two gluten free pies, which involved pre-baking pecan and butter crusts. The filling was based on the Nothing in the House recipes for Elvis Pies: it had cream cheese, peanut butter, a little sugar, some peanuts, and whipped cream folded in. I layered the crust with banana, then the chilled filling, then more whipped cream, and topped it off with a salty caramel sauce drizzled on top. I also made a zesty apple pie, with lemon zest, granny smiths, a bit of fresh ginger, and honey in the filling (plus some salt, sugar, and cinnamon), was the next pie. Rather than the usual lattice crust I would have done, I decided to spruce it up with a zig-zag chevron pattern, reminiscent of the mountains we all love! I also made a ginger-pumpkin pie, which is your basic pumpkin pie filling with condensed milk and pumpkin, plus a bunch of freshly grated ginger.

I made these pies with an all butter crust recipe which I always use, and an egg wash to make it golden brown in the oven. My recipe is simple and pretty imprecise: about 1 1/4 cups of flour to 10 tablespoons of butter (salted is fine, or if you use unsalted, just add a teaspoon of salt), and as little water as possible to get it to all stick together. Especially for the auction, it's important for pies to have visual appeal, so I fancied them up with a braided crust and "I heart mountains" decorations.

Over thirty pies were contributed to the auction. It was hard to pick my favorites, there were so many! Many of the pies were gluten free, some were vegan, and some were even meat based. They ranged from lavender chocolate, to cardamom carrot, to ginger pear, to venison pot pie, and good old fashioned apple. The spread was simply beautiful. And best of all, we raised over $1,200 for two wonderful organizations.

The RReNEW Collective, which stands for Remembering and ReEngergizing Neighbors Economies and Watersheds, works to help place volunteers in organizations working for a sustainable Appalachia in the coal dependent region of Southwest Virginia. They support and initiate projects and organizations that promote healthy environments and just communities, and do wonderful work. The other organization is the Black Mesa Indigenous Support Group, which is committed to supporting Indigenous peoples of Black Mesa, Arizona, and their resistance to massive coal mining operations and force relocation policies. Both organizations are connected to the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining, and both are smaller organizations where the money we raised can go a long way.

So come on down to Blacksburg next fall,  where there's sure to be even more pies, good bidding, and an overall wonderful time!

Tart of Gold--Found!

I've never really been one for Valentine's Day. I appreciate its pagan origins, and think it's always a nice thing to show and tell the people you care about that you do, indeed, care about them, but seeing all the cheap sentiment for sale in the grocery and drug store aisles makes my stomach turn more than my heart beat. What Valentine's Day has always been about for me, though, is baked goods. My mom and grandma always made the most delicious and cutest heart-shaped sugar cookies, glazed with red & pink icing--seriously the best you have ever tasted. They continued the tradition through college, where tins of these cookies with homemade valentines would arrive at my dorm room and I'd have to pawn them off on my roommates and neighbors so as not to eat them all.

So it seems right that this year, Tarts by Tarts did a special Valentine's Day event--offering up made-to-order tarts-- "hearts by tarts" if you will--and various other baked goods at the Tart of Gold Party at Treasury last Thursday.

In addition to our made-to-order tarts, we offered up various baked goods for snackin' at the party, or to take home to your sweetie. Here's the menu:

honey-hazelnut amaranth short bread cookies
maple orange sugar cookie sandwiches with vanilla & raspberry buttercream
chocolate cookies
salted vanilla-bourbon caramels in stamped muslin bags
yeasted doughnuts with chili spiced chocolate glaze
yeasted doughnuts with vanilla-bourbon glaze & toasted coconut
yeasted duce de leche-filled doughnuts
caramel nut tartlets
lemon-ginger meringue tartlets

Though I had recently made my grandma Eileen's lemon meringue pie, this time I used the lemon-ginger lemon curd recipe that we used for the ginger-lemon and bourbon orange tart. The recipe is as follows:

Lemon-Ginger Meringue Tartlets
Makes 6 tartlets

Ingredients
For crust:
Nothing-in-the house pie crust recipe or your favorite tart crust recipe

For lemon-ginger curd:
6 Tblsp. arrowroot starch (or corn starch)
2 cup + 4 Tblsp. granulated sugar
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
finely grated zest from 2 medium lemons
2 Tblsp. of freshly grated ginger
4 Tblsp. white wine
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
6 Tblsp. of unsalted butter, cold

For meringue:

5 egg whites

6 Tblsp. sugar

Pinch cream of tartar

 
Directions
For crust:
1. Follow instructions for Nothing-in-the-House pie crust or your favorite tart crust recipe. Meanwhile, prepare your lemon curd (see instructions below).

2. Preheat oven to 400 and remove crust dough from fridge. Grease and flour 6 tartlet pans. Divide crust into six, roll out, and fit into tart shells. Place crusted tart shells into freezer for 15 minutes. 

3. Remove tart shells from freezer. Line each with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake for 5-10 minutes more or until golden brown and flaky. Let cool.

For lemon-ginger curd:
1. Place the arrowroot starch, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, grated ginger, white wine, eggs, egg yolks and salt in a small saucepan.

2. Turn the stove on low heat, and with a whisk, stir contents constantly as the curd cooks and thickens. Bring the curd to about 185˚F which should take about 7 or 8 minutes.

3. Once the curd has reached the right temperature turn off the stove and remove the saucepan from the heat. Pour the curd into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Turn the mixer to high and beat for 30 seconds to cool the curd. Then turn the speed to low and add one tablespoon of butter. Beat until it is melted and fully incorporated. Add the second tablespoon beating until it too is incorporated. Repeat with the final tablespoon.
4. Let the curd come to room temperature and pour it into a bowl or tupperware. Cover bowl and place in the freezer for at least two hours or overnight.

For meringue:
1. Once curd has been chilled sufficiently, divide curd into baked tart shells (I had some leftover curd, which was just fine with me--try it on toast, pound cake or ice cream!). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add sugar gradually and pinch of cream of tartar. Spread meringue over lemon curd in each tartlet, using the back of a spoon to create curls and peaks. Place tartlets in the oven and brown, 13-15 minutes. Let tartlets cool to room temperature and place in fridge. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

 

Cathy of Treasury called it "the best meringue tart of my life! I loved the crust too and I normally like that part the least." Thanks so much to Treasury gals Joyce, Katerina and Cathy, our friends who helped out and took audio recordings and lent us supplies, our customers who ordered tarts and bought baked goods, and to my awesome tartner Kari! We ended up getting a lot of really nice write-ups from blogs and sites**, including Refinery29, The President Wears Prada (who also graciously provided these pictures), and Panda Head--so thank you to those writers and bloggers too!

 

Hope you had a sweet Valentine's day! Look for Tarts by Tarts next at the D.C. Square Dance on March 3rd, where we'll be hawking Southern-inspired treats for all the ladies and gents. Of course, that will include pie (maybe even some fried ones too).

**UPDATE**

Our friend DVD made this adorable and hilarious audio piece about the party--a "little synapse of deliciousness for your ears". Have a listen.

Thanks to TPWP and Kari for the photos.

My Grandma Eileen's Lemon Meringue Pie

 My grandma Eileen's handwritten lemon meringue pie recipe

One tradition that is in decline in the internet age of food blogs and cooking sites is the handwritten recipe. Both my mom and grandma Georgette have boxes and binders full of old recipes that they or their friends had written on personalized cards "from the kitchen of..." or scraps of paper. I have a few of these binders, but they are mostly filled with printed out recipes from Smitten Kitchen, Epicurious, or some other food blog. Maybe it's just my nostalgic leanings, but it seems that there was once a time when you had a more personal connection with the recipes you used. Instead of celebrity cook Ruth Riechl's spiced chicken or the Barefoot Contessa's spaghetti and meatballs, it was your friend Beth's cheesecake, dad's famous potato leek soup, or your grandma Eileen's lemon meringue pie, even if it was just a special variation on Betty Crocker or Irma Rombauer's well-known recipe.

I don't really remember my grandma Eileen, my dad's mom. She died from breast cancer when I was two years old. I do know that she was from Pittsburgh, of Irish descent, raised four boys, and was a clogger and a partner roller skater. She also clearly made a killer lemon meringue pie, which my dad said he loved, and that it was such a special treat that she would make at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes Easter.

 

My mom found Eileen's handwritten lemon meringue pie recipe in one of her aforementioned recipe binders, and suggested I try it when I was home for Christmas. I had a little trouble reading the writing, especially as the paper was worn from years of what appears to be lemon meringue spills and crust crumbs, but my dad was able to decipher it and translated for me. Here's the recipe, with a few adaptations.

My Grandma Eileen's Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients for pie:

Nothing-in-the-house pie crust recipe (only 1 crust needed)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 2/3 c. water

2 Tblsp. butter

1/2 c. cornstarch

4 tsp. cold water

8 Tblsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. lemon zest

5 egg yolks

4 Tblsp. milk

Ingredients for meringue:

5 egg whites

6 Tblsp. sugar

Pinch cream of tartar

Directions:

1. Crust: Follow instructions for the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust (though halved, as you only need one bottom crust). Chill in fridge for about 1 hr. Preheat oven to 400, then roll out and fit into buttered and floured pie dish and flute edges. You may wish to chill the rolled crust for 10-20 minutes at this point to ensure it does not fall down in the oven. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake for 5-10 minutes more or until golden brown and flaky.

2. Lemon curd: Combine sugar, butter, and 1 1/2 c. water in a medium saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves. Add cornstarch, blended with 4 tsp. cold water. Cook slowly until clear, about 8 minutes (mine did not get quite "clear" but you will notice it starting to thicken). Add lemon juice and zest, cook 2 minutes. Slowly add egg yolks (save whites for the meringue) beaten with milk. Bring to boiling, then cool. Pour into baked shell and chill.

3. Meringue: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add sugar gradually and pinch of cream of tartar. Spread over cooled filling and brown in oven, 13-15 minutes.

This pie turned out to be a true Christmas day family kitchen collaboration, with my dad helping to read the recipe, me on the crust and lemon curd, my mom tackling the meringue, and even my brother lending a hand to continuously stir the curd while I juiced and zested lemons and cracked eggs--a Christmas miracle!

My mom served up the slices, and we enjoyed it in the living room by the fire,  with my aunt, uncle and grandma, after our Christmas dinner.

As I never really knew my grandma Eileen, it felt important to me to be able to read her loopy cursive, similar to my own, try out her recipe, and bring one of her favorite desserts to life at our Christmas dinner this year. My dad said it tasted familiar, and maybe it will eventually become familiar to me too, as much as it was familial this Christmas.

May Your Christmas Pie Be As Full Of Plums

Little Jack Horner in the Christmas PEZ

There are no plums planned for Christmas pies here in the Nothing-in-the-House kitchen, but the sentiment still stands. Last night, for a music holiday party at my parents' I made a Shaker clementine pie, a salty honey pie (upon my dad's request) and collaborated on a green tomato pie with my dad. For Christmas dinner tomorrow, I'm making my grandma Eileen's lemon meringue pie, and perhaps another. 

What will your Christmas pie be full of? Whatever it is, I hope it is as full of that as Jack Horner's is of plums.

Putting Meringue on Lemon Pies

A 1940 U.S. Forest Service photograph: "CCC enrollee baker Toivo Maki is putting meringue on lemon pies which he baked for the enrollees at the Gegoka CCC camp, Superior National Forest, Minnesota."

Find out more at Oregon State University's digital collections.

Perfect Lemon Meringue

...NOT burned. Made by Jamie in Boston. Four days until Thanksgiving!

O Pi(e)-O-Neers!

The next morning Angélique, Amédée's wife, was in the kitchen baking pies, assisted by Old Miss Chevalier. Between the mixing-board and the stove stood the old cradle that had been Amédée's an in it was his black-eyed son. As Angélique, flushed and excited, with flour on her hands, stopped to smile at the baby, Emil Bergson road up to the kitchen door on his mare and dismounted.

-Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

Our friend, the lovely and talented Ms. Becky Wright of Philadelphia, PA held a "Pie and Pioneers" (note the Conestoga wagon in the above photograph) event at her apartment a few weeks ago. She made 20 flavors, all by hand from scratch. Here are a few of the highlights...

apple (with a heart)

banana cream (whole wheat crust)

black bottom chocolate cream

butterscotch cream (with birds)

california prune

peach (with a braid!)

plum (it had to be cooked in a brown paper bag!)

raspberry glacé

strawberry

The other flavors were pecan, chocolate pecan, peaches 'n' cream, caramel raisin walnut, ginger-pear, sour cream apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, coconut cream, dark cherry, and cranberry-blueberry. Way to go Philly Pie and Pi(e)-o-neers!

Speaking of pi(e)...what you got cookin' for pi(e) day 3.14?!