THIS MONTH’S PIE!!!

Good morning! Rise and Shine! This weekend is President’s Day herein the USA (which of course means you won’t actually get this card in themail until well after president’s day, but such is the way of the POTM club. Sorry!ANyway, in traditional POTMC fashion, I thought I’d treat you to yetanother favorite pie recipe of another of the former Presidents of the USA. Thisis according to Liza Ashley in her book “Thirty years at the Mansion”THis is an extremely delicious pie. extremely. So if there is one thing we shouldall be able to agree on about Bill Clinton, it’s that he has impeccable taste inpie (like many true Southerners). I urge you to try this one. seriously.Enough campaigning, here’s the recipe:Bill Clinton’s Lemon Chess Pie1 9-inch pie shell, partially pre-baked (~10 min)2 C Sugar1/2 C Butter5 Eggs1 C whole milk1 TB Flour1 TB Cornmeal1/4 C fresh lemon juiceGrated zest of 3 lemons (if you zest before you juice, you’ll have more luck)Cream sugar and butte. Add eggs and milk. Beat well. Add flour and cornmeal, mix well. Add lemon juice and lemon zest.Stir thoroughly. Pour mixture into pie shell; bake at 350 degrees F until done, 35 to 40 minutes.

Happy New  Year! This year let’s start it out all historical-styleeee with a very old recipe straight from the old cookbook “John Farley’s London Art of Cookery” published in 1737 in Chesterfield County Virginia. I didn’t have the correct font to convey the awesomeness of this recipe, so will upload a scanned image for you to decipher on your own (good luck with those last few sentences!)

Haaaaaaaaaappy Holidays POTMC members! Another year of pie recipes comes
to an end.
So sad…  But there is no better way to celebrate or mourn or reminisce the end of a year that had both heartbreakingly sad and joyfully amazing moments than with a big ol’ slice of pie.
St Nick knows this is true.. that is why he isn’t planning to share his pie.
Don’t follow the example of this scrooge-like St Nick! Share your pie! Pie is much sweeter when shared. Trust me!
So, my friends, here’s the another year of pies, art, friends and sweetness
Love, Sue Anne
p.s. This recipe is from a 1961 Bi-centennial cook book of the Mt Vernon
Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, Belchertown, MA

Nick’s  Pie! (i have no idea which “Nick” this pie is named for, but we can pretend it’s the white bearded one, right?)
pre-baked 9” pie crust (or graham cracker crust)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 TB),  soften in 1/4 C cold water for 10 min
2 eggs, separated
1/2 C  sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, orange zest
1 C mashed cooked pumpkin
1/2 C milk
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C heavy cream, whipped
Mix yolks, 1/2 C sugar, salt and spices in top of a
double boiler.  Stir in pumpkin and milk. Cook over hot water until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in softened gelatin. Chill until
mixture starts to set up, stirring frequently. Beat egg whites to soft peaks with 1/2 C sugar.  Carefully fold egg whites into cooled
pumpkin mixture.   Fold in the whipped cream.  Turn out into the baked shell and chill until set (2 hours or more) Decorate with more whipped cream and curls of orange rind.

Greetings my dear Pie Fanatics! I just returned from a visit to Poland,
where I got to see POTMC expert pastry advisor and talented operatic tenor
Brian Stucki perform in a Philip Glass opera “Fall of the House of Usher“.  Absolutely brilliant.  His wife Ann Hinkley Stucki and their two amazing kids were also in Poland and we did some exploring and (more importantly) eating together. The whole delicious experience made me think we needed a good Polish pie recipe for this month.
The sword-wielding mermaid is the official symbol of Warsaw, Poland, and we saw all kinds
of state sculptures and images of her everywhere… I couldn’t help but think a sword like that would make quick work of slicing up a delicious fresh cheese pie (or any other pie, of course). WHACK!!  …pie anyone?

 Polish Cheese Pie!
preheat oven to 345°F
unbaked 9” pie pastry
1 lb. cottage cheese
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
2/3 C. light cream
1 C. sugar
1 TB  flour
1 TB vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
Press cheese through a wire mesh sieve with the back of a large spoon (or whatever works). Beat yolks until smooth and yellow, add cream, sugar, flour, and vanilla.  Add cheese and stir well to blend.  In a separate, clean bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold beaten egg whites into cheese mixture.  Pour into unbaked pie shell. Dust with cinnamon. Bake a 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Hello Fall Pie Fans! The  air (and the apples) are crisp, and the leaves (and the pumpkins)
are changing from green to orange here in Bavaria.  Yep. that’s right. I’m back in Bavaria this
month.  This month’s pie is a traditional pie of the Pennsylvania Dutch, supposedly the pie,
like the community of settlers from which it comes, is German in ancestry, but I am a bit
skeptical of this claim…  since i’ve never run across anything like this in German bakeries.  In fact pies in general are little known by traditional German bakers.  But who knows? The evolution of pie is a remarkable and mysterious thing at times.
Anyway. The name “Funny Cake Pie” is telling in several ways. First of all,  the pie itself is cake-like… much like a shoo-fly pie, or a lemon sponge pie, or a Montgomery pie there is a cakey layer component to the filling.
The “funny” bit refers to the way the chocolate layer goes on top when you make the filling
but it comes out of the oven with the chocolate layer mysteriously on the bottom layer!
It’s sort of a funny = “that’s odd” more than a funny = “ha ha ha!” kind of thing.
Lastly, I want to mention that while I’ve been in Europe this past 18 months, my awesome aunt and crackerjack cousin have been doing all the pie club mailing and admin. They are the reason you get a postcard every month!  But right now their husband/dad, my unmitigated uncle Joel is
fighting a battle with Lymphoma. So I hope perhaps y’all will send your good vibes, anti-cancer thoughts, prayers, or what ever kind of positive energy you’ve got their way!
No kind of healing power like pie power, I always say.
OK. here’s the pie (finally!)
FUNNY CAKE PIE
One 9” unbaked pie shell
Top Part (i.e. it becomes the “top” after baking):
1 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Cream together sugar and shortening.  Add the combined milk and egg alternately with flour and baking powder.  Add flavoring and set aside until lower part is mixed.
Lower Part :
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. water
4 Tbsp. cocoa
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
Mix together the cocoa, sugar, water, and vanilla. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Over this carefully pour the “top part”.
It’s OK if the chocolate oozes up around the outside edge -  gives a nice crusty edge on the finished product. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until toothpick in the center of the top layer comes out clean.

Summer is in full swing pie fans, but never fear -  the promise of Autumn is in the air. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to share a recipe made famous by the esteemed “Daily Pie Cafe” in Pie Town, New Mexico!  Pie Town was featured waaaaaaaay back in a pie of the month card from 1993 by potmc guest artist Lois Maffeo, but if you don’t remember that long ago, I’ll remind you that Pie Town is a little town right smack on the Continental Divide in the desert of New Mexico. Pie Town was built up in the middle of the dust-bowl era in the 1930s, but was named, reportedly, after the delicious dried apple pies made by a general store owner and pie baker named Mr Norman in the 1920s. This particular recipe takes the standard apple pie and “southwests it up” in an amazingly delicious, if unconventional way. I haven’t yet had the chance to visit the mecca of pie in person, but many of our club members have and report that if you get there in time, you’ll find some deeelicious pie waiting for you.
If you can’t make it out there, try making this recipe at home and just close your eyes and pretend you’re out in the wild frontier.

New Mexican Apple Pie  (a la The Daily Pie Cafe)
4 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 C. sugar
3 T flour
2 t. cinnamon
¾ t. nutmeg
½ c. green chilis
3/4 c. pinon nuts (aka pine nuts), oven toasted
1 T lemon juice
Pastry for a double-crust 9” pie
Put apple slices into large mixing bowl. Top with seasonings, chili and pinon mix well. Set aside to blend flavors while the crust is being prepared. Line pie dish with bottom crust. Place apple mixture  in crust, mounded in the center. Top with one rolled sheet of crust. Pinch and flute edges, cut vent holes into top crust. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle natural sugar on top (optional). Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then 400 degrees for one hour. Pie is done when juices bubble thick around the outer edge.

So THIS month (September ‘09) I spent a week or so in Lisbon Portugal at the International Bioacoustics Society Conference.
Having never been to Lisbon before,  you can imagine my delight when I arrived to find that there were little pies and tarts for sale EVERYWHERE.
I even picked up a little roll of cheese-based sweet mini pies wrapped in a tube of paper. Brilliant.
But without any question the most delicious pie/tart I ate were the world famous Pastéis de Belém, from the bakery of the same name, which has been cranking out these amazing little custard tarts since 1837 (google ‘em).  The tarts were originally made by the monks of the Jerónimos Monastery in Belem, as a way to support themselves after the revolution of 1820. The recipe is a closely guarded secret, and any similar custard  tarts are not allowed to be called a Pastéis de Belém, but instead are called Pastéis de nata.
However, David Leite writing for the LA Times did some SERIOUS research to try and crack the secret. This is adapted from his best attempt at a reproduction of these amazing custard tarts (warm… super flakey… ooooohhhh…) Good luck. It will be SO worth it.
Pastéis de nata (custard pastries)
1 pound of puff pastry dough, rolled into a 16-by-24-inch rectangle, then rolled the dough away from you into a tight log, brushing the excess flour off as you go. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill overnight (2 hours min).
3 TB flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 egg yolks, whisked until creamy looking.
Powdered sugar & cinnamon for dusting
Preheat oven as hot as possible (ideally somewhere between 500-700 degrees F… seriously. Don’t be scared. go as HOT as you can make it)
Whisk the flour and ¼ C of the milk until smooth. Set aside.  Bring the sugar, cinnamon and water to a boil in a saucepan and cook until an thermometer registers 220°F. Do not stir.  Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, scald the 1 C milk. Whisk the hot milk into the flour-milk mixture.
Pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream into the hot milk mixture, whisking briskly. Add the vanilla and stir for a minute until very warm but not hot. Whisk in the yolks, strain the mixture into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set side. (Makes two-thirds cup custard.)
Remove a pastry log from fridge. Cut it into ~3/4 inch thick slices.  Place spiral piece cut side down in each well of a non-stick muffin  pan. Let rest a bit until dough is pliable.  Dip your thumbs into the water, then straight down into the middle of the dough spiral. Flatten it against the bottom of the cup to a thickness of about one-eighth inch, then smooth the dough up the sides and create a raised lip about one-eighth inch above the pan. The pastry sides should be thinner than the bottom. Fill each cup ¾ full with the slightly warm custard. Bake until the edges of the dough are frilly and brown, about 8 to 15 min, depending on muffin tin size.  Remove to a rack and cool until just warm. Sprinkle generously with and cinnamon and serve still slightly warm.

Aaaaaah. Summer.
Here, my friends, is part 2 of a summer melon pie extravaganza!
So… last month while I was trying to make some cantaloupe-related pie art, I kept thinking about Herbie Hancock, since he has a tune called “Cantaloupe Island” and I just couldn’t get anything together that seemed to work that included both Herbie and Cantaloupes.
But when it came to this month’s pie, Watermelon Rind Pie, I already had Herbie on the brain, and had his brilliant tune  “Watermelon Man” running through my head day and night.  In fact, anytime I hear the word watermelon, the soundtrack in my brain starts playing Watermelon Man.
Even just writing this postcard I can’t stop humming it. So. Herbie Hancock it is. Voila!
On a pie-historical note, this pie  is a classic example of Southern thriftyness. It actually drives me crazy sometimes throwing away pounds of juicy watermelon rinds every time I eat a melon. But what  to do with it?
Here, my friends, is the answer.  There are several variations on the watermelon rind pie theme, but I prefer this one, which includes raisins and pecans.  It really does scream for ice cream, or a big dollop of cold whipped cream.

Watermelon Rind Pie
2 C watermelon rind, dark green skin peeled off,
and chopped into ½ inch cubes
1 C sugar
2 tsp  flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
3 TB apple cider vinegar
½ C raisins
½ C chopped pecans
pastry for a nine-inch, 2-crust pie
Put watermelon rind in a small saucepan; add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat; drain and cool. Combine rind with sugar, flour, spices, salt, vinegar, raisins, and pecans; stir to combine then set aside.
preheat oven to 450° Line pie pan with crust, pour in watermelon rind mixture. Top with crust, crimp edges, cut slits in top crust to vent.
As soon as you put pie in oven, reduce heat to 350° F. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden and filling is bubbling. Cool before serving.

Yes, that’s right. Cantaloupe. Baked. In a pie.

Welcome Summer! It has been a lovely sunny June here in
Germany and I’ve been scarfing down melons of all sorts.
This reminded me of a couple of melon-related recipes I had
buried somewhere in this huge pile of “potmc potentials” and
voila! Here you go… summer fruit treat #1:
Cantaloupe pie. Now… I must confess that this pie actually sounds really yukky to me.
Cooking a cantaloupe seems so, so… wrong. Like baking a cucumber
(I now expect to get all kinds of letters from y’all telling me how great baked cucumbers
are… to that I just say “eeew”).
Surely, the whole point of melon is that it is cold and it is sweet and it is thrist-quenchingly juicy… so this recipe strikes me as totally missing the point.
Nonetheless, I have purchased a ripe juicy cantaloupe (called various things in German:
die Warzenmelone (literally a wart-melon),  Netzmelone
(net-melon), Buttermelone (i’ll let you figure out that
translation on your own), or sometimes Cantaloup-Melone)
and I plan to try it out this week… you should try it too:
Cantaloupe Pie
9”  pre-baked crust
1/4 C flour
3 eggs, separated
3/4 C sugar
2 TB butter
6 TB sugar + 1/2 tsp vanilla for meringue
1 large, VERY RIPE cantaloupe or muskmelon (swear to me that you won’t try to make this with a hard, cucumber-tasting melon. swear!) In a medium saucepan mix half the sugar with melon and cook until melon is tender and mash-able. Mash the melon to a lumpy pulp. Mix flour with remaining sugar, add beaten egg yolks and butter. Add to mashed melon and return to heat briefly until just starting to bubble.  Remove from heat. In a clean bowl beat egg whites until frothy. Add 6 TB sugar and vanilla and keep beating until stiff peaks form. Pour warm melon filling into pie shell. Cover completely with meringue, sealing to edges. Brown in oven (10-20 min at 325°F).
Cool. Cut. Eat.

OK, I publicly vow to you that I will be better at keeping the pie of the month site up to date. I swear. I swear to each and every one of you.

Now… should I post first this month’s pie? or should I post the YEAR of pies that I’ve missed posting? How is it even possible? how have I fallen so far behind?

uuggghhh.

OK…  Well. lets just start with LAST May’s pie. OK?

here you go:

Tidewater Delight! The May 2009 Pie