This time of year, I miss my grandmother. When I was a kid Biee always came to visit for Christmas and she spent most of her time in the kitchen. She made tenderloin and stuffed potatoes and piles and piles of pies and cookies. She loved any recipe that involved plenty of fat — butter, Crisco, lard, bacon, peanut butter, even mayonnaise. In 2015 she passed away the day after Christmas at the ripe old age of 97. I recorded her a few years before that, talking about making pie and teaching my mother.
“When it came time to make pies I always gave her a piece of dough and a little toy rolling pin, so she could roll it out,” said Biee. “And she used to love to play around with that when I was cooking.”
My mom still loves pie — making it and in most cases eating it.
"I love apple pie, but I also really love blueberry pie and I really love rhubarb pie or rhubarb strawberry, pecan, pumpkin, there’s grasshopper pie which I know a lot of people in our family really love but truth be told I could take it or leave it," my mom explained.
Grasshopper pie is a decidedly modern creation made by melting marshmallows with crème de menthe, crème de cacao, heavy cream and green food coloring and chilling this filling in a chocolate cookie crust. I will admit, it’s sort of disgusting, but it’s also delicious.
My grandmother loved these sorts of pies — the kind with chilled fillings and cookie or graham cracker crusts. She made a strawberry version that came from a restaurant near where she and my grandfather lived for the years he was a minister in Palm Beach.
“Well we always loved Testa’s and loved to go there for breakfast,” she said.
Testa’s gave my grandmother the recipe for their strawberry pie: you make the filling with cooked berries, sugar, butter and cornstarch and top this with whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries. And in fact this wasn’t the only restaurant Biee convinced to give her their pie recipe: rum pie.
Biee explained that it came from a restaurant in Sandusky, Ohio.
“It was so special and so good and something that to me was always a treat,” she said.
When my grandparents moved away from Sandusky, the chef gave my grandmother the rum pie recipe. My sister and my mom and I still make it. It’s basically a rum-and cream laced custard —set with gelatin and topped with shaved dark chocolate.
“There’s one trick to it of knowing how to put the gelatin in at the right time but once you learn that trick it’s a snap and very easy to make and well worth the trouble.”
My grandmother also made something called Chess Pie, which is a southern specialty that involves folding cornmeal into a custard filling. And whenever she made pies with traditional flour and butter crusts, my grandmother saved the dough trimmings. She says this tradition came from her mother and is the perfect way to turn leftovers into something our family call a sticky.
“And what we call a sticky is where you take pie dough and roll it out thin and cut it in squares along about I don’t know maybe about 2 and a half inches square and then put a dab of jelly or marmalade and fold it over and squish it down at the sides with a fork and bake it and oh they’re so good.”
I remember making stickies all the time as a kid — they’re especially good with my mom’s homemade strawberry jam, and the perfect task for little hands. This year for the holidays I’m making my grandmother’s pumpkin pie — her recipe card just The Best — along with a cranberry apple pie with local fruit and a pecan pie with a maple syrup custard filling. And of course, I’m teaching my girls, and saving some dough for stickies.
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Recipes:
PUMPKIN PIE (THE BEST)
This is my grandmother's recipe. I've titled it exactly as she wrote it out on the card — and true to her word, this pie never fails. I sometimes use homemade pureed pumpkin or winter squash in place of the canned pumpkin, but that's the only tweak. This recipe makes two pies.
4 eggs, beaten slightly
24 ounces pureed pumpkin or winter squash
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
13 fluid ounces evaporated milk
two 9-inch pie crusts, preferably homemade
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk together the ingredients in the order given and pour the filling into the two bottom crusts. Bake for 15 minutes; turn the heat down to 350 and bake for another 45. Serve warm or cool, with a thick dollop of whipped cream.
BIEE’S RUM PIE
This recipe comes originally from a restaurant my grandmother, Bobby Cary, loved in Sandusky, Ohio. My mom has adapted the original to make it “less fussy.” She always makes it around the holidays — it’s a lot like eggnog in pie form.
for the crust:
1 package plain [not honey or cinnamon] graham crackers (= 9 full cracker sheets)
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
for the filling:
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided
fine grain sea salt
2 cups half-and-half
1 package (1 tablespoon) plain gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
2 tablespoons rum (dark or light)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 square dark chocolate, grated
Crush the graham crackers on a large cutting board or in a plastic bag; use a rolling pin to get them finely, and uniformly, ground up. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar and then the crushed graham crackers. Mix well and then pat into a pie plate.
Set aside.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the two egg yolks lightly, stir in a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup sugar, and set aside. Save the egg whites, as you'll need these later.
In a medium-sized saucepan, scald the half-and-half over medium heat. Keep an eye on it and give it an occasional stir. When it's ready, slowly pour the scalded half-and-half into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Then pour the mixture back into your saucepan and return it to medium heat on the stove. You're going to cook this custard about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until it is smooth and slightly thickened.
As soon as you return the custard to the heat to thicken, get out a small bowl or custard cup and pour the gelatin and cold water into it. Let this mixture soak for 5 minutes — by which time your custard should be ready. Remove the custard from the heat, pour in the gelatin, and stir until it’s dissolved. Chill the custard (either in the fridge or in a safe place outdoors) until it begins to thicken. This can take about an hour.
Once your custard has thickened, get out another mixing bowl and beat the egg whites, gradually adding the remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Beat until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the custard with the rum and vanilla. Pour into the crust and chill until set, at least 2 hours. Before serving, dust the top of the pie with grated chocolate.
CRANBERRY APPLE PIE
Just before Christmas one year, a friend brought a stunningly good apple-cranberry pie over for a party. Everyone remarked on how tasty it was, and I've made it every year since. Thanks to Arozana Davis of Wellfleet — a frequent cranberry picking companion — for sharing!
4 cups very thinly sliced apples
2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pie dough to make bottom and top 9-inch crusts
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Combine the apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a bowl. Mix gently until the fruit is evenly coated. Roll out a bottom crust, drape it over a 9-inch pie plate, and spoon in the filling. Roll out the top crust and drape it over top. Trim the edges so that about 1-inch of both top and bottom crusts overhang the pie plate in an even circle. Roll the crust up and pinch it around the edges. Cut steam slots (I like to do a nice pattern like a sun or a heart) in the top. Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then lower the heat to 375 and bake for roughly 30 minutes more, or until the fruit is bubbling and the crust is golden. Serve warm or at room temperature.
MAPLE SYRUP PECAN PIE
This recipe came originally from the Pioneer Heritage Valley Grain and Bean CSA, where we pick up an annual supply of local flours. It’s unusual in that it uses maple syrup instead of corn syrup or sugar, and in our house it's become a favorite.
1 bottom pie crust
3/4 cup maple syrup
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup cream
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 and 1/2 cups pecans
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Chop the pecans and lightly toast them in the oven. Meanwhile, heat the maple syrup, butter, and cream in a double boiler. Sift in the cornstarch and beat with a handheld beater or whisk over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens and is free of clumps. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the toasted pecans and scrape the mixture into the pie shell.
Turn the oven heat down to 350 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes, or until the filling only jiggles in the center a teeny bit and the whole top is golden. Let sit a few minutes before serving. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream make a nice accompaniment.
