American Pie, Pascale Le Draoulec

American Pie, Pascale Le Draoulec

This is much more than a book of pie recipes; it is a road trip memoir that revolves around an erratic pie quest.  It is as much a book about America and the people and the back roads as it is about the wonderful but disappearing homemade pie.

The writer doesn’t go to traditional pie shops and selects small out of the way towns for a variety of reasons and often is disappointed.  We learn that Pie Town almost lost all its pie baking, that the true pie bakeries that they find along the way are often white haired and the art of the pie is slipping away to be replaced by the lazier cobbler or the “dumpster pies”  that they find in gas stations and fast food joints.  Called that because they most often were deposited in the dumpsters.

This book is about tradition, even though they went to the peach capital in Georgia and did not get a pie.  They find a famous pie maker in a small town and find that she uses a box mix.  There are discoveries and revelations along the road with enough pie talk that I baked three pies during the time that I read the book.

Dave’s Huckleberry Pie (Choteau, MT)

Crust
1 ¼ cups of butter-flavored Crisco
3 cups flour
1 raw cold egg
1 T ice cold vinegar
1 t salt
6 T ice-cold water

Filling
3 C fresh or frozen huckleberries
1 C sugar
¼ C flour
1/8 C heavy whipping cream

425 degrees 15 min
350 degrees 35 – 45 degrees.

Oallieberry pie (Pescadero CA)

Double Crust
¾ C shortening
2 C flour
1 t salt
1/3 C cold milk

Filling
1 quart raspberries or boysenberries
1 ¼ C sugar
¼ C flour

1.      Cut shortening in to flour

2.      Add salt and milk

3.      Stire well (add more milk if needed)

4.      Roll out half dough and line 9” pie pan

5.      Roll our remaining for top crust

6.      Mix 1 at berries with sugar and flour

7.      Fill pie shell and put on top

8.      Seal and bake at 375 for 1 hr

Evaline’s Banana Cream Pie (Veyo Utah)

Filling:

1.      ½ C sugar

2.      ¼ t salt

3.      3 T Cornstarch

a.      Combine in mixing bowl and set aside

4.      1 ½ C milk

5.      ½ C light cream (half and half)

a.      Scald

b.      Add sugar beat in sugar mixture

c.      Cook on low until thickened

6.      3 egg yolks lightly beaten

a.      Beat small amount of mix into eggs

b.      Then incorporate into filling

c.      Cook at low temp until thick – 3 – 4 minutes

d.      Remove from heat

e.      Add next three items

7.      2 T butter

8.      1 t vanilla

9.      14 t banana extract

a.      Fill prebaked pie 1/3 with filling

b.      Slice bananas

c.      Add remainder of filling

10.   1 -2 bananas

a.      Cool and then add topping

Whipped-cream topping

·        ¾ C heavy cream

·        ½ t vanilla extract

·        1 T sugar

·        Pinch salt

o   Beat altogether until thick

o   Then add to 10 above