Day 2: Buttermilk Lemon Pie

With Monday's meringue blunder behind me, I plunged into today's pie with more of a cool head.

Day 2: Buttermilk-Lemon Pie

My first "real" experience with buttermilk pie was the day we took my grandma to Muddy's during her last visit to Memphis [best bakery in town!]. My grandma got a piece of buttermilk pie, and it was so rich and delicious! She told me that her mother used to make a similar pie.

Her mother, my great-grandmother Zella, helped head up the family farm in east Texas--this land has been in our family for over 100 years. She was a well-reknown baker in those parts, and if we ever do "Cake Week" I promise her Devil's Food Cake recipe will show up somewhere.

Good ole wikipedia. (I couldn't resist.)

"Buttermilk pie is a traditional custard-like pie of the southern United States. The basic filling consists of a mixture of eggs, sugar, buttermilk, dry biscuit mix, and butter; variations on the recipe may include flavorings such as lemon zest. Buttermilk pies may be made with or without a pastry crust. The liquid filling is poured into a pie pan (into a crust if one is used) and baked until the mixture sets. It is related to chess pie and pecan pie. The pie may be eaten either while still warm from the oven or after being chilled."

Let's start with the crust.

Since I had made Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee for Butterscotch Pie, I decided to try Pioneer Woman's pie crust, which has Crisco and vinegar in it, among the other obvious ingredients of flour and salt. Also this crust does not utilize the food processor, only a pastry cutter.

Flour, a bowl, a knife.


My trick to keeping flour from making a mess is to put a paper towl under the flour container. Then, when you dip in the measuring cup, and use the dull side of a knife to make ridges and then scrape off the excess, you can fold up the paper towl and not have a pile of the extra flour hidden on your white countertops (don't get me started on the white countertops, ya hear me, Mandi?...).


scraped and flat, going into the bowl:


Crisco! (and she says there is no substitute in this case)


ooooh-weeee my new toy, the pastry cutter! it's fun, too!


...until it resembles coarse meal:


Then, add your ice water. I dipped the necessary tablespoons out of a literal cup of ice water that had been sitting in the fridge.


Next, a trusty tablespoon of vinegar. [secret weapon alert! do you live in a house where the dryer has poor circulation, causing your entire condo to get muggy and make your towels smell musty? EW! well, adding a little vinegar to your next load of towels in the wash, along with your regular detergent, will take care of this problem! cheap fix (this bottle of vinegar was 59 cents!)]


Dig on in and make this happen.


Next, you separate the dough into three equal balls, and store them in Ziploc bags (I used quart size and they were plenty big).


After you get the air out of the bag and seal them, flatten a bit with your rolling pin.


Nice. This can chill out [pun intended] in the fridge for about an hour, or in the freezer (see below), while you do the other stuff.

Pioneer Woman's "Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust"

Ingredients
1-½ cup Crisco (vegetable Shortening)
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1 whole Egg
5 Tablespoons Cold Water
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
1 teaspoon Salt

Preparation Instructions
In a large bowl, with a pastry cutter, gradually work the Crisco into the flour for about 3 or 4 minutes until it resembles a coarse meal. In a small bowl, beat an egg with a fork and then pour it into the flour/shortening mixture. Add 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
Separate the dough into thirds. Form 3 evenly sized balls of dough and place each dough into a large Ziploc bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (about ½ inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you will be using it immediately it’s still a good idea to put in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)

Onto the pie.

A few years ago, I had the brilliant idea of making a cookbook out of my Granny's recipes. She is a fantastic cook, and precision is her middle name. All of her recipes are in an old/"antique" tin box, and are clippings from 1960s newspapers or written on index cards in fading blue ink. "Must preserve these," I thought.

"Oh, it'll be no big deal," I told myself/Jonny. "It'll make a great Christmas gift for everyone. I'll just type these recipes right up and get it printed out, no big deal."

Ha, ha, ha. While I am not in the least sorry I undertook this project, it was quite the endeavor.

Notwithstanding, this recipe is featured in that cookbook.

A word about the lemon(s) used. Jonny and I bought a lemon tree for his mother for Christmas several years ago, and it has yielded some beauties. (Sorry we couldn't get a photo of this sucker in daylight--it gets dark early now, who knew?)


Look at all those fantastic lemons.

So here's one right here:


One of these guys yielded all of the zest and juice required for this recipe: 1 tablespoon and 1/3 cup, respectively.

Zested with my microplane zester [look into one of these if you don't have one, they're amazing]


Look at the vibrant shade of yellow on that zest!

Then I juiced him:


Flour, sugar, salt, baking soda in a separate bowl:


Buttermilk [while Paul the Pilgrim looks on]


Lemon juice, zest, and eggs...


+ buttermilk and flour mixture (gradually), into the mixing bowl:


Then, get your pie dough out:


This dough was a little more crumbly than the Pate Brisee, so I needed a spatula thingy to get it into the pan...


Pressed out, ready to go!


With the buttermilk filling:


For this next step, I ventured into something I'd never tried before. Got me some whole nutmegs, for a freshly grated touch. [the microplane makes another appearance.]



I LOVE NUTMEG!


Ready for the oven!


It was supposed to cook for 10 minutes at 400, then lower the temperature to 325 and bake for another 45 minutes.

The 45 minutes turned into 90, easy. What the heck. Right out of the oven:


Coincidentally (or not), yesterday on Martha Stewart Sirius radio, the Martha show was all about pies! They were having a giant pie contest, and Martha had some guests on (couldn't see who they were through the radio, obviously), sharing their pie secrets. Martha's main pie tip was to make sure to bake them hot--400 degrees at least. So I hear her say this on my way home to bake a pie, knowing the recipe goes to the 325 mark. I decide to go with the recipe; however, Martha is [always] right. Bake it hotter.

After not letting it cool long enough (it was getting late), we headed on over to J's parents' house to show them one "fruit" of their lemon tree labor.


Pretty, no?


After all this hoopla, I must say this pie was not my favorite. I did enjoy the crust probably more than yesterday's crust. However, the custard consistency which accompanied the strong lemon taste is not for me. I definitely ate my whole piece--but personally, so far the Butterscotch Pie is in the lead for my affections.

Buttermilk-Lemon Pie

Pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie
1 cup sugar
¼ c. butter, melted
3 T. flour
1/3 cup lemon juice
½ t. salt
1 T. grated lemon peel
2 cups buttermilk
1 t. vanilla
4 eggs
¼ t. nutmeg

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Trim, seal, and flute edges; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, beat the buttermilk, eggs, butter, lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Add to the sugar mixture; mix well. Pour into crust. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325 and bake 40-45 minutes [really more like 90 minutes!] longer or until an inserted knife near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator.


vinyl accompaniment: Otis Redding Live in Europe



xoxo, Pie Sleuth