Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I'm a pie making star, I'm popular

On the face of it Buttermilk pie doesn't sound terribly tasty, but in his book Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, Ken Haedrich proclaimed the buttermilk pie delicious and since it required simple ingredients (brown and white sugar, eggs, flour, buttermilk, butter and vanilla), I decided to try it. It's a interesting pie, a rich, not terribly sweet flavor which my daughter thought was like ice cream. In consistency it falls between a dense chess pie and a loose custard pie. This NPR story has a recipe similar to the one I used, although it used the less sweet option.

Haedrich's book is an excellent choice for those wanting easy to make, but tasty pies. In cooking, baking has traditionally been my Achilles Heel. I once made a cookie called the Christmas Jewels from the generally good, but occasionally overly retro Betty Crocker Cooky Book. The Christmas part came from the red and green candied fruit of the sort normally found in fruit cake. We put a plate out at a holiday party and found that only one cookie had been taken and whoever tried it took a bite and put it back. If I can make these pies, anyone can.

4 comments:

kwandongbrian said...

"In consistency it falls between a dense chess pie and a loose custard pie."

Mmmm, chess pie. I'd sacrifice many a pawn for that!

Tripp said...

Snicker, snicker.

Yes chess pies are a great treat and fairly easy to make. I would say that it is as easy to make a great pie as it is to make an OK cake.

kwandongbrian said...

I was being a smart-ass, thinking you had mis-spelled 'cheese' (although I have never heard of a cheese pie). Is there really such a thing?

Joke's on me if there is.

Tripp said...

I fear the joke is in fact on you. And now you have a new pie to try.

The name is an odd one and there is no agreement on the origin of it. I like the folksy version noted in the wiki (and the pie book) that when asked what sort of pie it was, the response was "it's jes' pie"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_pie

Here are some recipes from Cooks.com
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,chess_pie,FF.html