A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (57 page)

SWEET POTATO PIE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

Baked sweet potatoes, I think, make better pie than boiled sweet potatoes. For two reasons: Baked sweet potatoes are never watery, and that stint in the oven caramelizes some of their natural sugars, making for richer, deeper flavor (I give them about one hour at 400° F.). There are dozens of recipes for sweet potato pie, but this one—a merging of several different recipes that I’ve collected in my prowls about the South—is especially good because it’s not cloyingly sweet.

2 cups firmly packed unseasoned mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

¾ cup milk or evaporated milk (I prefer the latter)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 325° F. Beat the sweet potatoes, granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a small electric mixer bowl at low speed for about 30 seconds, then at high speed for 1 minute or until light, pausing several times to scrape the bowl.
  
• 2.
  With the mixer at low speed, beat in the eggs one by one. With the mixer still at low speed, add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour the filling into the pie shell.
  
• 3.
  Slide the pie onto a baking sheet and bake on the middle oven shelf for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until puffed, lightly browned, and a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
  
• 4.
  If you want to serve the pie warm, cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Or, if you prefer, cool the pie to room temperature before serving.
  Note:
  The filling will fall somewhat but this is as it should be.
  

SWEET POTATO MERINGUE PIE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

Tabor City, North Carolina, is “The Yam Capital of the World,” so it’s not surprising that the state stages its annual Yam Festival there the fourth weekend in October. “Yam” is a misnomer, for what Tabor City celebrates with parades and “yam royalty” coronations is the sweet potato harvest. North Carolina produces 40 percent of America’s sweet potatoes, more than any other state, so is it any wonder that this little town and outlying areas are blessed with imaginative cooks who prepare sweet potatoes every which way? This unique sweet potato pie is one of them. What makes it unique? For starters, the filling, made altogether with granulated sugar (no brown sugar) and spiced only with nutmeg (no cinnamon, no ginger), isn’t the usual custardy pumpkin-pie type; it has the silken texture of whipped sweet potatoes. And then there’s that cloud of meringue on top.

2 cups firmly packed unseasoned mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (you’ll need about 2 pounds of sweet potatoes)

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

3 large pasteurized egg yolks (see About Pasteurized Eggs, frontmatter)

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)

3 large pasteurized egg whites, beaten to soft peaks with ¼ cup sugar (meringue)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Beat the sweet potatoes, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in a small electric mixer bowl at moderately low speed for about 1 minute or until well blended.
  
• 2.
  Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the egg yolks one by one. With the mixer still at low speed, add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour the filling into the pie shell, smoothing to the edge.
  
• 3.
  Slide the pie onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
  
• 4.
  Remove the pie from the oven and immediately spread the meringue over the hot filling, swirling into peaks and valleys and making sure that it touches the crust all around. Return the pie to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the meringue is tipped with brown.
  
• 5.
  Set the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature before cutting.
  

TAR HEEL GREEN TOMATO PIE

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

More than a hundred years old, this unusual pie was a dessert favorite at end-of-summer picnics back when I was an assistant home demonstration agent in Iredell County, North Carolina. Always held in August (green tomato time), these feasts were—and still are—the surest way to taste southern country cooking at its best. I soon learned that if I wanted any green tomato pie, I’d better grab a slice at the outset and save it for dessert; it disappeared that fast. Tip:
If I’m in a rush, I’ll use the commercial unroll-and-use pastry circles now sold at many supermarkets (look for them near the refrigerated biscuits) instead of making the crust from scratch. The elderly farm woman who gave me this recipe so many years ago would have loved these handy time-savers.

8 medium-size green tomatoes (2 to 2¼ pounds), cored and sliced ¼ inch thick but not peeled

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 tablespoons (½ stick) ice-cold butter, cut into small dice

Pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie (see Tip above)

1 tablespoon light or heavy cream

1 pint vanilla ice cream (optional)

• 1.
  Slide a heavy baking sheet onto the middle oven shelf and preheat the oven to 425° F.
  
• 2.
  Place the tomatoes and lemon juice in a large nonreactive bowl, toss well, and set aside.
  
• 3.
  Combine the two sugars, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a second large bowl; then, using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the texture of lentils and set aside.
  
• 4.
  Using your favorite recipe, make the pastry and divide in half. Roll one half on a lightly floured surface into a circle 12 inches across, then ease into a 9-inch pie pan. Pat firmly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, letting the excess overhang the rim.
  Note:
  If you prefer, substitute the commercial unroll-and-use pastry circles (see Tip at left).
  
• 5.
  Layer the sliced tomatoes and crumbly sugar mixture into the pie shell, beginning with the sugar mixture and ending with the tomatoes—there should be about 4 layers of each.
  
• 6.
  Roll the remaining pastry into a 14-inch circle and cut into strips ½ inch wide. Lay half the strips on top of the tomatoes, spacing 1 inch apart; brush lightly with the cream. Now form a lattice top by laying the remaining pastry strips at right angles to the first, again spacing 1 inch apart and brushing with cream. Trim the bottom crust and strips so they overhang the pan 1 inch all around. Roll the two up together so they rest on the rim of the pan, then crimp in a zigzag design. Brush with the remaining cream.
  
• 7.
  Set the pie on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes; reduce the oven temperature to
  375° F. and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes or until the pastry is richly browned and the juices are translucent and bubble thickly. What’s key here is baking the pie until the flour thickens the juices that exude from the tomatoes. An underbaked pie will be soupy.
  Note:
  If the crimped edge is overbrowning, cover with a strip of foil.
  
• 8.
  Remove the pie from the oven. Lift off the baking sheet, set on a wire rack, and cool for several hours before cutting.
  
• 9.
  To serve, cut into wedges and top, if you like, with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
  

VINEGAR PIE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

In olden days when lemons were scarce, enterprising cooks would counterfeit lemon chess pie by substituting cider vinegar, which was cheap and widely available, for precious lemon juice. This recipe comes from Lillian Waldron, an old friend of my stepmother, Anne Anderson; the two grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia. Anne says that vinegar pie is one of her most requested desserts and a particular favorite of her granddaughters, Linda and Kim Anderson. Tip:
To catch boilovers, bake the pie on a baking sheet.

1½ cups sugar

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

3 large eggs

1½ tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 325° F.
  
• 2.
  Beat the sugar and melted butter in a small electric mixer bowl for about 1 minute, first at low speed, then at moderate, until well combined; scrape the bowl down at half-time.
  
• 3.
  With the mixer at low speed, beat in the eggs one by one and continue beating for about 30 seconds or until light. Mix in the vinegar and vanilla, and when thoroughly combined, pour the filling into the pie shell.
  
• 4.
  Slide the pie onto a baking sheet and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 1 hour or until puffed, nicely browned, and a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
  
• 5.
  If you want to serve the pie warm, cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Or, if you prefer, cool the pie to room temperature before serving.
  Note:
  The filling will fall but this is as it should be. Cut the pieces small—this pie is rich.
  

BUTTERMILK PIE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

Like Vinegar Pie, Buttermilk Pie was often baked in lieu of lemon chess pie because in the butter-churning days of old, there was always plenty of buttermilk on hand. To this day, Buttermilk Pie is beloved throughout the South. Tip:
To catch any boilovers, it’s a good idea to set the pie on a baking sheet before you slide it into the oven.

1½ cups sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) butter, melted

3 large eggs

1½ cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 325° F. Beat the sugar, flour, and melted butter in a small electric mixer bowl for 1 minute, beginning at low speed, then raising to moderate so that all ingredients are well blended. Scrape the bowl well at half-time.
  
• 2.
  Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the eggs one by one; continue beating for 30 seconds or until light. With the mixer still at low speed, add the buttermilk, vanilla, and nutmeg, if using. When thoroughly combined, pour the filling into the pie shell.
  
• 3.
  Slide the pie onto a baking sheet and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until puffed, nicely browned, and a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
  
• 4.
  If you want to serve the pie warm, cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Or, if you prefer, cool the pie to room temperature before serving.
  Note:
  The filling will fall but this is as it should be. Cut the pieces small—this pie is rich.
  

BLACK BOTTOM PIE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

No one knows for sure when or where this southern classic originated. On one of the many online food sites, I read that a recipe for Black Bottom Pie had appeared in Lafcadio Hearn’s
Creole Cook Book
(1885). Not true—nor does anything remotely similar. According to James Beard
(
American Cookery,
1972), the recipe began showing up in cookbooks early in the 1900s. In community cookbooks, perhaps. Yet long research for my
American Century Cookbook
(1997) turned up no mention of black bottom pie before 1940. That year both
The Woman’s Home Companion Cook Book
and
The Good Housekeeping Cook Book
printed recipes for it, although only the latter called it Black Bottom Pie.
Woman’s Home Companion
not only titled it Two-Tone Chocolate Rum Pie but also changed the crumb crust from gingerbread to chocolate.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s
Cross Creek Cookery,
published two years later, is by most accounts the book that launched Black Bottom Pie. Combining two recipes, one obtained from an old hotel in Louisiana and another from a southern friend, Rawlings was positively lyrical about the version she’d created: “I think that this is the most delicious pie ever eaten…a pie so delicate, so luscious, that I hope to be propped up on my dying bed and fed a generous portion. Then I think that I should refuse outright to die…” For her crumb crust, Rawlings says to roll fourteen gingersnaps to fine crumbs; fourteen of today’s cookies would barely dust the bottom of a pie tin.

As for the pie’s name, some suggest that it derives from the Black Bottom Stomp, a New Orleans dance popular in the 1920s and ’30s—about the time the pie was gaining local fame. Others insist that it comes from the color of the bottom (chocolate) layer—as black as bayou mud. Despite its unknown origin, Black Bottom Pie has remained a southern favorite for nearly seventy years. Note:
Because the egg whites used in the top (rum) layer are not cooked, it’s best to use pasteurized eggs for this recipe.
Tip:
The easiest way to make chocolate curls is to run a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler over a square of room-temperature semisweet chocolate. At first the curls may break, but as the heat of your hands softens the chocolate, you’ll be able to shave off lovely long curls.

Crumb Crust

1½ cups finely crushed gingersnaps (about thirty 2-inch round cookies)

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, at room temperature

Bottom (Chocolate) Layer

½ cup sugar

1½ tablespoons cornstarch

4 large pasteurized egg yolks, beaten well (see About Pasteurized Eggs, frontmatter)

2 cups steaming hot milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Two 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, broken into small pieces (I whack the still-wrapped squares with a cutlet bat, then unwrap)

Top (Rum) Layer

1 envelope unflavored gelatin, softened in 3 tablespoons cold water

2 tablespoons rum, preferably dark rum (though not traditional, bourbon is also good)

4 large pasteurized egg whites

¹
/
₈
teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup sugar

Topping

1 cup heavy cream, beaten to fairly stiff peaks

Semisweet chocolate curls (see Tip at left)

• 1.
  For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Mix the crumbs and butter well, then pat over the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9-inch pie pan.
  Tip:
  You’ll find this easier if you butter your hands lightly before handling the crumb mixture.
  Slide the crust onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 5 minutes (this is just to firm the crust up a bit; longer baking will make it too hard to cut easily). Remove the crust from the oven and cool.
  
• 2.
  For the bottom layer: Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a medium-size bowl, then whisk in the egg yolks. Drizzle the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking all the while. Stir back into the pan and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the consistency of custard sauce. Do not boil or the filling will curdle. Scoop 1 cup of the hot filling into a small bowl (keep the rest of it hot), add the vanilla, then the chocolate, and stir until melted. Spread over the bottom of the crumb crust.
  
• 3.
  For the top layer: Mix the softened gelatin into the remaining hot custard and whisk until it dissolves completely; stir in the rum and cool to room temperature. Beat the egg whites
  with the cream of tartar until silvery, then, beating all the while, add the sugar gradually.
  Note:
  Liquid pasteurized egg whites take longer than the raw to whip to stiff peaks—perhaps 5 minutes at highest electric mixer speed. When properly whipped, pasteurized egg whites will be the consistency of boiled icing. If using raw egg whites from a known and trusted source, beat only until the whites peak softly.
  
• 4.
  Fold about a cup of the beaten whites into the cooled custard to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites until no streaks of white or yellow remain. Scoop the rum mixture over the chocolate layer, smoothing the top and spreading so that it touches the crust all around. Chill the uncovered pie for several hours or until the filling has set.
  
• 5.
  For the topping: Frost the pie with the whipped cream and scatter the chocolate curls decoratively on top.
  
• 6.
  Chill the pie uncovered for several hours or overnight before cutting.