Cherry pie

“ every flower seems to burn by itself, softly, purely in the misty beds; and how she loved the grey white moths spinning in and out, over the cherry pie, over the evening primroses! ”

“ Roll or pat to even dough and make a 6-inch square; cut in half as marked to make 2 triangles. Place triangles on ungreased baking sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of cherry pie filling in the center of the triangle. Pick up the 2 long ends, fold over filling, bringing them together at the center point to form a square; pinch edges to seal. Repeat with remaining rolls and pie filling. ”

“ Even in the best hotels and restaurants of London there is no sign of pie on the bill of fare, and the French cooks, who can make old hash taste like choice bits of fresh meat or better, have not learned the science of constructing pie, mince, apple, pumpkin, cherry or any kind of pie. I do not know how they do it, but the railroad restaurants are run without pie. Even the crowned heads go through life without knowing the taste of pumpkin pie, and one of my ideas of royalty in my early days was that a king or prince could have custard pie with flaky brown crust three times a day. ”

“ Drizzle with powdered sugar icing, if desired.
3 Perfectly Marvelous Pies
Apple and cherry, lemon and raisin—what wonderful pies there are to make! Each can become a specialty of yours, a discovery in elegant eating that’s well worth your while to prepare.
Spicy Frozen Raisin Pie
1 No. 2 can (2 cups) raisin pie filling
1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
1⁄4 teaspoon cloves
1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
1⁄4 cup chopped pecans
1 6-ounce can (2⁄3 cup) evaporated milk, chilled and whipped
1 9-inch graham cracker crust
Combine pie filling, spices and vanilla ”

“ Everybody likes a light crust, a little brown, and not excessively rich, better than one that is half butter or lard, and baked white.
Cherries should not be stewed or stoned for pies. Apples, after they are pared, cut, and cored, should be washed. Steam pumpkin and squash, or stew it with very little water. Meat for pies must not be chopped till after it is cold.
After a little practice and observation, it will be just as well to omit weighing the materials for pastry. One very heaping handful of flour will make a common-sized pie ”

“ If the meat is not fat, put in a little suet, or melted butter. Moisten the whole with cider—sweeten it to the taste with sugar, and very little molasses—add mace, cinnamon, cloves, and salt, to the taste. If you wish to make your pies rich, put in wine or brandy to the taste, and raisins, citron, and Zante currants. The grated rind and juice of lemons improve the pie. Make the pies on shallow plates, with apertures in the upper crust, and bake them from half to three-quarters of an hour, according to the heat of the oven. ”

“ Many varieties of pies are made with only one crust, and these usually prove more attractive than those having two crusts. As a rule, the filling is a custard or a corn-starch mixture, but often fruits of various kinds, as well as pumpkin and squash, are used in the making of pies of this kind. Frequently, meringue is used as a covering for one-crust pies; or, if an especially delicious dessert is desired, a thick layer of stiffly beaten and sweetened whipped cream is often added to the pie just before serving. ”

“ When juicy fruit is used for filling pies, some of the juices are apt to escape during baking. As a precaution, bind with a strip of cotton cloth wrung out of cold water and cut one inch wide and long enough to encircle the plate. Squash, pumpkin, and custard pies are much less care during baking when bound. Where cooked fruits are used for filling, it is desirable to bake crusts separately. This is best accomplished by covering an inverted deep pie plate with paste and baking for under crust. ”

“ Prunes that are too dry to eat without stewing, can be made into good pies. Turn enough boiling water on the prunes to cover them, set them on a few coals, and let them remain till swelled out plump. If there is not water sufficient to make a nice syrup for the pies, add more, and season them with cinnamon or cloves. The juice and grated peel of a lemon gives them a fine flavor. Add sugar to the taste, and bake them in deep pie plates. ”

“ Add whole crackers, lemon juice and rind. Cook slowly for 10 minutes; do not stir. Pour into unbaked 9′′ pie shell; sprinkle with the nutmeg and cinnamon and dot with butter (cut into bits) . Cut design in unbaked top crust (to allow steam to escape) ; place over filling; flute edges, sealing together. Bake 40 minutes in a 400° F. (preheated) oven. Be sure crust is a golden brown. Cool and serve. This is a “make believe” apple pie and requires no apples to prepare it. But, like a regular apple pie, it is delicious with a wedge of cheese or ice cream. ”

“ Add the sugar and butter, the yolks of the eggs beaten to a froth, and last the lemon juice and rind. Line the plates with crust, putting a narrow rim of it around each one. Pour in the filling, and bake half an hour. Beat the whites to a stiff froth; add half a teacup of powdered sugar and ten drops of lemon extract, and, when the pie is baked, spread this on. The heat will cook it sufficiently, but it can be browned a moment in the oven. If to be kept a day, do not make the frosting till just before using. The whites will keep in a cold place. Orange pie can be made in the same way. ”

“ In using the dried peaches, carefully examine and wash; soak them over night in cold water, and stew them in the same water until soft enough to rub through the colander. For each pie, add two tablespoonfuls of sweet cream, and sufficient sugar to sweeten; too much, sugar destroys the flavor of the fruit. Evaporated peaches, soaked over night and stewed carefully until tender, then removed from the syrup, which may be sweetened and boiled until thick and rich and afterward turned over the peaches, makes a delicious pie. Bake in one crust, with or without a meringue. ”

“ Put a strip of paste around the edge of a shallow pudding dish or deep pie pan, fill dish with prepared fruit, sugar and flour, cover with a lid of paste, press on to the strip and bake.
Fillings of squash, pumpkin or sweet potato pies may be baked on pie pans, in custard cups or in pudding dishes, without a crust, and with or without a meringue.
Serve fruit pies the day they are baked. Those that are unavoidably left over, put into the oven and just heat through before serving, to make like fresh pies. ”

“ Have a small cream cheese pressed through a ricer and mixed with a cup of whipped cream and a little [118] salt. Press through a pastry tube or tin funnel on top of the pie in a pattern, and serve warm for dessert. The cheese and cream combination may also be used on a two crust apple pie.
Cranberry Pie.—Line a rather deep pie plate with a plain crust. Put on a border of richer paste, fill with cranberries cooked according to directions for stewed cranberries, and put strips of crust over the top, making squares or diamonds as preferred. Put in bag and bake. ”

“ English people usually make their fruit pies with a top-crust only, putting a turned down tea-cup under the centre of the lid to collect the juice, (of course removing the cup when the pie is cut.) It is a good method in a country where the cost of flour is high.
Too much economy in the shortening will infallibly make the crust very poor, hard, heavy, and unwholesome. If you cannot afford dessert paste, do not attempt pies at all; but substitute a plain charlotte, or slices of bread and butter, covered with stewed fruit, sweetened, and laid in a deep dish. ”

“ Sprinkle a thick layer of sugar on each layer of peaches, put in about a table-spoonful of water, and sprinkle a little flour over the top—cover it with a thick crust, and bake the pie from fifty to sixty minutes. Pies made in this manner are much better than with the stones taken out, as the prussic acid of the stone gives the pie a fine flavor. If the peaches are not mellow, they will require stewing before being made into a pie. Dried peaches should be stewed soft, and sweetened, before they are made into a pie—they do not require any spice. ”

“ Flour the molding board and quickly roll half the dough into a thin crust and line the pie tin. Fill the pie with prepared fruit, wet the edges of the crust with water, roll out the balance of the dough for the upper crust, gash it across the center and lift it carefully and cover the pie, pressing edges together with a fork. If a glazed crust is wanted rub the crust over with a little milk, egg and sugar slightly mixed together. This insures a nice brown crust. The oven should be hot enough to turn white note paper a nice, rich brown color in five minutes time. ”

“ Hot apple pie was always accompanied with cheese in New England, even as every slice of apple pie in Wisconsin has cheese for a sidekick, according to law. Pioneer hot pies were baked in brick ovens and flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon and rose geranium. The cheese was Cheddar, but today all sorts of pie and cheese combinations are common, such as banana pie and Gorgonzola, mince with Danish Blue, pumpkin with cream cheese, peach pie with Hablé, and even a green dusting of Sapsago over raisin pie. ”

“ Canned peaches filled into such a crust make a delicious pie. Strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, and other juicy fruits, that lose so much of their flavor in baking, may be lightly scalded, the juice thickened a little with flour if desired, sweetened to taste, and filled into such a crust. An excellent pie may be made in this manner from apples, stewed carefully so as to keep the slices whole, sweetened to taste, and flavored with lemon, orange, or grated pineapple. One pineapple will be sufficient for four pies. Fresh fruit for filling may be used without cooking, if desired. ”

“ Boil the lard and water together, pour boiling on the flour, having first made a hole in the flour; mix well, and let it stand by the side of the fire—it must not be too cold or too hot, or it will not raise nicely; mould it as an ordinary raised pie the size you wish, fill the pies with the meat cut in very small square pieces, season it, pour a little water in, put on the lid, pinch the edges together, trim round with scissors, and ornament with leaves formed with a paste cutter; let the pies stand at least 4 hours before baking, put them in rather a slow oven, bake 11⁄2-2 hours ”

“ Be sure all the flour is mixed with the Spry. This step insures tenderness in the pastry.
Cut in remaining Spry to size of large peas. In baking, these pieces melt into little “pools” of fat, forming leafy flakes. This step insures flakiness in the pastry.
Sprinkle water over mixture; mix thoroughly with fork until all particles cling together. Take up in hands. Work into a smooth, well-blended ball of dough.
17 Expert Tricks FOR PERFECT PIES
Many secrets of pie success lie in the “know-how”—in the techniques and practices that are part of a pie-maker’s skill. ”

“ Have ready about 1/2 pint of very strong gravy, pour it through a funnel into the hole at the top, stop up the hole with a small leaf of baked paste, and put the pie away until wanted for use. Should it acquire too much colour in the baking, cover it with white paper, as the crust should not in the least degree be burnt. Mushrooms, truffles, and many other ingredients, may be added to enrich the flavour of these pies, and the very fleshy parts of the meat may be larded. These pies are more frequently served cold than hot, and form excellent dishes for cold suppers or breakfasts. ”

“ Mix the sugar, flour and salt for each pie in a bowl by itself. When the bottom crust is on the pan, spread about half the sugar mixture over it, put in a generous quantity of apples so that when baked the pie will be level, not depressed, and sprinkle the remainder of the mixture over, taking pains to have a little more at the edges because of not having any underneath there. It is very disappointing to find the last mouthfuls of pie near the crust less sweet than the first from the center. ”

“ Mutton or lamb dripping are unfit for pie crust, as they make it taste of tallow. Suet will not do at all for baked paste, though very good if the paste is to be boiled. Butter and lard will make a nice plain paste for pies, if both are fresh and good; the butter to be rubbed into the flour, mixed with a little cold water, and rolled out; the lard to be spread evenly all over the sheet; then folded and rolled out again. Meat pies should always have a bottom crust, as the gravy it imbibes makes it very relishing. Veal pies are insipid without the addition of some cold ham. ”

“ Pour over this from 1⁄2 to a full cup of sugar, into which one tablespoon of flour has been mixed. The amount of sugar will depend upon the relative sweetness of the fruit used. In the case of apple pie, the flour should be omitted, but the pie should be flavored with 1⁄2 teaspoon of spice or 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Any fruit or berry pie may be made richer by putting a few bits of butter on top of the filling before the top crust is placed over it. ”

“ When done, cover with a boiled icing and set back in the oven, leaving both doors open to let the icing dry.
BLACKBERRY AND CURRANT PIE When ready to make the pie, mix as much fruit in a bowl as required, sweeten, stirring the sugar through the berries and currants lightly with a spoon. Dust in a little flour and stir it through the fruit. Cut one of the pieces of pastry in halves, dust the pastry-board with flour and roll the lump of pastry out very thin, cover the pie-plate, a big deep one, with the pastry, trim off the edges with a knife, cutting from you. ”