The International Jewish Cook Book

Chapter 66

Make a crust as rich as possible and line a deep tin. Bake quickly in a hot oven and spread it with a layer of jelly or jam. Next whip one cup of sweet cream until it is thick. Set the cream in a bowl of ice while whipping. Sweeten slightly and flavor with vanilla, spread this over the pie and put in a cool place until wanted.

GRATED APPLE PIE

Line a pie-plate with a rich puff paste. Pare and grate four or five large tart apples into a bowl into which you have stirred the yolks of two eggs with about half a cup of sugar. Add a few raisins, a few currants, a few pounded almonds, a pinch of ground cinnamon, and the grated peel of a lemon. Have no top crust. Bake in a quick oven. In the meantime, make a meringue of the whites of the eggs by beating them to a very stiff froth and add about three tablespoons of pulverized sugar.

Spread this over the pie when baked and set back in the oven until brown. Eat cold.

APPLE CUSTARD PIE

Line your pie-plates with a rich crust. Slice apples thin, half fill your plates and pour over them a custard made of four eggs and two cups of milk, sweetened and seasoned to taste.

CHERRY PIE, No. 1

Line a pie-plate with rich paste, sprinkle cornstarch lightly over the bottom crust and fill with cherries and regulate the quant.i.ty of sugar you scatter over them by their sweetness. Bake with an upper crust, secure the edges well by pinching firmly together. Eat cold.

CHERRY PIE, No. 2

Pick the stems out of your cherries and put them in an earthen crock, then set them in the oven until they get hot. Take them out and seed them. Make tarts with or without tops and sugar to your taste. The heating of the fruit gives the flavor of the seed, which is very rich, but the seeding of them while hot is not a delightful job. Made this way they need no water for juice.

s...o...b..a.l.l.s

Pare and core nice large baking apples, fill the holes with some preserves or jam, roil the apples in sugar and cover with a rich pie crust and bake. 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. Fill the dish with the fruit, dust the surface well with flour.

Roll out the other piece for the top crust, fold it over the rolling pin, cut a few gashes in it for a steam vent.

Carefully put on the top crust, trim it well about the edge of the pie-plate. Press it closely together with the end of your thumb or with a pastry knife and stand the pie in a moderate oven and bake till the surface is a delicate brown. Then remove the pie and let it stand until it is cool.

The top crust may be made lattice fashion by cutting the pastry in strips, but it will not be as good as between two closed crusts.

CUSTARD PIE

Line the pie-plate with a rich crust. Beat up four eggs light with one-half cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, one pint of milk and grated nutmeg or grated lemon peel, and pour in sh.e.l.l and bake in slow oven.

CREAM PIE

First line a pie-plate with puff paste and bake, and then make a cream of the yolks of four eggs, a little more than a pint of milk, one tablespoon of cornstarch and four tablespoons of sugar, and flavor with two teaspoons of vanilla. Pour on crust and bake; beat up the whites with two tablespoons of powdered sugar and half a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Spread on top of pie and set back in the oven until baked a light brown.

COCOANUT PIE

Line a pie-plate with puff paste and fill with the following custard: b.u.t.ter size of an egg, creamed with one cup of granulated sugar, one tablespoon of flour, three-fourths cup of grated cocoanut, one tablespoon of milk, vanilla, pinch of salt, and the beaten whites of three eggs.

COCOANUT LEMON PIE

Beat the yolks of six eggs and one cup of sugar until very light, squeeze in the juice of three lemons and the rind of two of them, stir well, then add one-half of a cocoanut grated, and lastly add the whites of six eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. Line a deep pie-plate with rich pastry, sprinkle a little flour over it, pour in the lemon mixture and bake. This makes one pie in deep pie-plate.

LEMON PIE, No. 1

Cover the reverse side of a deep pie-plate with a rich puff paste, and bake a light brown. Remove from the oven until the filling is prepared.

Take a large juicy lemon, grate and peel and squeeze out every drop of juice. Now take the lemon and put it into a cup of boiling water to extract every particle of juice. Put the cup of water on to boil with the lemon juice and grated peel, and a cup of sugar; beat up the yolks of four eggs very light and add to this gradually the boiling lemon juice. Return to the kettle and boil. Then wet a teaspoon of cornstarch with a very little cold water, and add also a teaspoon of b.u.t.ter and when the boiling mixture has thickened remove from the fire and let it cool. Beat up the whites of the eggs to a very stiff froth, add half of the froth to the lemon mixture and reserve the other half for the top of the pie. Bake the lemon cream in the baked pie-crust. Add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and half a teaspoon of cream of tartar to the remaining beaten whites. If you desire to have the meringue extra thick, add the whites of one or more eggs. When the pie is baked take from the oven just long enough to spread the meringue over the top, and set back for two or three minutes, leaving the oven doors open just the least bit, so as not to have it brown too quickly.

LEMON PIE, No. 2

Line a deep pie-plate with nice crust, then prepare a filling as follows: After removing the crust from two slices of bread about two inches thick, pour over it one cup of boiling water; add one dessertspoon of butler, and beat until the bread is well soaked and smooth; then add the juice and rind of one lemon, one cup of sugar, the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, and a little salt; mix well; fill pie with mixture and bake in hot oven until firm. Beat white of two eggs to a stiff froth, add four tablespoons of powdered sugar and spread on top and brown.

MOCK MINCE PIE

Pare, core, and chop fine eight tart apples. Add one cup of seedless raisins, one-half cup of currants, one ounce of chopped citron, one-half teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, spice and mace, a tiny bit of salt and grated nutmeg. Pour over whole one tablespoon of brandy, and juice and rind of one lemon. Line bottom and sides of plate with crust, fill in with mixture, and put strips of dough across.

MINCE PIE

Boil two pounds lean, fresh beef. When cold, chop fine. Add one-half pound chopped suet, shredded very fine, and all gristle removed. Mix in a bowl two pounds of seeded raisins, two pounds of currants, one-half pound of citron, chopped very fine. Two tablespoons of cinnamon, two tablespoons of mace, one grated nutmeg, one tablespoon of cloves, allspice, and salt. Mix this with meat and suet. Then take two cups of white wine, two and one-half pounds of brown sugar. Let stand. Chop fine four apples, and add meat to fruits. Then mix wine with whole, stir well, and put up in small stone jars. This will keep all winter in a cool place. Let stand at least two days before using. Line pie-plates with a rich crust, fill with mince meat mixture, put a rich paste crust on top, or strips if preferred, p.r.i.c.k slightly and bake. Serve warm, not hot.

PUMPKIN PIE

Press through a sieve one pint of stewed pumpkin, add four eggs and a scant cup of sugar. Beat yolks and sugar together until very thick and add one pint of milk to the beaten eggs. Then add the pressed pumpkin, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, less than one-half teaspoon of mace and grated nutmeg. Stir the stiffly-beaten whites in last. Bake in a very rich crust without cover.

GRAPE PIE

Squeeze out the pulps and put them in one vessel, the skins into another. Then simmer the pulp a little and press it through a colander to separate the seeds. Then put the skins and pulps together and they are ready for the pies.

HUCKLEBERRY PIE

Line a pie-plate with rich pastry. Pick, clean and wash one pint of huckleberries, drain and lay them thickly on the crust. Sprinkle thickly with sugar, lightly with cinnamon, and drop bits of b.u.t.ter over the top.

Bake a nice even brown.

PEACH CREAM TARTS

One cup of b.u.t.ter, and a little salt; cut through just enough flour to thoroughly mix, a cup of ice-water, one whole egg and the yolks of two eggs mixed with a tablespoon of brown sugar. Add to the flour in which you have previously sifted two teaspoons of baking-powder. Handle the dough as little as possible in mixing. Bake in round rings in a hot oven until a light brown. When baked, sift pulverized sugar over the top and fill the hollow centre with a compote of peaches. Heap whipped cream or ice-cream on top of each one, the latter being preferable.