Every family has its own
Thanksgiving traditions, stories, and favorite dishes. It’s a rare
Thanksgiving table, though, that doesn’t include some sort of pie. Thanksgiving
and pie go together like, well, turkey and gravy. I always make pumpkin pie,
spiced up with extra cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Other families roll out the
apple, cherry, pecan, sweet potato, or lemon meringue pies. But my childhood
Thanksgivings always featured my Grandma Ballenger’s specialty: sugar cream
pie.
Nora (Eberhard) Ballenger’s
parents came from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and when asked about her
ancestry, all she could tell me was that her family was Pennsylvania Dutch.
Sugar cream pie was one of her Thanksgiving staples, so naturally it became one
of my favorites, too. She told me her mother, Mary (Comfort) Eberhard, used to
make it when her jars of home-canned apples and other fruit ran out in the
winter.
Grandma didn’t use a recipe
when she cooked, and was at a bit of a loss when, as a young bride, I asked her
to write it down for me. She said you just take a little flour, some sugar, and
some milk and mix them together. Well, let’s just say my first efforts proved
it’s not quite that simple. Over the years I’ve tweaked the recipe to get it
just the way I like it, creamy on the bottom with a milky layer on top and lots
of nutmeg. It usually sets up just fine, but I still cross my fingers when I
take it out of the oven.
Here, then, is the recipe I
use for Grandma’s
“Pennsylvania Dutch”
Sugar Cream Pie:
Place a refrigerated pie
crust in a deep dish glass pie plate and crimp edges (I use Pillsbury’s Pie Crusts).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix
together: ½ cup flour
1 cup sugar
Stir in until smooth: 1
cup whole or 2% milk
Pour mixture into unbaked pie
crust. Gradually pour in another ½ cup or so of milk to fill and pull a fork through to
gently mix (don’t stir with a spoon).
Cut into thin slivers:
½-1 Tbsp. butter
Drop the slivers of butter
onto the pie.
Sprinkle with:
dashes
of ground nutmeg
Bake at 400 degrees for
10 minutes. Lower temperature to 325 degrees, and bake another 40 minutes.
Transfer carefully from oven. Pie may seem a little runny but will firm up as
it cools. Refrigerate after cooling.
What pies are part of your
Thanksgiving tradition? Whatever they are, I wish you a relaxing and enjoyable
holiday, and hope you, like me, have much to be thankful for this year. Happy
Thanksgiving!
--Shelley
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