Recipes

Montgomery Pie

Montgomery Pie

Pies with cakey tops and a variety of syrupy flavored bottoms are remembered especially by the older members of the Amish community. This cake in a pie shell is related to the more common shoofly pie, although its lemon-flavored bottom is reminiscent of lemon sponge pie.
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Ingredients

Bottom

  • juice and grated rind of one lemon
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 Tbsp. flour
  • 1 egg
  • 3 unbaked 9” pie shells
  • Blend first six ingredients until smooth. Pour into 3 pie shells.

Top

Instructions

  • Cream butter and sugar.
  • Add eggs and beat thoroughly.
  • Combine flour and baking powder.
  • Add milk alternately with dry ingredients.
  • Divide batter and pour over the syrup in the pie shells.
  • Bake at 450° for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and continue baking another 45 minutes.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 3 9” pies
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Shoofly Pie from Phillis Pellman Good

Shoofly Pie from Phillis Pellman Good

This cakey pie, with a name that has produced a myriad of reasons for its existence, may have its roots in the early bakeovens of Pennsylvania. Dense cakes with heavy dough were put into the bakeovens following the weekly bread-baking, which required the hottest fires. This hybrid cake within a pie shell weathered the bakeoven well. It was with the advent of the kitchen range and its more easily controlled temperatures that lighter pies with custards, creams, and more delicate fruit became common.
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Ingredients

Crumbs

Bottom Part

Instructions

  • To larger portion of crumb mixture add egg and molasses.
  • Blend in ¾ cup boiling water.
  • Dissolve soda in remaining ¼ cup water and add last.
  • Pour into unbaked pie shell.
  • Sprinkle reserved crumbs on top.
  • Bake at 425° for 15 minutes.
  • Reduce heat to 350° and bake 40–45 minutes longer.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Lemon Sponge Pie

Lemon Sponge Pie

Lemon pies were a treat. Citrus fruit does not grow in eastern Pennsylvania. But the area’s proximity to the canals, that webbed their way as far west as Ohio and provided waterways to the Atlantic coastal cities, made it possible to get lemons and oranges. Some farmers sold their hay in Philadelphia and could bring home the treats available there. In many homes, lemon pies were made primarily when company was coming.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Cream sugar and butter.
  • Add egg yolks and beat well.
  • Add flour, salt, lemon juice, and rind.
  • Add water or milk.
  • Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
  • Pour into unbaked pie shell.
  • Bake at 325° for 45–50 minutes.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

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Ingredients

juice and grated rind of one lemon

Meringue

Instructions

Pie

  • Add cornstarch and sugar to lemon juice and rind.
  • Stir until smooth.
  • Blend in egg yolks and then the boiling water.
  • Cook mixture in double boiler, stirring constantly until thickened.
  • Cool, then pour into baked pie shell.
  • Top with meringue.
  • Bake at 350° until lightly golden (watch carefully!).

Meringue

  • 3 egg whites
  • 4 Tbsp.
  • sugar
  • Beat whites stiffly.
  • Fold in sugar, one tablespoon at a time.
  • Pile onto lemon pie.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Fruit / Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Half-Moon Pies

Half-Moon Pies

A variation on schnitz pie developed in the Big Valley area of Pennsylvania, where an Amish settlement began in 1790. The Amish, who live west and south of Lewistown in the central part of the state, fashioned a schnitz pie that travels well—in the hand or in lunch boxes! Its name is descriptive of how the finished delicacy looks.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Boil the dried apples in the water until the water is fully absorbed.
  • While they are cooking, prepare the pie dough (page 117).
  • Then drain the apples.
  • Blend in sugar and spices.
  • To form the individual pies, take a piece of dough about the size of an egg and shape it into a ball.
  • Roll out into a circle until the dough is thin, yet able to hold the filling.
  • Fold dough in half to form a crease through the center.
  • Mark the top of one half with a pie crimper to shape the rounded edge.
  • Put ½ cup of the schnitz filling on the other half.
  • Wet the outer edges of the dough.
  • Fold the marked half over the half with the filling.
  • Press edges together, cutting off ragged edges with the pie crimper.
  • Brush the tops with beaten egg, lift onto cookie sheets and bake at 425° until golden brown.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 2–21/2 dozen individual pies
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Schnitz Pie

Schnitz Pie

Since apple trees, which grow abundantly in eastern Pennsylvania, produced more apples than could be eaten fresh in most households, the German settlers dried much of their fruit. It was a home operation. The apples were peeled and cut into slices (“schnitz” means to cut into pieces), then laid on a roof or on racks above a heat source to dry.Most apples dried in 24–48 hours, depending upon the thickness of the slices, the temperature of the heat source, and the temperature and humidity of the weather. Once dried, the sweet slices were stored in a dry container for use at any time of the year.Today, schnitz pie is usually served at the lunch which follows the Sunday morning church service. It is traditionally part of the main course at the snack-meal of the day when either potato soup or bean soup is on the menu .Schnitz is now prepared commercially in Pennsylvania, so it is available to those without their own source of fresh apples.
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Ingredients

  • 3 cups dried apples
  • 2¼ cups warm water
  • 1 tsp. lemon extract
  • ⅔ cup brown sugar
  • 1 9 ” unbaked pie shell plus top crust

Instructions

  • Soak apples in the warm water, then cook over low heat until soft.
  • Mash apples and add lemon and sugar.
  • Pour into unbaked pie shell.
  • Cover with top crust.
  • Seal edges.
  • Bake at 425° for 15 minutes; then at 350° for 30 minutes.
  • Serve warm.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb Pie

Sticking around an out-building on most Amish farms is a stand of rhubarb that puts in an appearance every spring. Its sweetened tartness makes it a favorite in the Amish diet. Rhubarb is one more example of these people’s pleasure in a zesty flavor that offsets another rich food, or whose own “bite” is only partly masked by the addition of sugar. Rhubarb must be beloved in part because it is one of the first greens to flourish after a long winter without fresh food.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place rhubarb in unbaked pie shell.
  • Combine remaining ingredients and stir to form a smooth paste.
  • Pour over rhubarb.
  • Cover with crumbs made by mixing 3 Tbsp.
  • flour, 3 Tbsp.
  • sugar, and 2 Tbsp.
  • butter.
  • Bake at 425° for 10 minutes; then at 325° for 30 more minutes.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Sour Cherry Pie

Sour Cherry Pie

Sweetened sour cherries have a pungent tartness that makes them a favorite for pies. Cherry trees grow both wild and domestically in eastern Pennsylvania, so their natural presence has made their fruit an easily available dessert or main dish for a snack-meal. Since cherries retain their delectable qualities even when canned, cherry pies are prepared year-round.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Mix together cherries, juice, sugar, tapioca, and salt.
  • Let stand for 15 minutes to allow thickening to begin.
  • Pour fruit mixture into pie shell.
  • Dot with butter.
  • Top with crust or lattice strips of pastry.
  • Bake at 425° for 15 minute, then reduce temperature to 350° and bake an additional 35–40 minutes.

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
Variations:
Top with Crumbs instead of top crust.
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Course; Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Apple Pie from Phillis Pellman Good

Apple Pie from Phillis Pellman Good

“We had our own apples so we ate a lot of apple pie.” It is a common theme when one probes the subject of the kinds of pies most often baked in Amish kitchens. Another woman in her mid-30s explains, “We ate a lot of apple pies; Mom made them with a top crust. For a full meal we would eat apple pie with potatoes alongside that were covered with brown butter. We’d eat it on a flat plate with a little bit of milk on the apple pie.”
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Toss apple slices gently with sugar, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice.
  • Spoon into unbaked pie shell.
  • Top with crust, folding its edge under the top of the bottom crust.
  • Crimp to seal.
  • Bake at 425° for 40–50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
  • Makes 1 9” pie

Notes & Wine Advice

Makes 1 9” pie
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Course; Fruit / Pie
Cuisine; Amish

Mashed Potato Filling

Mashed Potato Filling

Almost a vegetable dish, this soft filling was likely invented by a cook who wanted to use up leftover mashed potatoes and stale bread. The final consistency of this traditional food is pudding-like.
Couverts10
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Melt butter.
  • Add celery and onion.
  • Cook until tender.
  • Pour over bread cubes and mix well.
  • Add boiling water to bread and mix well.
  • Add remaining ingredients, mixing well after each addition.
  • The finished product should be very moist.
  • Turn into 2 well greased casserole dishes.
  • Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
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Course; Basic recipe / Vegetables
Cuisine; Amish
Diets; Vegetarian