Custard Pie



Pie Crust Ingredients



Old Fashioned Custard Pie

In an earlier post I mentioned that I have a tradition of putting up a Christmas Tree in the eating area of our kitchen every year decorated with old family recipe cards,  mostly handwritten by my mother.  I try each year to actually make one of those recipes...so this year it was the custard pie! 

So first...the crust.  Making pie crust is not that difficult and well worth the little extra effort.  My mom and grandmother both were great pie makers so how could I escape absorbing a few simple tips and giving it a try myself.  The recipe I use, which makes one 10" pie crust, is this: 

1 1/3 cup flour  1/2 tsp salt  1/2 cup Crisco and 3-4 Tablespoons of cold, really cold water.

Making the Pie Crust

Add the flour and salt to your bowl and mix.  Then add the shortening and cut into the flour mixture until you end up with a crumb mixture.  Then add the water, one tablespoon at a time and mix after each.  Make sure the water is very cold.  I add ice cubes to the water to make sure it is super cold, a great tip for flaky crust!  You may not need all four (4) tablespoons of water.  Just keep adding until it forms a nice ball.  Then roll it out, making sure to keep it in a nice circle.  Keep dusting flour on the dough and on your rolling pin to keep the crust from sticking.  When you feel it is the size you need, roll it over your rolling pin and transfer it to your pie dish.  Trim any extra off but leaving enough to turn under for your edge.  Pinch all around.  Its done!!

Custard Pie Ingredients

Custard pie is one of those old fashioned recipes that is very easy, quick, and made from fresh and simple ingredients.  Eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups milk

Beat eggs well, add salt and vanilla.  Slowly beat in sugar and milk.  I did use 2 % milk and it worked fine,  but whole milk would make it richer.  Slowly pour into the pie crust and sprinkle with nutmeg.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 min. or until set.  Let it cool to completely set for several hours before serving.

Custard Pie

Enjoy!  And Happy Valentine's Day!!

Recipe Tree

Old Hand Written Recipe Cards

Several weeks ago I was reading a blog post on the Etsy Blog about old typewritten recipe cards entitled Kitchen Histories  It really hit home because I have a wonderful collection of handwritten recipe cards from mid century, almost all from my mother and grandmother. They really are a written history of food through the decades.  It is amazing how different we cook in the 21st century.  Custard Pie??  Who makes homemade pie besides just a few of us?  It is fast becoming a lost art.  And there really is an art to making a delicious homemade pie!  I remember my grandmother on Sunday mornings, up very early, busy making two or three pies at a time for Sunday dinner.
These old recipe cards are becoming treasures to hold on to and keep.  Very soon, if not by now, almost no one actually takes out a card and actually hand writes a recipe.  They are bookmarked in our computers or put in a computer file.  No personal little side notes to tell us a little tweak we made to the recipe or maybe something we substituted for an ingredient. 

For a number of years now at the holidays, I have been putting up a Recipe Tree in the eating area of our kitchen.  All the recipes are my families recipes made down thru the years, some traditionally at holiday time.  The tree also includes a collection of old antique cookie and biscuit cutters and some handmade felted ornaments.  The tree skirt, which doesn't show here, is an old apron. 

My goal before taking the tree down, is to try and make one of the recipes.  Sometimes it turns out and sometimes not so much!  But it is fun and always brings back memories of family, traditions, and holidays past. 

Thanks to the Etsy Blog post I realize I really do have a treasure here to keep.  I thought I was the only one who treasured these old family snippets of the past.  Maybe you have a few tucked away somewhere in a drawer that would make interesting reading, bring back some warm and fuzzy memories, and possibly a fresh idea for dinner!