Tag Archives: vinegar

Recipes - Desserts

French Coconut Pie

French Coconut Pie blog
This is a pie for sweet tooth folks only so feel free to reduce the amount of sugar as you wish.  I’m one of those nothing-is-too-sweet-for-me people and I think the pie is perfect “as is” but do your own thing, as always!

This basic 2-step recipe (make a crust then make your filling and bake the pie) is always a winner!  The vinegar in the filling contrasts nicely with the sweetness and in that this pie will remind you of a Chess or Cornmeal Pie as the recipes for each of these produce a pie with a sweetened thick, sometimes grainy, texture.

Serve this at room temperature after baking or chilled if there are leftovers.  Dollop with a whipped cream rosette and you’re ready to sit down, relax, and enjoy mightily! The recipe, from my sister’s deli cookbook, is also found in my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook.  If you’re a coconut fan this is a good pie for you!

French Coconut Pie

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 stick butter, softened
2-1/4 cups sugar
1 T. flour
1-1/2 cups shredded coconut (1/3 cup reserved)
1-1/2 T. vinegar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-9” unbaked pastry shell

Directions Preheat oven to 350. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs, butter, sugar, flour, coconut, vinegar and vanilla until well-blended and creamy. Pour into the unbaked pastry shell and bake 40 minutes or until set. Add the reserved coconut to top of the pie and bake another 15 minutes until the coconut flakes brown and are well-toasted.

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Recipes - Desserts

New Post, Old Pie

Walnuts really are the best nuts for this pie I’ve decided; they add great texture, chopped to 1/4 t. size; flatter pecans wouldn’t add as much texture to this pie as only 1 cup of nuts is used.  I didn’t have my stick of butter softened much at all; just cubed the butter small and creamed it with the liquid from the egg yolks. You wouldn’t want the butter completely soft so this worked fine. Vinegar is the unexpected flavor in the pie and it is just enough to keep it from being overly sweet.   Beat the egg whites frothy and fold in to the batter gently. This results in a top crust that crumbles easily; use a serrated knife to slice this.  A just-right accompaniment tonight was a large dollop of Cool Whip.  Delicious!

If you’re after an easy to prepare dessert (completed in 30 minutes prep time, including rolling out a pie shell) then check out this savory “old timey” cupboard pie.  It’s a snap to make and definitely a real snap-crackely-pop for your palette.

Mrs. Bernie’s Chewy Nut Pie

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 T. vinegar
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 cup raisins
1 9” unbaked pastry shell

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vinegar in medium bowl. Add nuts and raisins. In separate bowl, beat egg whites slightly, and fold into first mixture. Stir well to blend all ingredients. Pour in unbaked pastry shell and bake for 45 minutes and allow to cool before cutting.

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Recipes - Desserts

Raisin Nut Pie


Raisin Nut Pie 3

I found this recipe in mama’s recipe box, written in pencil, on a yellowed index card, and memories flooded back as I remembered eating this delightful pie at the Barker house next door while a kid in Marble Hill.  Bernie Barker’s recipe for Raisin Nut Pie will delight you too if you are a raisin and nut lover especially.  The recipe is also found in my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook.

My prep time today was less than an hour and that included rolling out my homemade crust.  Separate the eggs, the egg whites beaten slightly then added to the pie filling right before baking.  Be sure you fold in the egg whites, not stirring, but folding, taking care to leave them as light and fluffy as possible.  I used pecans today but walnuts are also great in this pie.  I also used golden raisins rather than dark raisins; either works fine.

This old recipe is often referred to as a “funeral” pie and I do turn to it often when I need something for bereavement dinners at church. You will have the ingredients on hand most likely and perhaps that is why it is such a popular pie here in southern Missouri when you need to prepare something quickly to carry in somewhere.

No matter your reason for preparing this old stand-by, you will be glad you did.  Serve it up slightly warm with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and enjoy the smiles around the table.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 T. vinegar
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 cup raisins
1 9” unbaked pastry shell

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Add nuts and raisins. In separate bowl, beat egg whites slightly, and fold into first mixture. Stir well to blend all ingredients. Pour in unbaked pastry shell and bake for 45 minutes and allow to cool before cutting.  This is good served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top.

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Recipes - Side Dishes

Copper Penny Carrots

Copper Penny Carrots

I associate this dish with friendship because as years pass, the best friendships become sweeter and more meaningful. For the past ten years, I have hosted a group of my closest high school friends to a dinner party in mid-January. “The Class of ’67 & Friends Gala” is now a tradition and the evening passes with much merriment as we enjoy a hearty meal prepared at my house along with many appetizers and desserts shared by the ladies. This particular gathering is our time to celebrate and toast a happy new year and thoroughly enjoy the easy camaraderie long friendships entertain. My dinner party menu for this event varies only slightly each year with menu choices revolving around dishes easily prepared the day before; doing so provides more visiting time and less hubbub once we gather. You will like this dish both because it is tasty and because people don’t eat large servings of it so you will have enough carrots for several meals. The marinade is a basic sweet-sour mixture using canned tomato soup as a base with vinegar and sugar added; the sauce, spiced with ground mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, infuses the carrots with tangy flavor akin to many relishes.

Added bonus for this dish(!) is that the flavor of the dish mellows as it sits. And that is probably why the dish brings to mind friendships. Both only get better with time. The yellowed magazine recipe page in my files, dated September 1977, reminds me that this dish also has stood the test of time. If you and your family like carrots, this is a keeper for you particularly.

Copper Penny Carrots

Ingredients

3 lbs. young slender carrots, peeled, sliced in thin rounds

For the marinade

1-(10 oz.) can tomato soup
3/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions Peel and slice the carrots then boil them with water to cover in a large sauce pot for 15 minutes or until just fork tender but still crisp. Drain well then place them in large glass mixing bowl. Prepare the marinade by bringing remaining ingredients to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil 5 minutes, low. Pour the hot marinade over carrots and stir to coat well. Chill in fridge overnight. This dish lasts a week plus in the fridge if not eaten in one sitting; just stir well before serving again to blend the dressing.

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