This is the 2nd in a series of Pie Camp stories.
Passing on a Craft
My friend Rebekah came to the very first pie workshop I ever taught. It was super informal. I had been making pies for quite awhile; playing around with ratios, ingredients, whether to put vodka in a crust or not, varieties of apples, and a myriad of other things. Sharing what I had learned sounded like a great idea. So, I set a date, gathered a few pie tools, some yard sale pie pans, and the basics needed to make an apple pie.
That day started an entire new path that I guess I had been inching along towards without knowing it. A few years later, Rebekah came to another workshop…this time with her eldest child, and a babe in arms, too.
Here are her words about passing on the craft.
My Mother Always Made the Pies
My mother always made the pies: Pumpkin and chocolate-pecan for Thanksgiving, a berry pie for my dad’s 40th birthday made with raspberries I picked from our front-yard patch. She pricked out an “M” in the crust for decoration– it stood for my father’s name, “Morton,” but to my dazzled 10-year-old eyes it may as well have meant “MOM!”
Eventually I learned to can preserves and bake bread and master other kitchen tasks that child would have found as magically inconceivable as adulthood itself. Somehow, I never tried making pie. My mother flew out every year for Thanksgiving anyway.
When Kate invited me into her kitchen one year with a suggestion to try out apple pie, I was initially focused on the apple part of the invitation, captivated by heirloom varieties like Belle de Boskoop and Northern Spy. That day, though, the “perfect pie crust” I’d admired turned into the main attraction. Torn from my usual kitchen patterns, the tactile roll of Kate’s pin against the crust caught on some rough edge of my brain. The moment when the dough responded and Kate said “You’ve got it!” lit up the same brain-body pathway as pedaling those first few wild feet without training wheels in our neighbor’s driveway, or the notes of a Bach fugue finally falling into place at the piano.
My oldest child, who took Kate’s class with me, now thinks it is normal for everyone to know how to make pies: Grandparents, parents, daughters and sons.
There is some magic in that, too.
Rebekah Denn|
Favorite pie to eat: Chocolate-pecan•
Favorite pie to make: Pumpkin• (Winter Luxury)
(•Links to Art of the Pie recipes.)
What about you? How did you learn?
Rebekah, when I clicked on your Chocolate-Pecan pie recipe link, it took me to Kate’s pecan pie recipe – but, alas, no chocolate in that recipe! How did you adapt that one to have chocolate? Thanks!
I linked to my recipes Cyndi. You will find a chocolate pecan variation in the Pecan Pie recipe in Art of the Pie.
Yup – there it is. Thanks!!
I’m still learning! Haven’t perfected it yet.
I keep learning, too.
My mother and grandmother taught me how to bake pies. The pie crust recipe I use is the same exact one that my grandmother brought with her from Hungary, when she came to the US as a child. It’s been handed down for generations. I have her original handwriting on a recipe card. and it just about the most special thing I own. She’s been gone for years, but every time I make my pies, I think of her. Baking pies has been my thing in our family, now that I have my own children. They are so easy to make, to me anyways. I remember having my brother, sister-in-law and their kids over for Thanksgiving one year, they came very early to watch football. Holly and I were in the kitchen, and I started baking several pies as she was sitting there. I rolled out crusts for apple, pumpkin and berry pies, made the fillings and put them all in the oven. She looked at me with wonder and said “how do you do that? It would have taken me 2 days to make those 3 pies that you did in an hour!” lol.. I have given her the recipe, and told her I would teach her how to make the crusts. I love making pies. It’s like putting my love for my family into a beautiful round pan.
Such a wonderful memory! I couldn’t agree more with putting love into the pan. Thank you for sharing with us, Cindy.
I grew up making pie with my maternal grandma so I’ve baked pies my entire life. But, your “cup out” recipe at the recent Zoom camp has been truly life changing for my husband’s and my pie making!
Chocolate pecan sounds super yummy. Recipe in one of your books, I’m thinking. We have all three (and a signed copy of Pie Camp).
Thanks for all the fun!
I’m really happy with the dough and so glad that you are too! It’s a game changer for sure. The variation for Chocolate Pecan is included in the Pecan Pie recipe in Art of the Pie.