buttermilk pie

...if you're from the south I'm sure you've heard of a Buttermilk Pie...
or at least all my internet investigation of buttermilk pie has led me to believe that it's a staple dessert for all holidays in the south...but if you're like me...
west coast girl all the way
I've never lived more than 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean...
... (I just googled that...I looked up all 3 cites...yes a whoppin' 3 cities and measured how far they were from the Pacific...as a crow flies...& it's probably more like 90 miles, but it didn't sound as good)...
...than you may have never heard about this thing called the Buttermilk Pie...


I just discovered it last week...
while I was standing in the checkout at Wal-Mart...
...at the first of the month (stupid me)
so I picked up some recipe magazine to help wait out the next 45 minutes of my life...
and I stumbled upon an article about traditional Easter menu's
(I have NO idea what magazine I was flipping through)
and there is was this beautifully simple pie...
just looking right at me...
it had this beautiful golden crust with this golden filling
...not 100% a custard filling
...not 100% a cream filling
just a pretty golden filling...

source Aunts Ruthie's SugarPie Farmhouse

source Food Network

note...these are NOT my pie...I failed and took ZERO pictures of anything on Easter Sunday!

anyways...

there I was standing in Wal-Mart and staring at this magazine

it was a beautiful looking pie...
but it was made out of buttermilk...
not sure about you, but buttermilk and dessert don't really go hand-in-hand in my brain*
leave it to those southern cooks...
aren't they the ones that make pie out of yams???
...
I put the magazine back on the shelf...
went home ...
and had images of buttermilk pie dancing through my head...


so I got online and did some research...found lots of recipes...
all 'Old Family Recipes'...


I settled on Baba's Buttermilk Pie aka Man Pleasin' Pie 
from Sing For Your Supper
Baba's recipe made 2 pies & I didn't want that since I wasn't sure if this was going to be a hit in this west coast home...
(all those attending our Easter dinner are ALL west coast 100%)...
and then of course, 
never having made a Buttermilk Pie...
or even tasted a Buttermilk Pie...
I knew that I would need to add more vanilla...
(isn't that just a given?)


 Baba’s Adapted Buttermilk Pie
-old family recipe (really, really old!)until I changed it
1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked (recipe follows)
1 7/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk


Mix sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs, butter, buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie crust and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees (check  at 50 minutes- if its too jiggly put it back in for a few more minutes. It shouldn't jiggle very much at all when it's done). If the top is getting too brown, cover loosely with foil for the remainder of baking time. Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

source Sing For Your Supper

Here is Baba's unchanged recipe
Baba’s Buttermilk Pie

-old family recipe (really, really old!)
*makes 2  9-inch pies

2 9-inch pie crusts, unbaked
3 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
**a little lemon zest and a squeeze of juice is a nice addition, but my dad hates lemon in his buttermilk pies, so we’ve never really done it. I did this time and it really adds a nice, subtle tartness.

Mix sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs, butter, buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into two unbaked pie crusts and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees (check them at 50 minutes- if they’re too jiggly put them back in for a few more minutes. They shouldn’t jiggle very much at all when they’re done). If the tops are getting too brown, cover loosely with foil for the remainder of baking time. Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

My Own Personal Pie Crust Recipe...not borrowed from Baba

Perfect Pie Pastry (makes 2 crusts)

¾ cup butter flavored Crisco

2 cups flour

1 tea salt

5 Tbl cold water

1. Mix together flour and salt.  Cut Crisco into flour using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the size of coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle with 5 Tbl water, and mix using fork until flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of bowl.
2. Gather pastry into a ball.  Cut dough in 1/2 shape into 2 flattened round balls...
3. Roll out to the size needed and place in bottom of pie pan...and roll out second ball for the top of pie.

And guess what...that Buttermilk Pie is GONE...we ate it all up...

Next time I make it I will probably use lemon zest and/or maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg...

AND this was hands down, the easiest pie I have ever made...
shockingly easy!

for those of you who have never heard of this wonderful thing called a Buttermilk Pie, I hope you give it a try.  

*Blog Note:  I was pretty sure my Father-in-Law wasn't going to try a pie with the word buttermilk in the name (I'm married to his son and I only got him to try it by having him smell the finished pie)...

so rather than call it a buttermilk pie we all called it a snicker-doodle pie...

but now that I've had a few more slices bites of if I think I should have nick-named it a sugar cookie pie, because that it was it taste like!

and He had 2 whole slices of that Buttermilk Snicker-Doodle Pie!