Buttermilk Preserves Pie

Occasionally, people ask me what draws me to cooking, or ask me how I starting cooking. I generally hem and haw, try to come up with something that sounds reasonable or logical. Like, "It's cheaper than eating out." Or, "It's a really useful hobby. I mean, you gotta eat, right?" All true. Also incomplete. There's a lot more to the story than just not wasting my time. After all, it is faster and cheaper to change your own oil in your car, and I don't do that.

Probably the truth of the matter is that I cook because I have an awesome Dad. Before you jump to conclusions and assume that my Dad cooks and taught me to cook, making this an easy feel-good story, you should know that my Dad cooks very little. In fact, when my Mom took six weeks to study in a foreign country about ten years ago, I was a little worried that my Dad would starve to death after eating too many bowls of Life cereal and hot dogs, because that was normally what he subsisted on when my mom wasn't around.

But my Dad was never someone who was hung up on being manly. That's not to say that he wasn't all man, he just never seemed to care about the trappings of it. I don't think he went through a mid-life crisis. As far as I know, he's never even looked at another woman other than my Mom. When he bought a truck almost 15 years ago, he bought a Ranger, not some huge trumped up thing with a V8. I doubt he knows what a Hemi is. He was always a baseball fan, and I think he was genuinely disappointed when I started following football over baseball. He didn't threaten to fight people, he never said, "I'll kick your butt!" When I wanted to play football in the eighth grade, he offered me a clear choice: I could take algebra a year early, or I could play football. I chose algebra, probably the best choice for everyone in the end.

This environment growing up created challenges. When I was younger, I had a hard time communicating with men, and I rarely felt comfortable with sports. But it also created an environment where I could be who I wanted to be, with no second guessing. When I started to get interested in cooking, there was no voice in my head that said, "Men don't cook!" Just love and support from both of my parents, and an upbringing lacking the expectations that many of my friends and colleagues grew up with.

Strangely enough, in retirement my Dad has gotten interested in cooking. He cooks all desserts, and mostly cookies. I'm more surprised than you are. But I've eaten his food, and it's good. Strange how it all comes full circle.

Buttermilk wasn't in my fridge when I grew up. Now I make pancakes at least once a month, sometimes more, in part so that I can keep a bottle of buttermilk from going bad in my fridge. Because buttermilk is good stuff, it adds a certain tang to food that just can't be replaced. The best cake recipes I make have buttermilk in them.

At one time, buttermilk was the whey left over from churning cream into butter. Not anymore, the stuff we buy in the store is cultured, like yogurt. I don't know what the left-overs from butter taste like, but I love the cultured stuff. This pie ends up tasting a little like cheesecake, but not nearly as dense and heavy. I topped this pie with some blueberry preserves I made this fall.  It isn't right to call it a blueberry pie, but what the heck is it? The preserves tend to bleed out to the edges, so top it right before you're going to serve it.

Buttermilk Preserves Pie

Crust

1 ½ C. AP flour
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. butter, cold and cut into little pats
1 ½ Tbsp. butter flavored shortening, cold and cut into little pats
4-5 Tbsp. water

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt.  Toss the flour mixture with the butter and shortening pats, making sure that each piece is covered by flour. Put the mixture in the fridge for ten minutes to chill the fats. Dump the mixture out onto a counter and roll over it with a rolling pin.  Scrape the mixture back together and roll over it again. Repeat scraping together and rolling out until the mixture resembles large pain chips.  It's important that the fats remain cold, so if you ever think the fats are getting too warm, put the mixture back in the fridge for a little while. Add the water and briefly knead together, being careful to keep the fats cool. Make sure that you have a dough that is moist enough to hold together, but it should not be sticky. If the dough is still crumbly, add water a teaspoon at a time. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 400°. Roll the dough out and fit it into a pie pan. You should blind bake it for 10-12 minutes. I baked it upside down, like I detailed in Don't Fear the Crust. Most of the instructions are in #3 and #2. You can also cover the crust with tin foil, fill the cavity with beans or rice or pie weights and cook it that way.

Filling

1 C. sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
¼ tsp. salt
1 large egg, room temp
3 large egg yolks, room temp
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 ½ C. buttermilk, room temp
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

Reduce the oven temp to 350°.

You're going to need a couple of bowls for this. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt until there are no lumps. In another bowl, whisk together the egg and the egg yolks. Whisk in the butter until smooth. Then whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla, then finish by whisking in the sugar mixture.

Pour into the partially baked pie crust, return to the oven and bake until only the center is a little jiggly. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Top with preserves. You could use store bought, if you don't have any of your own laying around.