Midwest dessert tradition is in pies

By NANCY STOHS

MILWAUKEE — Most people think the West was won by gun-slinging sheriffs, the prairies tamed by sweat, muscle and sodbusting farmers.

Uh-uh. It was pie.

Pie, cake, cobblers, the occasional kolache or schaum torte.

In other words, dessert. This sweet meal finale played a major role in the frontier history of the American Midwest and remains a cherished piece of the heartland’s culinary culture today.

This was unquestionably the message coloring a recent symposium, “How Sweet It Is,” which celebrated iconic Midwestern desserts. Speakers at the all-day event, sponsored by the newly formed Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance and held last month at Kendall College in Chicago, touched on common themes of native ingredients, transplanted (and translated) ethnic traditions and resourcefulness.

From the first settlers on, prairie women kept themselves busy baking desserts for hungry menfolk in the fields, said Jane C. Marshall, food historian and journalism instructor at Kansas State University.

At the same time, pie auctions, cake walks and other dessert-centric fund-raisers helped build schools, libraries, parsonages and other building blocks of civilization in communities all across the Great Plains.

“Pioneer women found satisfaction and joy” in feeding others in this manner, Marshall said, “and at times they even understood the power they wielded. Any food can provide the energy one needs ... but desserts have a power of their own.”

Especially when there were three bakers — i.e., women — for every 97 men.

RESOURCEFULNESS

Far from the long-settled areas of the East, or the old countries from which they hailed, pioneer bakers were constantly nudged to be resourceful, Marshall continued.

Vinegar pie, for example, had “nuances of lemon and apples when both were out of season.” Eggs were precious, so eggless cakes were developed. Tin cans stood in as rolling pins, buffalo chips fueled the oven fire.

Ingredients like sugar were scarce at first, so alternative sweeteners such as maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, sorghum syrup and honey often led to the creation of all-new desserts. Even watermelon could be cooked down to a thick sweet paste.

By the mid-19th century, America and Britain tied for the sweetest table in the world, and charitable cookbooks of the day typically devoted half their recipes to desserts.

“There were a plethora of Midwestern cookbooks starting around the 1870s,” said Judith Fertig, author of “Prairie Home Cooking” (Harvard Common Press, 1999). “A lot of those recipes that were written down and passed down were dessert recipes because you had to be precise. Your mother could teach you how to make a roast or soup.”

PIE TAKES THE CAKE

Through all the talk about Midwestern desserts — and spilling over into the symposium’s welcome “dessert breaks” — the spotlight kept returning to pie.

“I think it’s just a friendly dessert, and Midwesterners like to pride themselves on (knowing how to make) piecrust,” said Fertig, who did not speak at the symposium but was interviewed later. “Pie is democratic and it’s friendly and it’s neighborly.”

Pie used less flour than bread, Marshall said in her talk, so it was easier to bake in ovens in which the heat could not be easily controlled. Also, settlers were eagerly planting fruit trees, and “Midwesterners always want to combine fruit with sugar, flour and fat.”

It’s not hard to tick off a list of pies with a strong Midwestern following, if not origin: apple, cranberry, cherry, lemon meringue, rhubarb, mulberry, buttermilk, peach.

Three pies in particular were singled out at the symposium.

Bean pie

Before you laugh, try a piece. Essentially a bean custard, this protein-packed pie originated in the 1940s, if not sooner, with the National of Islam in Chicago, said food historian and research scientist Peter Engler. The founder, Elijah Muhammad, was very concerned with diet and wrote “pages and pages praising navy beans,”Engler said.

Once sold in bakeries in Chicago neighborhoods, the pie is becoming harder to find, he said, except for Nation of Islam fund-raisers.

But Chicago’s role as the “epicenter of bean pies” remains evident. One ice cream shop even sells a bean-pie-flavored ice cream called Taste of Heaven.

Indiana sugar cream pie

Also called Hoosier pie, this simple dessert is a beloved staple in her home state, said Paula Haney, a trained pastry chef who now owns a pie shop in Chicago with her husband called Hoosier Mama Pie Co.

It falls in the category of “desperation pies,” she said, with cream, sugar and flour the only essential ingredients. Traditionally, the flour and sugar go into the pie shell first, then the cream, and it’s all mixed together with the fingers.

Fruit pies also run deep in Indiana tradition, Haney said. Two such pies that may be unique to the state include wild American persimmon and paw-paw.

Wild American persimmons are not cultivated and are very messy, she said, “but have a wonderful sweet flavor” and were very important to settlers because they ripen as the harvest is ending in the fall. With a pumpkin-apricot flavor, they’re made into a pie that’s similar to pumpkin.

Paw paws are an unusual fruit related to the cherimoya. Once important to American Indians, it offers a flavor that is a cross between banana, pineapple and mango, Haney said. Made into a custard pie, it’s a labor-intensive fruit, with large seeds that have to be removed by hand. And sadly, the trees are disappearing.

Pecan pie

Hey, isn’t this southern?

Well, actually, according to Catherine Lambrecht, a founding board member of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, pecan trees are native to Midwestern states including Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. They were introduced to Georgia sometime after the Civil War.

The earliest published recipe for pecan pie that she could track down appeared in a St. Louis newspaper in 1899.

Today’s pecan pie, she said, actually owes its existence to Karo syrup, which published a recipe in a leaflet in the 1920s and then gave it permanence on the bottle label.

Other sweet things

Other speakers at the symposium touched on the history of the Heath Bar, created in Robinson, Ill.; traced almond desserts of Scandinavian heritage back to the 12th-century Vikings; described traditional Mennonite treats such as pfeffernuesse and pluma moos, a prune and raisin soup with buttermilk; and pondered modern twists to Polish pastries.

One thing is clear: the Midwestern sweet tooth is here to stay.

TRADITIONAL BEAN PIE

A Midwestern oddity, shall we say, bean pie is believed to have originated in the 1940s with the Nation of Islam in Chicago. It usually uses navy beans, but others can be substituted. Don’t tell your guests what’s in it and they’ll never know. This recipe is found at various Web sites.

2 cups dry navy beans

1‚Ñ2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

4 eggs

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 unbaked deep-dish 9-inch pie shells

Soak beans overnight in water to cover. Drain and rinse, then cook in fresh water according to package directions until tender. Drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In blender or food processor, blend beans, butter, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and flour about 2 minutes. Pour into large mixing bowl. (If you have a small appliance, it’s most important to get the beans, butter and milk pureed; remaining ingredients can be added in the bowl and beat in with a mixer.)

Add sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into pie shells. Bake in preheated oven 55 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 2 pies (16 servings).

HOOSIER SUGAR CREAM PIE

The three essential ingredients in this iconic Indiana pie are cream, sugar and flour. Traditionally, the dry ingredients are put in the shell, the cream is added and then the filling is stirred with the fingers. All kinds of flavors can be added — vanilla, rosewater, lemon or orange zest. This recipe is from “Prairie Home Cooking” by Judith M. Fertig (Harvard Common Press, 1999, $16.95).

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup half-and-half cream

1 cup sugar

1‚Ñ2 cup flour

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small dots

Freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In medium bowl, whisk together cream, half-and-half, sugar and flour. Pour into pie shell. Dot top evenly with butter and sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes.

Remove pie from oven. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Wrap edges of crust with aluminum foil (or use pie shield) to prevent burning, return pie to oven and bake 45 minutes more. Let cool on rack; pie will set upon standing. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 1 pie, 8 to 10 servings

LINCOLN ALMOND CAKE

This recipe is said to be a favorite of the family of Mary Todd Lincoln. It appeared in her copy of “Directions for Cookery in its Verious Branches” by Miss Leslie, a popular recipe book, according to www.freecookingrecipes.net/recipes/baked-goods/l/lincoln-almond-cake.ht ml. Later became known as Lincoln Almond Cake. (The baking powder was added later.)

21‚Ñ4 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup milk

1 cup blanched almonds, chopped

11‚Ñ2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or almond extract)

6 egg whites, room temperature

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an angel food cake pan or bundt pan.

In large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Into another bowl, sift together flour and baking powder three times; gradually add to butter mixture alternately with milk, small amounts at a time. Mix thoroughly. Add almonds and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly mixed. Mixture will be thick like a cookie batter.

In separate bowl, beat egg whites with salt until stiff peaks form. Mix a small amount of the egg white mixture into the batter to soften it. Gently fold remaining egg whites into batter.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cake is a golden brown color.

Turn cake out onto wire rack and allow to cool upside-down a few minutes until you are able to gently remove cake from pan. Before serving, gently cut cake with serrated knife.

Makes about 12 servings

LEMON-ZESTED MULBERRY AND RHUBARB CRISP

Two stalwart Midwestern dessert ingredients — rhubarb and berries — mingle in this crisp from “Prairie Home Cooking.”

2 cups fresh mulberries or blackberries

4 cups sliced (1-inch) fresh rhubarb (or frozen; do not thaw)

1 tablespoon instant tapioca

Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon (divided)

2 cups sugar (divided)

1 cup flour

1‚Ñ2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter an 11-by-7-inch or 9-inch-square baking dish.

In large bowl, combine berries, rhubarb, tapioca, lemon juice and 1 cup of the sugar. Stir gently to blend well.

Transfer fruit mixture to prepared dish. In bowl, combine remaining 1 cup sugar, the flour and lemon zest. Using your fingers, rub butter into flour mixture to form large crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over fruit and bake in preheated oven 35 minutes, until top is browned and crispy. Let cool slightly. Serve warm.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.