Butterscotch Pie, Pennsylvania Dutch Country

"Both sides of my family have Pennsylvania Dutch backgrounds, so pies were a big thing at our house. My dad's family was really fond of butterscotch pies. My Aunt Mary made a fantastic one. My mother's family, it was more apple pies. My grandmother had an apple tree. Actually it was in her sister's yard, but she lived next door and they constantly made apple pies from these little apples from this apple tree.

I remember her teaching me how to do this. She never really had a recipe. It was more by feel. She taught me how to feel when the flour and shortening were mixed correctly and how much water to put in and how it should feel before it was rolled out. It was nothing for her to make six pies in a day, and she had a very small kitchen. In fact, the whole time I was growing up she only had an apartment sized oven in her kitchen.

We always used to laugh because sometimes the juice would overflow from the apple pies and start to smoke and we always said we knew that was ... When the smoke started to roll, we always knew that the pies were done. But that makes it sound like she really didn't do well, but she really did. Her pies were fantastic."

Tags: BHS-recipe generation, BHS-food, BHS-Main-Street
Asset ID #7437