Reading is Delicious

Has reading a book ever made you hungry?  Many years ago when I read Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton, I had to stop and make homemade pound cake and lemonade.  When you’re reading about food, sometimes you just need to satisfy your tummy as well as your mind. 

This week I read a wonderful children’s book that forced me to bake pie.  Here’s how it happened:  Daniel read a book called So B. It.  What a perplexing title!  With a title like that, I had to read it.  But as I searched for it on the library website, another book by the same author, Sarah Weeks, also came up—PIE.  I love pie, whether its PIE or pie.  It arrived at the library the next day. 

I love how Sarah Weeks wove together pie recipes and a mystery.  Best of all, she included a recipe for buttermilk pie.  I love the buttermilk pie at Magelby’s Fresh in Provo, so I made the pie.  This is a picture of it.  I had planned to take a picture of the exact pie I made, but I forgot and it didn’t last long.  It did, however, look much like this. 

And here is the recipe from the book.  So, if you are so inclined, have PIE.  It is delicious in more ways than one. 

Buttermilk Pie

1 9-inch pie tin, lined with unbaked piecrust

3 large eggs

¾  cup sugar

3 TBS flour

1½ cups low-fat buttermilk (which I couldn’t find so I used regular)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 TBS fresh lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon rind

1 tsp butter, melted

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350.  Cover unbaked pie shell with parchment paper or a coffee filter.  Press down to fit and toss in a handful of dried beans.  Place weighted shell in preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and empty out beans.  Discard parchment and set pastry shell aside. 

Raise oven to 375.  Beat eggs and sugar until light and lemony colored.  Add flour and beat until well mixed.  Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon rind, and butter.  Pour into baked crust and dust with nutmeg.  Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  Cool slightly on wire rick before serving.

I served mine with cream and fresh strawberries just as they do at Magelby’s Fresh, but it really doesn’t need the extras.