Here to help in your holiday baking with some festive pies. Which one(s) would you choose for your Thanksgiving or Christmas spread? And how did American society settle on pies for these occasions, rather than, say, cakes? Aimee Lee Ball, writing for Martha Stewart, says,
In the late 18th century, there was a change in the way Thanksgiving was celebrated -- it was no longer a church-based holiday, but one associated with food and family -- and since that era coincided with a wave of immigration to the United States from the U.K., the Brits brought their love of all things encased in a pastry shell, whether meat, fish, or fruit. "Most of North America was colonized by the English, and that's a pie culture," said Frederick Opie, Ph.D., Professor of History and Society at Babson College in Boston.
Also, cakes were much trickier before baking powder became available — and those ovens they had to use! Pies are more forgiving.
Pecan Pie
[P]ecan trees started as a wild species. Found originally in the American South, the American southcentral areas and Mexico, the pecan is the only nut born and raised in the Americas.
thepecannation.com/....
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Nevertheless, this is my idea of the perfect pecan pie. It has the perfect ratio of crunchy nuts to the sweet, sticky goodness underneath. And thanks to the blind-baking, the crust is wonderfully crisp.
foodwishes.blogspot.com/...
Recipe is at the Food Wishes link. [6:42]
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Pumpkin Pie
In A Description of New Netherland, Adriaen van der Donck, an early landowner ... in New Netherland, presented a wonderfully detailed description of the natural and cultural worlds of that Dutch colony and its environs in 1655. His observations include the comment that “the English, who are fond of tasty food, like pumpkins very much and use them also in pies, and know how to make a beverage from them.”
The “English” ... were the English colonists in New England, where pumpkins were a staple of the diet. New Englanders brewed pumpkin ale, they added dried pumpkin to flips, and they stewed pumpkin as a vegetable. However, it was their pumpkin pie that, over the following centuries, went on to become an edible icon.
blogs.loc.gov/...
Ingredients are in the YouTube description. [8:04]
Apple Pie
[A]pple pie as we know it first originated in England, where it developed from culinary influences from France, the Netherlands, and even the Ottoman Empire.
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[T]he British and Dutch made their own versions of apple pie long before the Declaration of Independence or even the first Thanksgiving. Though most British pies were savory, apple and other fruit-based pies were common dishes, and one of the first recipes for apple pie appeared in England as early as the 14th century in The Forme of Cury by Samuel Pegge.
food52.com/...
Recipe. [8:38]
Cranberry Tart
Cranberries start to appear in text around the early 1700s, so this 1798 recipe for Cramberry Tart is one of the earliest recipes involving the fruit. This 1798 cookbook, American Cookery, was the first that was written by an American for Americans. Previously, all cookbooks had been imported or were re-written versions of European texts. One of the key aspects of this new American work was the inclusion of local ingredients such as squash, turkey, corn, potatoes, and - of course - cranberries. Not surprisingly, the book achieved considerable success.
kitchenhistoric.blogspot.com/...
Recipe. [5:09]
Sweet Potato Pie
Henry VIII’s voracious appetite for sweet potato tarts, the pie’s close cousin, immediately conferred an elite status on sweet potatoes as a dessert.
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There’s no existing recipe for Henry VIII’s sweet potato tart, but … Hannah Glasse’s “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy,” published in 1747, was wildly popular with housewives in Britain and its colonies. In it, root vegetable “puddings” were made by boiling and grating, mashing or slicing the vegetable, then adding butter, eggs, milk and sugar before baking it in an open-faced pie shell.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Recipe is in the YouTube description. [8:33]
Oreo Pie
If you love Oreos, then you’re going to have to make this cookies and cream pie which will definitely become one of your favorite desserts. It has a crunchy Oreo pie crust and a creamy filling packed with pieces of Oreo cookies and only requires simple ingredients.
preppykitchen.com/...
Recipe is at the link above. [8:03]
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...and a nice nosh...
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