Woah Nellie! Prune Pie beats out Onion Sandwiches for April.
by Mary Jo David
Raise your hand if you like prunes.
Face it, prunes get a bum rap (pun intended!). I would venture to guess that many folks reading this—especially the younger generation—are squinching up their noses at the mention of prunes. And many have probably never tried them.
I was raised by a mom who prided herself on keeping us all “regular” by always having prunes in the cupboard. So admittedly, I squinched up my own nose when I came across this 100-year-old Prune Pie recipe by Nellie Maxwell that ran in the April 19, 1923, edition of the Stockbridge Brief-Sun.
We had another family tradition—a much more pleasant tradition—that involved prunes when I was a kid. My Aunt Ann, who was known for baking some of the best cakes in the family, regularly baked prune cakes for our First Communion parties. Considering I was one of 38 cousins on that side of the family, Aunt Ann made a lot of prune cakes. All of us have fond memories of her prune cakes, which tasted somewhat like a spice cake. With a family that size, you can imagine our First Communion parties were well-attended, yet I don’t recall overly long lines at the bathroom after the guest of honor cut the cake!
Those of you who weren’t lucky enough to have an Aunt Ann in your family probably weren’t raised to think of prunes as a dessert. But when you consider they are actually just dried plums, you might be a bit more accepting about using them in a pie. That was the thinking that went into selecting Prune Pie for this month’s column. Plus, some of the other recipes from April 1923 sounded even less appealing—onion sandwiches come to mind!
The Prune Pie recipe calls for very few ingredients: just prunes, sugar, and cinnamon for the pie filling. I took the liberty of adding about 1/4 cup of cold water mixed with 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken the filling so it wouldn’t spill over in the oven.
Nellie’s recipe required a double-crust pie pastry. She didn’t include a pastry recipe in the column, so I used my standard pie crust: 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3/4 cup of Crisco, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 1/3 cup cold water.
As you’ll see from the accompanying recipe clipping, Nellie suggests softening the prunes in water overnight but neglects to say how much water. I chose to use only enough water to cover the prunes. I left the mixture in the refrigerator overnight, and by morning the prunes had softened considerably and expanded in size. After soaking, Nellie instructs to “stew the prunes until soft.” I took that to mean cook over a medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. When they started to boil, I turned them down to a simmer. Thanks to the miracle of modern food production, it’s easy to find pitted prunes at the grocery store, so I was able to skip the “remove the pits” part.
After mixing the remaining ingredients into the prunes and making my pie dough, I poured the prune mixture into the bottom crust, dotted the mixture with butter, and added the top crust.
Now for the biggest challenge. You’ll note that Nellie only suggests to bake the pie “in a quick oven.” A quick oven can refer to temperatures anywhere from 400 to 500 degrees. I decided to bake the pie for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and then 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Anyone walking into the house while the pie was baking would have surely commented on the delicious aroma coming out of the kitchen. When I removed it from the oven, it looked lovely, although admittedly the venting slits I had cut into the top of the pie were slightly off center.
All that was left was to let the pie cool and administer a taste test. But alas, the only one home was me. If I was a skeptic, I’d think my husband purposely scheduled a trip out of town to visit his brother just when he knew I’d be baking a Prune Pie! My neighbors were off the hook because the pie wasn’t cooled until almost midnight, too late to take it next door for a taste test. So I was left to perform the taste test on my own. And I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised! The cinnamon was exactly what the pie needed to take the prunes to the next level. If you’re a fan of raisins or mincemeat pie, you’ll enjoy Prune Pie.
I think I would consider baking this pie again—especially for a gathering that would benefit from a curious conversation starter!
A special shout-out to Gregory Market! Once again, Luke and company saved the day by stocking one missing ingredient I needed—this time it was the prunes—and saving me an hour going to and from the closest grocery store.
Current photos by Mary Jo David.
