Today's Tuesday Treasure

I got the idea for this week's Tuesday Treasures when I was baking pies for Easter on Saturday. I've been married almost 30 years (28 in November) and this Betty Crocker cookbook was given to me as a gift at one of my first wedding showers. I don't remember who gave it to me anymore, but I think it was either my mom or my Grandma Smith. I'll have to remember to ask my mom and see if she remembers. As you can see, I wore it out a long time ago!

The binding broke about 10 years ago, so I used a piece of canvas fabric and iron-on "wonder-under" to repair it in a pinch.

I noted the page numbers of some of our (at that time) most used recipes on the back.
[short bread, pizza dough, chop suey, calorie chart, (I guess I still had hope ten years ago!) and pie crust]

Since I was baking pies when I got this idea, I photographed the book opened to the "pie pages." As you can see, these pages bear the stain of the Ghosts of Pies Past. I am a messy cook and my cookbook bears witness to that fact.

The hand written recipe on the top of the left page is one of my favorites from my mother-in-law. It is an Amish recipe, Crumb Pie, and makes a good breakfast pie. (You don't eat pie for breakfast? Oh, you should! It's great with a cup of coffee) The great thing about this pie is that all the ingredients are always on hand.

Crumb Pie

1 c. flour
1/2 stick butter (I add a few more tablespoons of butter)
1 c. brown sugar, packed

Mix together until the consistency of coarse sand.

In the bottom of an unbaked pie crust, sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and then pour 1/3 cup water over that. Pile in the crumb mixture (it will look dry!) and bake for 30-40 minutes @ 350 degrees. Serve warm.

The recipe on the right side of the page is for Kentucky Derby Pie. I got this recipe from a friend when I lived in Kentucky and she swore it was the real, "honest-to-goodness" recipe used at Churchill Downs. Another friend took one look at it and swore it wasn't the real recipe, because that was a secret and only a few people had it. (She was one of the chosen few who had the "real" recipe, of course, but she didn't share. I guess it's sort of like a secret society or something. . .) There is also some controversy about the appropriate-ness of using walnuts instead of pecans. . .well, you can do what you like but we like walnuts.

Anyway, this is a really good recipe whether it's authentic or not.

Kentucky Derby Pie

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts (I use more--almost a whole cup)

Melt butter and mix in sugar well. Add eggs and stir until mixture is no longer grainy. Mix in flour and stir in well. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and walnuts.

Turn into an unbaked pie shell and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees.

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Cut the pieces small, y'all--it's really rich. Like a toll house cookie in a pie crust. YUM.

This weekend I made pumpkin and rhubarb. My kids like my pumpkin pie best because I add extra spices and I cook it about 5 extra minutes, so it is a bit drier--just the way they like it. That's something you'd find in my Betty Crocker cookbook--my own "improvements" on Betty's recipes. Notes like "needs more garlic," "cook 5 minutes longer," "don't over mix," "this one's a dog" (yes, I really wrote that on a recipe to remind myself that even though the ingredients sound good, this one's a dog. The recipe shall remain nameless just in case it's one of your family's favorites!)

So here's my question for you, dear readers. Do you have a Betty Crocker Cookbook (any edition)? And does it look like mine? (27th printing, Golden Press, copyright 1969) Do you have a favorite Betty Crocker recipe?

Favorite Betty Crocker recipes:

Mine: Pie Crust, page 316

(You can see more Tuesday Treasures at Faithful Mommy.)

Here's a link to Rebecca's Betty Croker Cookbook. Looks a lot like mine.

Related Tags: Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker Cookbook, recipes, Tuesday Treasure, crumb pie, Kentucky Derby Pie, Churchill Downs, memories