Changing Traditions, the NYT, and Most Importantly Recipes for Pies
The Thanksgiving holiday is a few days away, and in my American-centric way, I always forget it’s exclusively an American holiday and constantly ask my over-sea friends what they are doing for Thanksgiving . We definitely aren't the only country to have an imperialist history that destroyed indigenous people, but we are apparently committed to celebrating it. My brother-by-love-if-not-by-blood, Craig, was a Comanche baby raised by a Jewish family who always kicks his head back with a laugh, like a horse rejecting its rider, and says “They may have given us small pox, but we gave them syphilis.” Mercury was used as a cure for syphilis, something I learned during a lecture on Lewis & Clark. I’m all about mercury lately.
Anyway, Thanksgiving is a few days away which means I will be prepping pie crusts today and baking pies tomorrow. This is one Thanksgiving tradition that has never waned. I started bringing pies to Thanksgiving when I was 16. During my 20s, I was known to bake the pies while blasted at 2 in the morning after returning from the bar. For the past 15 years, my step-dad’s best friend and master crust-maker also brings pies; he brings fruit (he actually just texted me this: (Tritelety. For Thurs, I am making a pear pie with added blueberries and cherries.) I always bring pumpkin and often an apple or pecan too.
Every Thanksgiving our family walks. . . in my youth, we’d walk the fields near my aunt and uncle’s house, in my 20’s we’d walk the park near my mom’s house, and for the past 15+ years we’ve walked the prairie. We gather at my great-great-grandparent’s old homestead that is now surrounded by a recreational lake, high-end developments, and an elementary school that resembles a white collar prison, and then leave for the prairie a few miles away and walk off our dinner in preparation for pie.
This year tho, my mom isn’t making a turkey as she’s buying a batch of tamales from her friend Hector, and I don’t think we will walk the prairie. It sounds like our little family will opt for walking the fields of CRP (crop rotation program) instead. Tho by the time the walk happens, Jim and I will be on our way to his family’s gathering, near the bluffs of the Missouri River about 12 miles to the east of my mom’s place.
A tradition that has been so normal to us was deemed peculiar enough that we were highlighted in a New York Times story about unconventional holiday gatherings during Covid in 2020. What was normal to us was strange to others. Tho that year we did all bring our side dishes in to-go containers that we all ate later in our respective abodes, but we still walked. Here’s a link to the story and below are some of the photos taken that day by both myself and the NYT photographer Calla Kessler.
Most importantly - Recipes! Find three original pie recipes, TRADITIONAL AND VEGAN, below, and Happy Thanksgiving no matter where you reside.
McDonald’s Apple Pie Hack!
One of the reasons that McDonald’s apple pies are so delicious is because they amp up the apple by using powdered dehydrated apples as a thickener instead of flour! I’ve never eaten a McDonald’s apple pie but I hear they are divine. So see below for a McDonald’s-inspired apple pie recipe:
Gluten Free Apple Pie (can be made vegan by substituting with vegan butter)
Ingredients:
Frozen pie crust (or fresh if you have skills) – gluten free crusts are available
3+ cups of apples, about 3-5 apples (heavy on granny smith with a couple fuji or others added in for sweetness) – PEELED
1-1/2 cups dried/dehydrated apple chips (about 1-1/2 oz)
2 tsps cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp allspice
3 T melted butter
¼-1/2 cup brown sugar or granulated organic
½ cup flour or GF flour (for crumble)
½ cup oatmeal (for crumble)
½ cup brown sugar (for crumble)
¼-1/2 cup butter (for crumble)
Directions:
Put dried apples and spices in a food processor and process until it’s a powder – add sugar and process to powder (there will be a few chunks).
Peel apples. Slice kind of thin and then halve those slices – so not quite a dice, but not complete slices.
Mix the apple/sugar/spice powder with the apples and let sit for about 10 minutes while you put together the crumble and melt the butter.
Melt 3 T butter and set aside.
Mix together the crumble ingredients (flour, oats, sugar, and butter).
Fill the fresh or frozen crust with the apple filling.
Pour melted butter evenly over the filling.
Top the filling with the crumble.
Put pie plate on sheet pan and bake at 350 for about 45-60 minutes.
Pumpkin Pie Spicy – Two versions Makes 2, 9” pies
Pumpkin Pie - Traditional Version
Ingredients
Two frozen pie crusts (or fresh if you have skills)
One, 29 oz can of pumpkin
2 cups light brown sugar
3 T pumpkin pie spice (I make my own by using 3 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 tsp ginger)
5 large eggs
Two, 12 oz cans evaporated milk
Directions
Mix all ingredients, except milk. Blend milk in slowly. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake shells for 10 minutes. Let cool. Pour filling into shells and bake for 45 minutes or until the pies move slightly in one mass (no liquid center) when lightly jiggled.
You can also bake straight in the crust as we did at the bakery. To amp up the custardy texture, you can also heat the pumpkin/sugar/spice mixture for a few minutes, then add milk, then temper to add the eggs. I’m too lazy to do this and think the difference is negligible, but your tongue may be finer than mine!
Pumpkin Pie - Vegan Version
Ingredients
Two frozen pie crusts (or fresh if you have skills)
One, 29 oz can of pumpkin
2 cups light brown organic sugar
3 T pumpkin pie spice (I make my own by using 3 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 tsp ginger)
1-1/4 cup silken firm tofu (a little less than a 12.5 oz pkg)
2 cups fatty coconut milk
Directions
Blend the tofu and pumpkin together in a food processor until completely blended.
Put the pumpkin mix into a bowl and stir in the brown sugar and spices.
Slowly pour and mix in the coconut milk. This bitch will be sloppy.
Divide the filling between two pie shells and bake at 325 (in a convection) or 350 (in a conventional) for about 45 to 50 minutes or until the pies move slightly in one mass (no liquid center) when lightly jiggled. As there is no egg there will be a little jiggle and the pie will be slightly pudding-y but still sliceable.
Vegan Pecan Pie - no eggs, no corn syrup
This pie uses agar-agar (a seaweed-based gelatin substitute usually found in the “Asian” aisle of grocery stores, at least in America).
Ingredients
Frozen pie crust (or fresh if you have skills) – gluten free crusts are available
¾ cup Grade B Maple Syrup
½ cup Brown Rice Syrup
½ cup soy or other non-dairy milk
1 T olive oil
3 T agar agar flakes
2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
2 tsp vanilla
Directions
Preheat convection oven to 300 (convection) degrees or 350 (convention).
For the filling, boil all liquid ingredients then add agar agar and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add pecans and pour into pie shell.
Bake pie for 30 to 35 minutes.
Let cool for an hour and the filling will set.
Photos
Photo by Kessler
Photo by Kessler
Photo by Kessler
Photo by Kessler
Photo of my mom on prairie 2020, by me
Photo of me and Craig and E on prairie 2020
Photo of me, mom, E, Craigy on the construction site of the wetland mitigation site adjacent to prairie in 2021.