Grandma Clark's Butterscotch Pies

I'm sure there are a lot of my Clark cousins, who will remember being treated to one or more slices of Grandma Clark's butterscotch pies.    Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark was a wonderful cook.   I have a little book with several of her recipes in it.   They're all written in her handwriting.   In the front of that book she wrote:  "A receipt isn't a receipt unless is has a dozen eggs, two cups of sugar, a pound of butter and a quart of cream."     I'm sure this was written with tongue in cheek but since her husband, James Peter Clark, owned and operated a small dairy in Maple Hill, Kansas, she had all of the cream and butter that she needed or wanted.

This is a photo of Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark taken in the front yard of the John L. and Lucille (Corbin) Clark home at Maple Hill, Kansas.   She lived to be 92.

Mabel (Jones) Clark was my paternal grandmother and my earliest memories are of helping her shovel coal into her big iron cook range in the kitchen at the Maple Hill Central Office where she was the chief operator.   She loved to cook and enjoyed having family and friends for meals often. 

Grandmother made the most wonderful navy bean soup, to which she added egg dumplings dropped into the soup from a tablespoon.  She would always say, "Now don't lift the lid for 10 minutes or the dumplings will spoil."  When she made the bean soup and dumplings, she would always joke that her father ate them until they killed him.   The story originated because her father, Leander Emory "Deacon" Jones had lunch at her house on the day he was to serve as pall bearer for his friend Alfred E. Herron, father of Maple Hill's barber, Wilbur V. "Jack" Herron.   He was eating the beans and dumplings that day when he suffered a fatal heart attack and fell forward into his plate.   That was 1938 and Grandmother said she couldn't fix the beans for 10 years because it was just too painful to remember her father's death.

I don't think Grandmother Clark ever had a failure with anything she cooked, but she was really known for her desserts.   She would often bake cakes and pies and send them to friends for their birthdays.   She also made cakes and pies for church and funeral dinners.   My two favorites were both pies:  butterscotch and crushed pineapple cream.    Both of these fabulously rich pies were served with big dollops of whipped cream.

The butterscotch used caramelized or "burnt" sugar which was made in her big, heavy old-fashioned iron skillet.  She would stoke up the coal range, put the skillet on top and drop a drop of water into the skillet.  If the water "scittled" all over the bottom of the skillet and disappeared into steam, the skillet was hot enough.   Then she would put two cups of white granulated sugar into the skillet and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it was golden brown.  Thus the sugar was burned, so to speak.   She would then add a cup of water and cook the mixture down into a thick, dark syrup-type liquid.   She would then take the skillet off the range and let the liquid cool.   She would pour it into a jar and when cooled, she'd put it into the refrigerator to be used as needed for pies, cakes and frostings.

Here is her very vague recipe for the butterscotch pie.   Note that she used corn starch to thicken the pudding-like batter.   Corn starch allows the pudding to be transparent, while if you use flour, it will be opaque and milky-looking.

Butterscotch Pie

Butterscotch syrup: 2 cup white sugar 1 cup water Makes about one cup of burnt sugar syrup. Butterscotch: All of Burnt Sugar Syrup from above. 6 eggs 1 1/2 cups white sugar 3 tablespoons (heaping) corn starch 2 sticks of butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 cups whole milk pinch salt

Directions: 2 pie crusts, baked and ready. Use a heavy iron skillet on the stove and add two cups of white sugar to an iron skillet to caramelize on the stove until golden brown.  In beginning, mix 1/3 cup of cold water with the sugar in the pan.  Be careful, because it will "pop" on you and burn you.  Then add the remaining water and stir to prevent sticking until the mixture reaches a soft ball stage.  (Hint from author: There are lots of Youtube videos about how to caramelize sugar.) This will make about a cup of burnt sugar syrup. Mix all ingredients (eggs, cornstarch, vanilla, butter, milk, and salt) in a big mixing bowl. First beat eggs until foamy. Then add this to your white sugar, corn starch, butter, vanilla, add whole milk, and a pinch of salt. Pour this mixture in the big sause pan on the stove, add all the burnt sugar syrup, turn your burner up and cook, stirring constantly until thick. If you think it's too thick and needs more milk add some, same with cornstarch to make it thicker. Pour into baked pie shells.  This will make two pies.

 

 

This is one of the most wonderful desserts you will ever consume, but a couple of hints are needed.   First, you must be careful not to truly burn the sugar when you caramelize it.   With a gas or electric stove, set the flame or element to medium high, not high.  The whole process will not take more than 8-10 minutes.  If you use a candy thermometer, it should be between 330-340   Set the burnt sugar syrup aside to cool some and remember not to add it to the pudding mixture while it is too hot or you'll have "egg drop soup."   You need to either let the syrup cool until it is warm or "temper" it by adding a tablespoon at a time while whisking it vigorously.   This will prevent the eggs from cooking.  My grandmother used to stir the entire mixture vigorously while cooking the pudding.   I don't recall her having to add more milk but she often had to add additional corn starch.   Remember to mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk before adding it to the pudding mixture or it will be lumpy.

This pie may also be topped with meringe but I always thought the whipped cream was far superior.   I still have the blue two quart crock that Grandmother Clark always whipped her cream in.   She used a hand-held egg beater of course.    You should also know that if you whip the cream for too long, it will turn to butter---which is perfectly good to eat but not so good on top the pie :)

I'd love to hear your memories of special desserts made by Mable Clark!!

Okay cousins and friends---let's keep this Christmas tradition alive and try making Grandmother Clark's butterscotch pie for your Christmas table.    Bonn appetite!!