Apricots and peaches were heaped into the pie crust along with a full measure of nostalgia.
This was pie specially devised by homemakers during World War II, when eggs, butter, sugar and many canned goods were in short supply.
Despite the ingredients it didn’t include, the beautiful pastry Joanne Lamb Hayes removed from the oven was redolent with just-baked goodness, golden and delicious. Truly, this was a culinary tribute to an era long gone but not forgotten.
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Hayes had her doubts that anyone would be interested in wartime baking recipes like this one, so sparse are the ingredients we’ve come to take for granted. But as she wrote “Grandma’s Wartime Baking Book: World War II and the Way We Baked” (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95)–a sequel to her “Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen,” issued a few years ago–she was impressed once again with the creativity and ingenuity of women faced with shortages of time as well as ingredients.
“They were not unlike modern women,” said Hayes, a cookbook author and former magazine editor who holds a Ph.D. from New York University’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies. “They carried a lot of responsibilities working outside the home and within. They looked for and created quick and easy recipes that would provide the right nutrition to keep their families healthy.”
And they did it without many of the prepared food and mixes available now. Hayes noted that the desserts often had the advantage of using simple, chemical-free ingredients; many also were low in fat and refined sugar.
The apricot-peach pie is a model of those principles.
Dried fruit was plentiful during the war, and home-canned peaches were something homemakers kept on hand, especially when commercially canned fruits were sent either to feed starving Europeans or soldiers on battlefields.
The dried fruit brings so much flavor to the pie that you’d almost think the fruit is “fresh from the orchard,” Hayes said. And because the two main ingredients were so readily available, the pie could be baked any time of the year. In addition, making use of some of the heavy syrup from the canned peaches meant that the recipe could call for only 1/4 cup of the precious, rationed granulated sugar.
Writing the book was something of a scholarly enterprise requiring much research and recipe-testing, but it was also a labor of love and remembrance for Hayes.
“I would watch my mother or grandmother take a few minutes away from their wartime work to stir together some nutritious natural ingredients, pour the mixture into a well-used pan, and place it in the oven,” she said. “Soon the delicious aroma filled the house, and everyone knew that whether or not there was meat, butter, sugar or coffee on the table, something wonderful was coming from the oven.”
It didn’t require much time, and the reward … well, a lifetime memory.
“As everyone came home, tired from their extra responsibilities, they were welcomed by the promise of something good to look forward to–all was well within our four walls and, perhaps, soon the world,” she said.
Apricot-peach pie
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Cooling time: 25 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
1 1/2 cups dried apricots, halved
1/2 cup water
1 quart (32 ounces) peaches in heavy syrup
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
Shortcut pastry mix for double crust pie, see recipe
1. Heat apricots and water to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cover; set aside 5 minutes. Drain peaches, reserving syrup. Stir peaches, 2/3 cup of the reserved syrup, the lemon peel and juice, and salt into the apricots.
2. Combine sugar and flour in a small bowl; stir into apricot-peach mixture until thoroughly blended. Cook, stirring constantly, just until the mixture begins to thicken, 3-5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out half of the pastry to an 11-inch round. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan; fill with apricot-peach filling. Moisten edge of pastry. Roll out remaining half of pastry to a 10-inch round. With a 2-inch cookie cutter or knife, cut out a design in the center of the pastry round. Place crust over filling, centering cut-out design. Turn excess pastry under; flute edge.
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4. Bake pie until crust is golden and the filling bubbles, 40-45 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before cutting.
Nutrition information per serving:
597 calories, 33% of calories from fat, 22 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 94 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 449 mg sodium, 5 g fiber
Shortcut pastry mix
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Yield: Enough for 3 double-crust pies and 1 single-crust pie
This recipe makes a large quantity of the dry ingredients, which can be stored in the pantry until you are ready to make a pie.
7 cups flour
1 tablespoon each: salt, sugar
1 can (1 pound) vegetable shortening
5 tablespoons ice water
1. Combine flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add half of the shortening; cut shortening into dry ingredients with pastry blender or two knives used scissors-fashion until mixture is the consistency of cornmeal. Add remaining half of shortening; cut into dry ingredients until the size of green peas. Store in a tightly closed container in a cool part of the kitchen.
2. To make pastry for a double-crust pie or 8 tart shells, measure 3 cups of mix into a medium bowl; stir in about 5 tablespoons ice water using a fork. Press mixture together to make 2 flattened balls of pastry. Roll out and fill as directed in pie recipe.