Vanilla Crumb Pie

                          
Just recently I finished reading one of my Amish books. It was a Novella  'An Amish Second Christmas'  The last story in the book was about a mothers prize winning, secret recipe, which she hands down to her daughter. The recipe is 'Vanilla Crumb Pie' .The story made the pie sound so delicious I checked to see if they had included the recipe at the end of the book (as they often do), and they had ! So once I finished the story I decided to make it, and it was very good. I doubled the recipe and made two pies and invited family around to share it. Everyone loved it !

This pie was even nicer after it had been chilled overnight. The filling was set more and the crumb topping just a little bit softer. Recipe below is for one pie.

Vanilla Crumb Pie

1 x Pie crust

Filling:

3/4 Cup light brown sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1/2 Cup light corn syrup

1 t cream of tartar

Pinh of salt

3 teaspoons Vanilla

2 eggs beaten

1 1/4 Cups Water

Crumb Topping:

3/4 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

Pinch of salt

90 grams of butter (3/4 stick)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 C degrees. Lay the pastry in the pie dish and flute the edges.

2. In a large saucepan combine brown sugar, flour, corn syrup, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla and eggs. Slowly stir in water and cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture boils and rises. (I stirred it until it was thickened too.)Remove from heat.

3. In a medium bowl, mix crumb topping ingredients until crumbly. Pour cooled brown sugar mixture into the crust to 3/4 fill the dish There may be some mixture left over. 

Note: Their was for me, so if their is any extra pastry a mini pie could be made too.

4. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top. 

5. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and set.

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A video about a lovely Amish family

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hvn34

                                                               'My love for the Amish'

For those that know me well, its common knowledge that I love the Amish/Plain people. I distinctly remember the very first time I stumbled upon a book about the Amish in a library about 25 years ago while looking for a book for a project one of my children was working on. When I saw this book titled 'Amish'  (in the children's section) and saw people on the cover wearing old fashioned/unusual clothing, I picked that book of the shelf so fast and my eyes just lit up. I couldn't wait to get it home and read every word. I presumed they were probably religious, but didn't know such people even existed and reading about their lives was a real revelation to my heart. I found it hard to believe that people still really lived and dressed like that today.

That initial interest spread to all past &present Plain Religous/Christian People/Communities - Mennonite, Shaker, Quaker, Old Order Brethren, Hutterite etc etc. although the Amish & Old Order Mennonite see to be my main obsession .  Now I have quite the library of fiction and non-fiction books about their lives. As far as I know, there are no Amish or Mennonite people living in New Zealand.

People often ask me "What is it that interests you about these people? " .To be honest, I can't give a simple answer, other than that they seem to give me a quiet feeling of peace, just knowing that it is possible to choose to live a life quite differently to the way of the world.

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