Aunt Fannie’s Pies

If you lived around Palmyra and you are at least as old as me, let’s just say 50+, you may have heard of Fannie Thornburg and her pies! While she was my great aunt, I lovingly called her Aunt Fannie. Fannie was my Grandpa Bill’s sister, and to hear tell, she could make a mean pie. I remember her as a short, white-haired lady who lived up the street from us that I visited, and yes, there was often pie or some other “goodie” for us to enjoy. My mom would tell it more like this, “Most any time of the day you’d see her with an apron tied snugly around her middle, with flour flying, and up to her elbows in pie dough.”

"Aunt Fannie baked pies” is an understatement…she baked A LOT of pies. From Hutch’s restaurant to special orders to her own dinners, she was always baking.  Good ole lard was what made Aunt Fannie’s pie crusts the flakiest, and everyone knows you need a flaky crust to hold those yummy fillings. Early Monday mornings she’d tie on her freshly starched apron, gather up a stack of homemade pies and head downtown to the weekly sale at the sale barn on West Main Cross, right across the street from where the old lumber yard was and is now the current food pantry. She worked the lunch counter, sometimes my Grandma Mattie Sue would help her, cooking and serving piles of hamburgers, slices of pies, and gallons of coffee to hungry farmers who either brought their livestock to sell or were looking to buy livestock. I’m sure many stories were flying around there as well!

One of the first things I remember my grandma giving me was a stack of 19 gold-rimmed, leaf-motif pie plates. These weren’t just any pie plates; these were Aunt Fannie’s pie plates. When I see those plates, I think about all those pies…pudding pies piled high with clouds of meringue, rich chewy pecan pie with crust that melts in your mouth, apple, and cherry pies. I remember asking my mom if she had any of Aunt Fannie’s pie recipes; she laughed a bit, pointed at her head, and said, “she kept them all up here.” It wasn’t until I was looking through an old spiral steno book that my grandma had written some recipes in that I found Aunt Fannie’s Glazed Strawberry Pie. I also found out that with most recipes written in that book there were measurements and ingredients, but no actual directions or baking times. I guess it’s true, that part you just knew how to do.

I had a quart of fresh strawberries leftover from making strawberry jam and thought it would be fun to try my hand at Aunt Fannie’s Glazed Strawberry Pie. It’s a pretty straightforward recipe and makes one 9” pie or about a dozen medium-size tarts. The recipe below is for the pie filling. You can use your own pie crust recipe or a purchased pie shell. Sorry, I didn’t find Aunt Fannie’s pie crust recipe! You’ll want to generously poke the shell with a fork and then bake it according to directions, being sure to cool the pie shell before filling. Strawberry pie is something best eaten the day you make it!

Aunt Fannie’s Glazed Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

1-quart strawberries, washed, drained, and hulled

1 1/3 cup sugar

½ cup water

¼ cup cornstarch

¾ cup cold water

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Red food coloring

9” baked pastry shell

Directions

1.    Bring sugar and ½ cup water to boiling point in saucepan over medium heat.

2.    Dissolve cornstarch in the ¾ cup cold water. Add to syrup mixture and cook about 10 minutes over low heat or until clear. Stir occasionally.

3.    Blend in salt, lemon juice, and enough food coloring to produce a light red shade.

4.    Pour glaze over strawberries and mix gently.

5.    When cool place in baked pie shell.

6.    Garnish with whipped cream.