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Whenever we go to visit Paul’s mom, we know that there is always going to be pie.
Mary has these wonderful old cookbooks filled with recipes from long ago – all of those little “church” and “small town” cookbooks fit into one of her kitchen drawers. All of the recipes that Paul and his siblings grew up on are in that little drawer, and now that all of them are grown, those recipes have been copied and taken to new homes.
While Paul is perfectly happy with just pouring a can of cherry pie filling into a crust and calling it a day, I fell in love with the buttermilk pie that Mary makes – it’s sweet and lemony and oh-so-good.
It wouldn’t be a visit to my mother-in-law’s house without at least one buttermilk pie being baked – and when the whole crew shows up (all 5 kids and their families), this is one of the pies that rarely has any leftovers. (And yes, it is easily adapted to a gluten-free version – we always bring along plenty of GF crusts!)
This particular recipe comes from a cookbook that was put together by the ladies of Utopia, Texas – 3 of Paul’s aunts contributed recipes to this cookbook (this recipe wasn’t attributed to anyone in particular). Unfortunately, there is no date on the cookbook, so I have no idea how old it is.
While there may be lots of variations of this recipe out there, this is the one that our family has known and loved for many years. It brings back a lot of happy memories.
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Buttermilk Pie
1 C. Sugar
3 Tbsp. Flour
3 Egg Yolks ***
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Lemon Extract
2 C. Buttermilk
Mix all ingredients together and pour into an unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees until firm (approximately 45 – 50 minutes).
*** The original recipe calls for meringue on top – I assume that the egg whites were held in reserve to make it. Other recipes for Buttermilk Pie that I have seen call for the entire egg to be used in the filling. While I have not tried this personally, I would imagine including the whole egg would not be a problem – this recipe is a little “runnier” than most; adding the egg whites would probably help firm the filling up a bit.
Easy AND delicious – does it get any better than that?
Bon Appetit!
My wonderful mother-in-law, Mary (with one of her great-granddaughters)
Koch's Tour 
Looks like I have something to bake up tomorrow! Thanks for posting this, as small things like this make life so much more fun.
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Hope you enjoy it! It is yummy (and addictive….) 😛
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Thanks! Perfect timing! I NEVER have buttermilk in the house but for another recipe I needed a little bit. Thus, today I have a carton of leftover buttermilk and needed to find something to do with it. And with Father’s Day tomorrow, pie is a great idea! My MIL makes a buttermilk pie too, but I can’t find her recipe.
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I must be psychic!
(Or psychotic – my family always tells me I’m one of those…. 😛 )
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Anyone with even half a brain is psychotic for pie! OK, I made my pie. I did find my MIL’s recipe and I sort of combined yours and hers to make mine. Hers had twice as much sugar, so I used that part of your recipe. Hers had vanilla instead of lemon extract. I had no lemon extract but I have a very prolific lemon tree, so I used fresh lemon juice and some lemon zest. I tried the whole eggs instead of just the yolks so it wouldn’t be too runny. I think next time I would do maybe 2 yolks and one whole egg to try to get it somewhere in the middle of too runny and too solid. I didn’t do a meringue but served it with a mixture of fresh berries. Thanks for the inspiration – Father’s Day dessert and leftover buttermilk taken care of!
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Man, that looks good. My first buttermilk pie was in a dive cafe in W Texas. circa 1974. Sooo good I asked for the recipe, took it home and it became a family secret recipe.
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We found out that it’s just as good without the crust 😛
Just pour it into individual dishes and bake it – then eat it with a spoon…..
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