Prune Pie
1 cup cooked and pitted prunes 1 lemon, juice and grated rind 1 cup water or juice 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter Cook the prunes with the other ingredients until slightly thickened. Add a little cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired. Bake between two crusts. Shredded coconut may be added to the filling, for variation. Prune pie is delicious served with ice-cream or whipped cream. This amount makes a small pie.
A thrifty double-crust pie built on stewed dried fruit, with no oven temperature given. The filling is cooked on the stove first, so the bake only needs to set and brown the pastry.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A hot start of around 425F to set the bottom crust, then a drop to moderate (about 350F) until the top is golden, is a reasonable modern approach; times will depend on your pastry and tin. The filling is already cooked, so bake to the pastry, not the fruit.
- Cooking the prunesSoak dried prunes in water until plump, then simmer until tender before you begin; "cooked and pitted" assumes that step is done. Chop them coarsely so the filling holds together rather than sliding out in whole fruit.
- The flourOne tablespoon of flour to a cup of liquid is a light thickening. Whisk it into a little of the cold water first, or it will lump when it hits the hot fruit. Cook until it just coats a spoon, then cool before filling the shell.
- Cool the fillingHot filling melts the fat in the bottom crust and gives a soggy base. Let it come down to room temperature before assembling.
- Pan size and yieldThe recipe says only that this makes 'a small pie'; a tin of around 7 inches is a fair guess, serving perhaps four. Scale the filling up by about half if you are using a standard 9-inch tin.
- LemonThe juice and rind of one lemon against half a cup of sugar makes a distinctly tart filling, which is the point against a sweet fruit. Taste before it goes in the shell and add sugar if your prunes are dry rather than moist.
- VentingCut steam vents or lattice the top crust. A sealed lid over a wet fruit filling will lift and split.