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Brambles
— Mrs. G. B. Bellis
Roll pie crust thin. Between two layers of crust, spread filling as follows: 1 cup of raisins and 1 whole lemon chopped fine; - cup of sugar and 1 egg. Bake and cut in
— Mrs. Edw
— Bollinger
squares while warm.
A raisin-and-lemon filling sealed between two sheets of pie pastry and cut into squares — closer to a filled bar cookie than a doughnut, despite its place in the chapter. The transcription has lost a couple of figures, so read the notes on quantities before starting.
- The missing sugar measureThe original reads "- cup of sugar," with the fraction lost. Raisin-lemon fillings of this type commonly take somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cup of sugar to a cup of raisins; since the whole lemon goes in peel and all, err toward the larger figure if you want it less sharp.
- The whole lemon"1 whole lemon chopped fine" means rind, pith and flesh, which is what gives brambles their bitter edge. Pick out the seeds, and chop or grind fine enough that no large piece of peel survives — a food processor does in seconds what a knife did in ten minutes.
- Cook the filling or accept a wet oneAs written the raw egg, sugar and fruit go straight between the crusts and set in the oven. If you want a filling that slices cleanly rather than seeping, simmer the mixture two or three minutes until it thickens, then cool it before spreading.
- OvenNo temperature is given. Pastry of this kind wants 375-400F, 25 to 30 minutes, until the top crust is dry and lightly coloured.
- AssemblyRoll the bottom crust thin, spread the filling to within half an inch of the edge, lay the second sheet over, press the borders together and prick or slash the top so steam escapes. A rimmed half-sheet pan, or a 9x13 pan, suits one standard double-crust batch.
- Cutting while warmThis instruction is the hinge. Warm pastry cuts into clean squares; cold pastry shatters along the fork marks. Cut on the pan, then let the squares cool in place before lifting.
- YieldA double crust and this quantity of filling gives roughly two dozen two-inch squares. They keep three or four days in a tin and firm up considerably on the second day.
Brambles belong to a large family of American raisin-and-lemon pastries — bramble pie, raisin turnovers, the funeral pies of Pennsylvania — built on the two sweet things a rural pantry could count on year-round: dried fruit and a lemon bought whole and used entire, rind included. The name is often said to come from the tangle of chopped fruit inside rather than from any berry, though that is folk tradition rather than established etymology. The Philathea Cook Book is exactly that sort of collection: Philathea classes were young women's Bible-study groups attached to Baptist and other Protestant Sunday schools in the early twentieth century, and they raised funds by printing their members' recipes over their members' names. Two names attach to this one, Mrs. G. B. Bellis and Mrs. Edw. Bollinger, the second interrupting the final sentence as transcribed — "cut in — Mrs. Edw — Bollinger squares."