I’m still thinking about picnics and camping, and it just occurred to me that raisin pie would be a good picnic dessert.
Swiss Recipe
Move over, ancestors, Ken’s ancestors are joining us in the kitchen. In reading a family history of my husband Kenneth Ross Badertscher’s family, I came across an interesting clue to the popularity of raisin pie among Swiss Mennonite immigrants.
Ken’s grandmother Ida Badertscher’s father, Abraham Amstutz emigrated from the Jura Mountains of Switzerland in May 1871. He married “Lizzie” Steiner in Sonnenberg in Wayne County, Ohio in 1874. Ida was born the next year.
Ida had four great uncles. One of those uncles, Ben Amstutz, who had also come from Switzerland with their parents, was a cheese maker of some renown. His farm became known as “Benville.” When Ben’s youngest daughter, Elma married Reuben Hofstetter in 1913, the details of the celebration were featured in the Dalton (Ohio) Gazette.
About 100 guests were invited to the dinner at the bride’s home in Benville and about the same number, the younger ones, for supper. Anyone who has ever been present at that place in any kind of gatherings will know that something was doing this time.
50 raisin pies besides other kinds were baked and cake–well not quite as plenty as the silver at the building of Solomon’s temple, but a plenty. Tropical fruits as oranges, bananas, California grapes, etc., in profusion. The happy couple were the recipients of so many presents that two beds were completely covered.
A Family Recipe
I was delighted to find this reference to raisin pie, as one of Ken’s mothers, Gertrude Badertscher (married to his uncle Monroe) gave me a recipe for raisin pie when Ken and I attended a Badertscher reunion shortly after we were married in the early 1960’s.
Gertie is also the source of the Badertscher banana bread recipe that Kay Badertscher wrote about earlier. But what is most exciting about this recipe is that it goes back to Ken’s grandmother–and probably to Switzerland where fresh fruit would have been hard to come by in the winter time. Since Ida was a cousin of the bride in the story above, she might have baked a couple of those pies. Gertie wrote the recipe out for me and said:
Other Recipes for Raisin Pie
I have found a few recipes for raisin pie, but not many, which prompted me to ask on Facebook if people grew up with raisin pie, in order to see if it had a single origin or was a regional thing. Obviously (50 pies at a wedding) it was popular among Swiss Mennonite immigrants in northern Ohio. Most replies indicated it is generally a mid-western thing, and generally in regions with Germanic roots. To some, it is known as a funeral pie, because it was one of the traditional foods shared with a grieving family.
One person mentioned that their mother made the pie with meringue, and sure enough, I found a recipe for raisin pie with meringue in Joy of Cooking. Another person had a recipe that is made with sour cream. Sounds delicious, and although I can find it on the Internet, the cookbooks I own didn’t have that variety. Nor did any of them have the version of Ida Badertscher–half nuts and half raisins in a pie very similar to pecan pie–without the corn syrup.
Of course I never make this raisin nut pie without thinking of Gertie Badertscher and her handsome square red brick house with its huge grassy lawn at the far end of Main Street in Killbuck. And I also wonder what Ida Amstutz Badertscher would think of her pie still being baked in a 21st century kitchen.
So please join the conversation and tell us–did you grow up with raisin pie? Where from?
NOTE: I made some revisions to my Perfect Pie Crust Recipe in January 2019. One involves folding the dough. See the many layers in this close up the crust?
Grandma Badertscher’s Raisin Nut Pie
Allergy | Egg, Milk, Tree Nuts |
Meal type | Dessert |
Misc | Child Friendly, Serve Cold |
Region | American |
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cups milk
- 3/4 cups nuts (chopped coarsely)
- 3/4 cups raisins (cooked, or soaked in hot water for 15 minutes.)
- 9" pie shell (unbaked)
Optional
- whipped topping
Directions
1. | Beat eggs well. Slowly add sugar and flour. |
2. | Beat in milk and vanilla and melted butter |
3. | Stir in nuts and raisins |
4. | Pour into unbaked pie shell |
5. | Bake raisin nut pie at 350 degrees about 45 minutes, or until custard is set. If nuts brown too quickly, put piece of foil over pie for last 15 minutes. |
6. | Serve raisin nut pie with whipped topping. |
Note
Gertrude Badertscher added on the recipe card: This recipe must be at least 50 years old. Grandma Badertscher was using this long before Monroe and I were married.
Love your recipe!
(Ben Amstutz was my great great grandfather.)
Hi,
I was excited to find this recipe because we have a very similar one that has been passed down by our Grandma Berreman (nee Ricks). It ‘s still my Dad’s favorite at age 95!
Grandma passed it on to both daughters in law when they married her sons. We make them as individual pies though. My Mom backed the pie crusts on the back of the muffin tin, giving more space for ” the good part”
It was always served with hand beatten whipped cream. That was Dad’s part of the making while Mom put the filling in the pies.
Happy memories!
I like the individual pie idea, and will try it next time, although I think it will call for a sturdier crust than my “perfect” pie crust. Curious what nationality your grandmother was?