A Grand Finale: Buttermilk Pie

From Drew Allen co-owner of Liberty Bar, San Antonio.

Drew Allen, a co-owner of San Antonio’s Liberty Bar, came across this custardy buttermilk pie recipe in an out-of-print forties cookbook. The pie was powerfully sweet for modern taste buds, so Allen halved the sugar to come up with his restaurant’s most popular dessert.

4 ounces frozen butter
1 ounce cold lard
1 2/3 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup ice water
4 ounces soft butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
Nutmeg, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut frozen butter and lard into 1/4-inch slices. Put flour and salt in bowl of food processor. Add butter and lard slices; pulse 10 to 15 times, until no piece is larger than a small pea. Add ice water in steady steam through feed tube while pulsing. Turn out onto plastic wrap, gather into ball, and chill 30 minutes. Remove from refrigerator, and cut in half. Roll out each section on floured surface. Place in two 9-inch pie shells. Beat remaining ingredients together, and pour into pie shells. Bake for 50 minutes. Garnish with strawberries and quince glaze (buy good-quality jelly, and melt).

Featured in A “Grand Finale”, Domain, March 1990