Betty from Allouez, WI (2017 Week 9: Pie)

Baker

Betty

Location

Allouez, WI

Baking Challenge

Cheesecake

Give your pie a clever name – and tell us about your crust and filling.

Stoffie Cheese Pie (saved from a slop bucket fate).

When there is no quality refrigeration as was the case with many farm women at the turn of the century they must have had to use up quickly their soft dairy cheeses and then make more with the fresher milk coming each day. Stoffie, a Belgian cream cheese used as a daily spread on bread slices, was also used for Cheese Pies (and in the topping of Kermis Belgian Pies). This Cheese Pie was baked in a short crust made with flour and equal parts lard and butter. A thin layer of applesauce was spread on top of that and then the crust was filled to the top with a light frothy mixture of stoffie, six eggs, sugar, cream and almond flavoring.

Was your pie underbaked, overbaked or just right? What was your favorite part of the process?

My cheese pie, baked in the wood stove at Heritage Hill State Historical Park, was almost destined for the pig slop bucket being first burned black on the top due to a too hot oven. But as a waste-not save, I cut clean off the top the burnt layer, and when finding the parts under were still wet and unbaked, put it back into the (then cooler) oven to finish. (wood stove baking is tricky.) It was not pretty coming out so, with some remainder heavy cream, I whipped up a thin topping of whipped cream, powdered sugar and almond flavoring to cover the unsightly top. My favorite part was in eating the delicious saved pie, and thinking how resourceful women had to be with their food supplies. If it can be saved, don’t give it to the pigs.

How did you add a Wisconsin touch to your flavors or decoration?

The prettiest slice, I placed on an antique painted plate and displayed that on some antique quilt squares, the pattern coincidentally mirroring the shape of the pie. I wonder about the Wisconsin farm woman who might have started that quilt and never finished it. Did she ever have a burnt pie to save?

How did you do?

Pleasantly satisfied.