Amish in the News: Perfect Peanut Butter Pie, Swiss Mennonites, Aylmer Amish, Millie's Summer Squash Relish

By Kevin Williams

This is our last Monday in the great month of August, so let's see what sort of Amish in the news we have today!

AMISH PEANUT BUTTER PIE: There isn't much better in the world of Amish cooking than a perfect peanut butter pie:  you want a creamy (but not runny) pitch-perfect blend of peanutty goodness and sweetness.  Only a few Amish places that I've been to really, really get it right.  Yoder's Restaurant in Sarasota, Florida is one  (I truly almost missed a flight once because of their pie...I was catching a plane out of Tampa on my way back from Naples and thought "hmmmm, I have just enough time to swing off I-75 and snag a piece of pie at Yoder's"...the calculus was almost correct until I ran into a massive traffic jam on the way to the airport).  Anyway, Yoder's peanut butter pie is just incredible.  The Home Place, an Amish-Mennonite owned bakery outside of Georgetown, Ohio, uses the same recipe and technique as Yoder's so their pie is equally awesome.  But an article in The Plain Dealer details an Ohio Amish woman's "secret" to perfecting peanut butter pie. Yummmmm, read the article here!   Click here for a couple of our classic peanut butter pie recipes.

SWISS MENNONITES:  Putnam County, Ohio (between Lima and Findlay) is home to a sizable population of Swiss Mennonites. I don't know a lot about this community.  I'm guessing the settlement has close ties to the Berne, Indiana settlement. Many names are the same.  Interesting article and video about the Putnam County's 175 anniversary celebration. Click here to read and or watch!

AYLMER AMISH:   The Niagara Falls newspaper in Canada decided to trek over to Aylmer, Ontario and explore their Amish settlement. I love Aylmer and hope to someday make it back there.  Click here for a fun article.  For those new to this site, I did visit Aylmer a couple of years ago. Click here to watch my video tour.

MILLIE OTTO:  Check in with Illinois Amish columnist Millie Otto and her recipe for Yellow Summer Squash Relish. Click here.

BEN'S PRETZELS:  Auntie Anne's Pretzel empire has its roots in the founder's Amish culture. And another pretzel empire is growing in Indiana this one, too, courtesy of an Amish baker.  I have not had the pleasure of tasting a "Ben's Pretzel" yet.  Have any of our readers? Click here to read this short article about them and you'll be salivating like I am now and ready to hit the road to find a Ben's!