Old Amish recipes: rhubarb pie and "fruit bars"
By Kevin Williams
The best recipes, in my opinion, are older ones. The older, the better. Passed down from someone generations ago, the technique homed by years of trial and error. That is what makes authentic Amish recipes so valuable to me as an anthropological tool. They are "time capsules", glimpses into another era. I have two recipes sent to me by an elderly Amish woman. But, SIGH, they came separated from the envelope so I have no clue who she is or where she is from. And on her note she specifically said she didn't want her name used with them. Of the rhubarb pie she says simply "it is delicious" and I bet she's right. She probably uses fresh rhubarb and eggs straight from the hen.
- 2 cups rhubarb
- 1 1 /2 cups sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Mix this to crumbs, put raw rhubarb in unbaked pie shell, put crumbs on top and bake, after finished put white of eggs on top. Put it an oven until brown.
FRUIT BARS
Her recipe for fruit bars calls for boxed cake mix, so it's not an old recipe per se, but it's probably one she's perfected over the years and, man, I bet it is delicious when she makes them. Wish I knew who she was. Anyway, this is her recipe for "Fruit Bars." These are raspberry fruit bars, but I'm sure you could use any pie filling flavor.
One box yellow cake mix. Put a thin layer in cake pan, then put by teaspoon raspberry pie filling on top of the batter and bake. After it is finished, put thin layer of your favorite frosting on top. It is yum, yum!
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