THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

BACKWOODS PIE

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup syrup (maple syrup, if convenient)

½ cup sweet milk

Butter size of an egg

Yolks of 3 eggs

1 nutmeg.

Beat all together, lastly add the whites well beaten.  Bake with one crust in moderate oven.

~Five Roses Cook Book. Montreal: Lake of the Woods Milling Company Limited, 1913.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• one uncooked 9-inch diameter pie shell (I used Rich Short Crust)
• 1 c. brown sugar
• ⅓ c. butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 nutmeg, grated (or 1 tsp ground nutmeg)
• 1 c. maple syrup
• ½ c. milk
• whites of 3 eggs, beaten.

Prepare pastry for a single-crust pie, and line a 9-inch diameter pie plate.

Preheat oven to 425F.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with a wooden spoon, until smooth.

Separate the eggs, and lightly beat the egg yolks with a whisk.

Add the beaten yolks to the creamed mixture, and beat with a spoon until light and smooth.

Grate the nutmeg, and blend it into the mixture. 

Add the maple syrup, and beat it in with a spoon. 

Add the milk, and stir until the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a rotary beater until they form firm peaks. 

Add the beaten whites to the filling mixture, and beat all together with a rotary beater, until the mixture is light and smooth.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell, and carefully smooth the surface.

Put the pie into a preheated oven, and bake at 425F for about 7 or 8 minutes, until lightly browned; then reduce the temperature to 350F, and bake for approximately another hour, to one hour and ten minutes longer, until well browned. 

Remove the pie from the oven, and allow it to cool completely, and ‘set’ or become firm, before serving. This can be made the day before serving, and refrigerated overnight.

Backwoods Pie is rich and sweet, and wonderfully spicy and delicious; it fairly oozes calories – but what a delightful indulgence!

A note from Patricia: I had made a batch of Rich Short Crust not long ago for the Canada Farmer’s Lemon Pie, only used half of it, and threw the other half in the freezer. It was calling my name, and so was this recipe for Backwoods Pie. My aunt had described it as rich and indulgent, so I knew this one would be good, and since January 23rd was National Pie Day, I celebrated by making this sinful pie. The filling was super easy, and I took it upon myself to add in a half of a teaspoon of cinnamon as well, since it felt like the right thing to do. How was it, you ask? It was fantastic. Very rich and very sweet. I whipped up some fresh whipping cream with just a touch of maple syrup to sweeten it, and ate my Backwoods Pie with a rather large blob of it on top. I would liken this to eating a large slice of a butter tart, and really, what could be better than that?

(19th March, 1794)

This is the month for making Maple Sugar, as hot sun & frosty nights cause the sap to flow most. Slits are cut in the bark of the trees & wooden troughs set under the tree into which the sap – a clear sweet water – runs. It is collected from a number of trees & boiled in large kettles ….

~Simcoe, Elizabeth & Robertson, John Ross. The Diary of Mrs. Simcoe. Toronto: William Briggs, 1911.

With the first opening of spring, and while yet the snow lay thick in the fields and the woods, the season of maple sugar-making commenced…. The best days for sugar-making are the bright ones, after frosty nights, the sap running then most freely.

~Stanley, George. George Stanley: or, Life in The Woods. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1864. (p. 183)

(Maple ‘molasses’ for baking)

Besides the sugar, I made about three gallons of molasses, which proved great comfort to us, forming a nice ingredient in cakes and an excellent sauce for puddings.

~Traill, Catharine Parr. The Backwoods of Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1966. (p. 65) (originally published, 1836)