518: Hand Pies
Molly 0:04
I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
And I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:06
And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all. And you can't have any because there are only two left. And there are two of us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:15
And those things that are left are hand pies.
Molly 0:19
That's right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:20
There's two of us left. We're the last of us.
Molly 0:24
Now, this is the stuff of nightmares. Nobody wants us to be the last to
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:28
well, they won't care because they because they're already they've already got apocalypse.
Molly 0:32
That's true. Okay. Okay, well, yeah. So today we are talking about hand pies. This was suggested by listener Brandon, who is not hot pots. That's correct. And, and not. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:46
s f thoughts for the show.
Molly 0:50
former spouse of the show. Not F sods not hot pots. But listener. Brandon.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:55
This listener Brandon, I think has had a show suggestion before. So maybe like if he gets one more he should get a nickname.
Molly 1:03
Oh, okay. Great. Wow.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:06
So the challenge goes out to you.
Molly 1:08
Listener Brandon. Matthew, let's let's begin as we often do, always due on memory lane. Well, for me first, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:16
think we should set the scene which is like it was it was this was my idea. Like this is our our dumbest recording arrangement that we've ever done, I think yeah, which is that we're both in my house. But in order to have a guest on we wanted to use our online recording system. And so we can't be in the same room. So I am in the closet and Molly's in my dining room. Yeah, and could for all I know be eating all my stuff. Well, in
Molly 1:41
two minutes and 30 seconds. The hand pies that Watson baked are going to be rewarmed and I may or may not let you out of the closet to eat yours. Okay. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:50
mean, I don't know if there'll be heated through by then. But it's worth a shot. Okay. Hand pie memory lane on right.
Molly 1:56
Hand pie memory lane. Okay. When I think of hand pie Memory Lane, the first thing I think of is hostess fruit pies. And I didn't even remember that they were called, like fruit pies. I couldn't remember what the name was. You know, there was like hostess hohos ding dongs, cupcakes, Yankees. But I started to Google hostess fruit. And Google filled in pies. So that's what they're called hostess fruit pies.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:22
Yes. They're sold near the Twinkies and stuff.
Molly 2:25
They are there in the like, what do you call that?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:29
shelf stable breakfast pastries?
Molly 2:30
We did. breakfast pastries?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:32
Okay, there we go. We didn't like them very much.
Molly 2:34
Well, did we get one of these? Because I don't think I've ever eaten one of these. I think we should have gotten some Matthew. We did get one. You got a cherry one and you took a bite of it. But I refused.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:48
There really? I don't know. Like I don't want to Yucca Yum, but they're like very different from food. Okay,
Molly 2:56
well, I thought that I remembered as I was thinking about the hostess fruit pies that I did not eat and have never eaten. In my youth. I decided to go looking for a hostess fruit pies commercial because I thought I remembered there being a commercial when we were kids, in which you could see a hostess fruit pie being like, like broken in half. And you could see
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:22
really familiar although I could be thinking of what's a commercial where someone pulled something apart and there's like strings of cheese. I think that's what I'm thinking of. Well,
Molly 3:31
I couldn't find it. That's well that's like, wouldn't that be hot pockets?
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:37
It might be hot pockets. Yeah. Okay, which is which is which stands for? Husband of the producer of corn.
Molly 3:47
Okay, I just sent you a link to a hostess fruit pies and Twinkies. I don't know why they jammed them together into one commercial hostess for pies and Twinkies. TV commercial from the 80s Okay, I'm so excited. I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:59
gonna watch it right now.
Molly 4:00
Yeah, let's both watch it. Oh, no, wait, the timer has gone off. Okay, well, you watch it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:07
Check out the fruit pies while I watch this commercial division of labor.
Molly 4:11
Be right back.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:12
Yes.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Molly 4:23
I could hear you laughing both so I was in your kitchen like, five paces away from the mic. I could hear you laughing from the bathroom and I could also hear your laugh coming through my headphones over on the table. Yeah, it was the weirdest echo laugh but okay. So you know,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:41
are the three pies done first of all? Oh, I
Molly 4:43
think so. Okay, great. So what I notice about this commercial I mean, do you want to describe it for our listener? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:48
so first of all, there is a mascot character named fruit pie the magician and I do remember this like I had forgotten about it, like buried this this horrible memory for decades. But now you It's like back from the grave that there it's like a living fruit pie that's presumably like instead of instead of internal organs just has like a fruit slurry inside, but he's wearing a magician's outfit for no reason. Yep. Okay. Is Hawking is giving free fruit pies to children like outside of school?
Molly 5:19
Yeah, like exactly what you don't want your children to accept outside of school is a man with with fruit slurry for innards
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:28
and and a magician's outfit. It's really the magician's outfit that you need to watch out for children. And then it cuts to like the kids giving their opinions about the fruit pies and the kids are very very cute. And then like as it's winding up fruit pie the magician totally interrupts a kid and says well, that says it all.
Molly 5:46
I know. I was like, I found myself thinking so I woke up at like four o'clock this morning and I'm one of those fun times where you just lie there for a couple hours. But I found myself thinking about fruit pie the magician has nothing to feel good. hugging someone whose innards are
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:08
hug fruit pie the magician too hard it will be tragic and very messy you'll need to go like crime scene cleanup.
Molly 6:15
Okay, but what I found myself thinking about is like oh what was he afraid that kid it seemed like he interrupted the kid like he was afraid that kid was gonna say the wrong
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:24
thing. Or like spilt like like tell the horrible truth about free pie the magician and his and his murky past are like yourself going I like I like apple and cherry it's January and you killed a man right
Molly 6:40
Wait a minute, I found myself in the middle of the night also struggling to remember so you know you see early on in the ad that there's like this tray of a fruit pies in their wrappers? Okay, and there's apple and there's cherry and for the life of me I couldn't remember the third one. And I found myself wondering if fruit pie the magician cuts off the little kid before he can say that the type of the third one because they had like decided to discontinue it or something.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:06
I mean, the commercial definitely did have that vibe of like we have $150 to one hour to shoot this commercial. Like we're just gonna wait outside of school and see if we can corral some children into doing our commercial for free in exchange for like 40 cent fruit bye. Okay, Molly, let me tell you this. I just watched the commercial 30 seconds ago and I do not remember the flavor either. Was it even in there? Well, it was on the tray. Okay, I'm gonna watch this again now. Okay, me too. Alright, here we go. And then I'm going to come get a fruit pie. I like the title card at the beginning hostess fruit pies and Twinkies 1980s TV commercial as if you wouldn't know lemon Yes, you're right. Like once we've decided that's right. holds up the lemon and starts to say and lemon and fruit pie the magenta is like black now I'm so glad you found this this classic commercial.
Molly 8:16
Okay, anyway, but Matthew Okay, so I remember these from my childhood but I've never eaten one
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:22
is very important is free. Probably the magician has a Wikipedia page.
Molly 8:27
Oh really
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:27
free pie. The magician was the official mascot for hostess fruit pies from 1973 until early 2006 When the character was removed from the fruit pie labels. Wow. Sounds like you got canceled. Right?
Molly 8:39
It does. What do you think he did wrong?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:42
I mean, I think probably part of it involves lurking outside of school waiting to to lure children with fruit pies. The following is from a cached version of the hostess website. fruit pie. The magician loves to entertain friends with his wacky magic tricks. His favorite magic trick is to make the hostess fruit pies appear out of thin air. You always have to keep an eye on the magician or else he may play a trick on you. So
Molly 9:08
this like I mean, you know, like the Hamburglar was one thing like the Hamburglar would take hamburgers and eat them right one thing? Yes. So what why is there a fruit pie magician who makes them appear? It's you know, you would think what he would do is make them disappear and all of a sudden you feel satiated because it's in your stomach.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:32
So So fruit pie the magician is like the anti Hamburglar Yeah, yes, I think you're right.
Molly 9:37
Yeah, actually, I take back what I just said about him disappearing them into your belly because that's like non consensual eating and getting really disturbing. Talking about getting canceled.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:48
I mean, wow, that's like so wrong.
Molly 9:52
That's so messed up. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:54
can't believe I even thought about Yeah, I think I think like you're now on the hook for coming up with something
Molly 10:00
Sorry. Okay, but have you eaten these other than like the one bite you took in an episode a long time
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:05
ago, I would occasionally get my hands on one as a kid, even then I could tell that they were kind of weird. But like, like the fruit is, it's like if you took like cherry pie filling and like, strained all the cherries out. I mean, I think there are is like an occasional cherry in there. But it's glue. It's pure glue. It's pure glue. But you know, it was created out of thin air by a magician.
Molly 10:27
So it's not actually food. Right. Okay, but hold on. So yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:32
but like, When is the last time I'm sure the last time I had one was when I took one bite of one on that episode. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I think this is the kind of thing that as an adult is probably best enjoyed under the influence of one or more things.
Molly 10:45
If even then, I mean, you'd have to be heavily influenced. Yeah. So what about other hand pies?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:52
I mean, under the influence, I mean, in the thrall of fruit pie the magician. Oh, yeah, yes, exactly. Other fruit pies as a kid. I think the only other hand pie that I remember was an apple turnover, which which was like something that was a special treat that I would get like if we went to a bakery.
Molly 11:09
I think that apple turnovers in fact, are the only hand pie I've ever actually eaten Matthew. Oh, and I think I think that if you had offered me an apple turnover as a child, I would have said no, because I think I would have been afraid of afraid of triangles. I was afraid of triangles now. I was afraid of the texture because I was afraid that what was inside was going to be gelatinous, and I hated all things gelatinous as a child. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:39
I don't I mean, I think the inside of a hostess fruit pie is very gelatinous. I don't think a good wellmade apple turnover is very gelatinous
Molly 11:47
but I did not know this as a child so I think it was not
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:51
if I had a time machine and could only use it ONE time I would use it to go back in time look outside of your school and tell you that that you should go ahead and eat an apple turn over it's not as gelatinous as you think. Oh good come back to the present.
Molly 12:03
Oh god and then I would spend my entire life growing up being like Who was that weird guy outside my school if you think about apple turnover now
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:13
have that memory because if so that means that in the future I will have access to a time machine
Molly 12:18
you know I'm pretty sure that I read a TED Chang store store. There was something about this hold on what I was going to say though, I think that what finally got me to eat an apple turnover was putting the words apple turnover into French okay, because I was at the height of my Franco Philea when I encountered what is called the show song Oh PUM
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:44
is a short song like us sock to slipper slipper. Okay,
Molly 12:48
yeah, so like Apple slippers. Can you imagine if I filled your slippers with a slurry it with a slurry of fruit. Enter? Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:58
That's what fruit pie the magician did that went too far and they had to take him off the packaging. He was not satisfied. Just conjuring fruit pies out of thin air. He had to go and start filling children slippers with fruit slurries sounds like some sort of Scandinavian Christmas tradition. Right?
Molly 13:18
This sounds like a real like, like Santa Claus is like bad cousin.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:24
Yeah. What's it like Danish one that everyone likes? Krampus I don't know if it's Danish. But yeah.
Molly 13:33
Anyway, anyway. Merry Christmas, everybody.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:38
That's right. What is it? Like what when is this episode coming out? Your second? Okay, great.
Molly 13:44
So this is our Christmas hand buys No, but okay, I'm trying to
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:49
get our listeners check your slippers tonight before before bed.
Molly 13:55
If you don't want this happen to you hide your slippers don't leave them out by the fireplace. Definitely don't.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:02
Because the magician is is very lazy just comes down the chimney looks like are there any slippers near the fireplace now? Okay, next.
Molly 14:12
Okay, hang on. I'm not done. Anyway, so yeah. So I really love show so open but the filling of that is less like pie filling. I mean even good pie filling and almost more like like a chunky applesauce.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:29
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, but gelatinous
Molly 14:32
not gelatinous that I've encountered or you know anyway, Matthew, we should also talk about pop tarts and yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:39
think these pretty much qualify as hand pies like there's a pastry shell there's a feeling you hold you eat them without utensils. That's it seems
Molly 14:48
like a hand pie although I think our guest today well probably not going to come on the show. Now that we have said that pop tarts are hand pies anyway to to be discussed. Okay, you should we take a break here and get a
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:03
break and get some hand pies. Okay, and then we'll jump back. Okay.
Molly 15:10
Wow, I've already done so much laugh crying in this episode.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:14
Yeah, we should we should bring listeners up to date what happened during the break? First of all we ate some reheated hand pies that were delicious. And
Molly 15:21
we'll talk more about those in a second when our guests Cheryl de joins us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:25
Yes. And then we got onto into a whole Krampus rattle
Molly 15:29
Matthew started pulling up. Well, Wikipedia was did you look up Wikipedia for Yeah, prompt boosts and then we found a whole bunch of really disturbing old like Victorian era imagery of crumples. Yeah, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:44
if you're on Molly's Christmas list this year, I think you're gonna get be getting a pretty special card.
Molly 15:50
We found some pretty great Krampus cards on Zazzle. So you're welcome everybody if you're still looking for your Christmas cards. Oh, hey, Matthew, do you want to tell them what's coming up for them? So it's, this episode comes out December 2, what's coming up on December?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:05
Oh, Krampus know what's gonna happen the night of the night of December 5. I think I think just a Krampus. Like goes gets loose on the street. Okay.
Molly 16:14
And you're supposed to like ply him with alcohol or something right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:17
He's about supplying with alcohol and or he will fill your slippers with a with a slurry of fruit and not necessarily a fruit slurry. It could be a much worse.
Molly 16:26
Okay. Okay, so Matthew, oh, man, this is our hand pies episode. This
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:30
is our sorry, crumb crumb pie.
Molly 16:33
Okay. What defines a hand pie?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:39
Okay. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Okay. So here's this is I tried to come up with a definition of a hand pie. And I don't know how well I did. So you can you can tell me you can push back on anywhere all accounts. So I'm going to say it's a sweet or savory handheld pie designed to be eaten without utensils. And that means it can be baked or fried. But it is surrounded by crust and is not covered with a sticky glaze. Because then you wouldn't pick it. Okay, so, so, so like you see it and you want to pick
Molly 17:08
it up. So do Cornish pasties fit into this definition.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:11
I think if they're small enough, yeah. Okay, like a whole Cornish pasty. Like a full size when you probably wouldn't pick up the whole thing and take a bite out of it. You'd cut it in half first, but there are smaller Cornish pasties that absolutely would qualify I think
Molly 17:27
is a God, what do you call that thing? That's like a pizza folded in half
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:33
a cow's not a hand pie. I think if it's small enough, yeah. Okay. It's like size is a big part.
Molly 17:40
I'm trying out this definition you are filling out the edges. You know, the the, the extremes of this definition is
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:48
I made a list of things that I would consider hand pies under this. Okay, that's great. Go for it. Anyway. So Australian meat pies. Okay. Yep, small Cornish pasties and other British meat pies, West African meat pies, Jamaican patties. cmosis These are all on the savory side. And then on the sweet side, it's usually fruit pies, but there are hand held cream pies like chocolate vanilla or coconut. I always said hand cream pies. But that sounds like you're eating hand cream.
Molly 18:16
I want to also say that I noticed some of the pies particularly on the savory pies list you just came up with some of them are fried. Not just baked?
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:25
Yeah, I think that can be fried or big. I think they can use a short crust pastry or a puff. Okay.
Molly 18:30
This is like a pretty old food. Right? Is this something someone would have liked? Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:35
mean, like hot pockets have been around since we were kids. That's true. That's very old.
Molly 18:39
Is this something that someone would have like, shoved in their satchel while like, you know, trekking across Middle Earth to take a ring and and destroy it in a mountain of lava?
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:54
Yeah, I think unquestionably, like most of the time, people would would think that they had the evil ring and would accidentally like just destroy, like, their friend's wedding ring or something. And then like, first of all, the evil would still be you know, suffusing the land or whatever happened. And their friend would be really wish they would have hand pies to eat. Right, but they would have delicious pies along the way. No, seriously. Pies. Pies are one of the oldest foods like there there's evidence of pies from ancient Egypt Ancient Greece, ancient Rome. If you if it's got ancient in the name, they probably had pies of one kind or another mostly savory pies back then. But like if they were making large pies, certainly they were also making small pie for for quests and other travels.
Molly 19:39
I remember in some other episode, maybe we did an apple pie episode, in which we talked about like the medieval phrasing of like putting fruit in a coffin. Yeah. So hand pies are basically fruit in a coffin, but a tiny coffin that you can carry Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:00
that's exactly. Okay. Have we ever been on a quest? Um, I used the word quest. And I don't know if I've ever been on one.
Molly 20:09
I mean, just our desire, like, onion rings field trip count.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:14
Yeah, maybe so I think it does like, I mean, I think for it to be a quest you have to be like up against unimaginable odds. And I think
Molly 20:22
we were, I think also something that defines a quest is like a sense of, like, great adventure. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:31
Which that had. Okay. Yeah, so we've been on a quest. What should our next quest be? Well, you seem to have a thing for destroying rings. So maybe we can make that
Molly 20:39
part. Okay. But whose ring are we going to destroy? Because I'm not getting rid of mine.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:44
I have two wedding rings like because like this one like fits well in winter, but gets too tight in summer when my fingers get bigger, apparently. Wow.
Molly 20:56
Kids bigger in summer.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:58
Everything.
Molly 21:02
Show and so. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:05
we're gonna we're gonna have a guest who's gonna save.
Molly 21:09
Thank god. I'm so sorry. Cheryl de. Matthew, should we pause until she gets here?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:15
Okay, that sounds good. Should I like hang out in here so I don't have to like run over here when she shows up or should I come back into the dining room? Okay, I'll come into the dining
Cheryl de is a business owner entrepreneur authority on Southern baking and leader of the Southern restaurants for racial justice movement. She's the co author of the acclaimed back in the day bakery cookbooks and author of the brand new and amazing Cheryl days treasury of southern baking. Cheryl, thank you so much for joining us on spilled milk.
Cheryl Day 21:50
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm a big fan.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:53
Oh, thank you so much. We are big fans of yours as well.
Molly 21:56
Cheryl. Matthew and I have already been talking, making a lot of dumb jokes but mostly talking about hand pies. And we actually have just eaten a pie that Matthew's wife made kind of as a riff on one of the ones in your book it was
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:13
so it was the the bourbon she she started with the bourbon peach hand pie recipe and made your pie dough, which is a fantastic recipe we'll talk more about and but we had a ton of apples around from a CSA so she made Apple Cinnamon hand pies doing everything else the same as the bourbon peach. And they are so good.
Cheryl Day 22:31
Yeah. Oh, wow. That sounds delicious. I wish I had one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:35
Yeah. And of course, we will do the bourbon peach during peach season. But this was great. Sounds good. All right. So when we were reading your new book, which we love the fact that like, you know, we're like we want to have Cheryl on the show. But we need to pick a topic and I was flipping through the book and the fact that there are at least four hand pie recipes in the book jumped out at me right away because I love these things. Yeah, me
Cheryl Day 22:56
too. I'm a little crazy, I guess. No, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:59
this is this is a good thing. Where do hand pies fit into the world of southern baking?
Cheryl Day 23:04
Oh, hand pies are? Well, a lot of times they're fried. I did them bake because I pretty much can't do much unless it goes into the oven successfully. So but hand pies in southern culture, it was just that little, you know, thing that you could take and take on the go, I guess was the most important thing. So a lot of times people would take them if they were working, you know, at a factory or outside in the fields, whatever. There was hand pies.
Molly 23:33
So did you eat these growing up? Were they were they baked or fried?
Cheryl Day 23:37
I'm Molly, I will eat a hand pie baked and fried. Okay, okay. equally delicious. But I find like I said personally, that a big 10 Pie is a lot more accessible to most folks. You don't have to worry about, you know, getting the oil to the certain temperature, temperature and it dropping down and you know, all of that. So yeah, I do prefer making them baked but I will eat them both ways. What are some of your favorite fillings? Some of my favorite fillings are definitely the bourbon peach for sure. That apple sounds amazing. Yeah, it is one that I really, really enjoy. And it is in the cookbook. It's kind of our take on savory infradata Hand pie. And it's the country captain. Yeah. It's in the book. It's like a really delicious hash that you make with sweet sweet potatoes. carmelized onions. I love that also, I mean, that's just like delicious for lunch or dinner with a little salad. So yeah, there's a hand pie. I haven't met a hand pie that I don't love.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:54
No, I have my eye on that one. I'm glad you mentioned empanadas because we tried to like list off all of the hand pies of the world. We could think of and totally missed empanadas. So, yeah, well, what
Cheryl Day 25:04
were some of the other ones?
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:06
So would you consider a samosa hand pie? Sure. Okay, good. We went to what else? What else we come up with like, like Jamaican
Molly 25:13
patties? Yes. Cornish pasties? If there's
Cheryl Day 25:17
Yes, hmm,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:18
yeah, West African meat pies. And I'm sure there are hundreds of others that we didn't pick up.
Cheryl Day 25:24
Yes. Okay, so now you're making me hungry. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:28
Now we've made the mistake on the show before of like picking something really delicious and then not eating it, and just felt miserable afterwards.
Cheryl Day 25:36
So am I correct. Then you have that pan pie that your wife made you have that?
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:41
Well, we just finished them.
Molly 25:45
We have them with us inside our bodies.
Cheryl Day 25:49
Yeah, that's awesome. I tell you another one that I've made that's kind of unusual, is a sweet potato hand pie. Sounds really good. I've just used like leftover you know, this time of year when you have leftover pumpkin filling or sweet potato pie filling. In my case, I always have a little bit leftover and then you just put it in a ham pie and it's delicious.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:13
That sounds fantastic. Okay, that that's a perfect segue into my The next thing I was wondering about, which was this time of year like we're doing a fruit CSA and we you know, we had a bunch of apples around. But like often we'll have like fruit around the house that we don't really have a plan for and hand pie seems like a great idea. Do you have any advice for like what fruits work best for a hand pie? And like how to improvise one. Is there anything I need to watch out for in terms of avoiding a soggy crust or anything? Any other tips that you would offer? Yeah, I
Cheryl Day 26:41
mean, really, you can put any kind of fruit fillings that you have what kind of fruit See y'all have right now in your CSA box.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:49
So right now I get most we're just just at the tail end of plums. And then it's a lot of apples and pears and Asian pears.
Cheryl Day 26:57
So those are all great. And then even during this summer when you get, you know, like small berries, blueberries, blackberries, I definitely have some of those recipes in the book too. But you're just basically cooking it down kind of almost, you know, Jammy kind of consistency, but leaving big chunks of fruit. And those work really well in hand pies too. So okay, anything that wouldn't be good in hand by. Excellent.
Molly 27:27
Well, I have a question about your pie crust, which Yeah, is so wonderfully flaky and delicious. And I noticed in the recipe that it includes a full teaspoon of baking powder. What's what is the baking powder do in there?
Cheryl Day 27:43
Oh, that's a good observation, Molly. So that is kind of my little cheat. I guess. That obviously baking powder definitely is going to give your dough a little extra lift and your wife made it so she saw that probably Absolutely. You know, it's really I guess that is quite of a kind of a fair amount of baking powder. But it just gives it that extra lift and the dowel and just kind of poops everything up like to flakey heaven.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:16
And ya know, it's a fabulous texture.
Cheryl Day 28:18
Oh, thanks.
Molly 28:20
And there's vinegar in there too. Yeah, will you which I've used in my you know, all butter pastry crust, but will you explain for any listeners why you put why you put vinegar into
Cheryl Day 28:29
Absolutely. So the vinegar is another little cheat that tames the gluten and ah you your pie dough and it also helps when you're rolling out the pie dough, it just kind of falls right into the pan with ease when you're rolling, it doesn't resist you at all. And I have found you know, having been doing this for so long and I really started as a home Baker. And a lot of these tips were from my grandmother and from my mom that they just had these ingenious things that have kind of taken me through my career but I always like to think of anything that's gonna give you ultimate success rather than you know having that fear of pie dough like yeah many folks have so any other little cheats like that so that they can get a successful pie dough and you know and say yeah, I'm in this you know, I can do this. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:26
no, I'm gonna use this as like my go to pie dough like I made a case recently using using a different pie dough recipe. And I thought it was going well but then it kind of shrank back from from the pan. And I'm like I get just going to use Cheryl's recipe next time. I don't think it's going to do that.
Cheryl Day 29:43
I definitely recommend aluminum free baking powder. That's something worth mentioning. It's, it's easily accessible but there are other types of baking powder that kind of impart a little Tinti flavor and if you stick with aluminum Free like a Rumson or something like that, then you won't have that issue. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:05
let's let's ask the question that we've been beating around here are hand pies better than full sized pies.
Molly 30:11
Wow, Matthew, that is a contentious question. Okay.
Cheryl Day 30:15
That is a good question. I'm going with if I have to answer yes or no. I'm gonna say yes. Okay. muster. I really love pie crust. Yep. And so a hand pie. I mean, I suppose if you're making a double crusted pie, that's kind of the same thing. But they're just so everything. I mean, they have everything in one, you know, that you could grab in your hand, it's got lots of pie crust, great filling, you don't have to cut it. I actually wrote a section in the book about how to slice the perfect slice of pie. Molly, I think you probably know you've sliced some pies in your day, I'm sure. And it's not always easy to get that first perfect slice. So there you go. You don't have to slice it.
Molly 31:07
I hadn't even thought of that as an advantage. But you're right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:10
When when Lori my wife was was making them and I want to stress that I don't like asked my wife to do all the cooking for the show. I know it's coming off like that. That is not how this works. But she she was excited to make hand pies. And when she was folding them, she's like, you know, these aren't all gonna be like as perfectly shaped as the ones of the picture of the book. And I'm like, there is nothing in the world that matters less than how perfectly shaped Well, that's
Cheryl Day 31:34
funny, right? That is the furthest thing from my mind. I am not. I mean, I don't know. I think those recipes are just so approachable. And I love it when it is not perfect. What's perfect after all right? So
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:47
we got eight, eight, slightly differently shaped hand pies, all equally delicious.
Cheryl Day 31:51
All a fully delicious individual.
Molly 31:54
Yes, Cheryl, will you tell us sort of broadly about your book and the different you know, in addition to hand pies, which, you know, we've talked a lot about today. What are some other recipes in there that you really want listeners to know about?
Cheryl Day 32:08
Well, I mean, as you saw, there is a very extensive pie chapter. So for sure, that is definitely the biggest chapter. But what I want folks to know, is that Southern but you don't have to be in the south to be a southern Baker. I want people to just kind of pick recipes that they feel comfortable starting with and start their own journey of baking through the book, I hope. There's 13 chapters from biscuits, hot breads, I call them hot breads and crackers. The first recipe is biscuits and crackers, and then all the way to basics. I have three cake chapter. So obviously, I'm a big fan of cakes also. So yeah, I just really want to kind of take the, you know, I want people to really find baking more approachable, and just do it. You get in the kitchen, and start doing it. Because it's so fun. It's very therapeutic. And you have delicious results at the end. So what could be better than that?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:17
Yeah, they're like, I was flipping through the book, just as we were talking. Like, it is so approachable. Like, you know, this is a book you could bake your way through, like at any skill level, there are no recipes with like, 27 ingredients, or Yeah,
Cheryl Day 33:30
I mean, I did it. Of course.
Molly 33:34
Well, and you know, I think somehow I just I had never realized too that you really started out as a home Baker and that that, like I know that I have a particular love for for baked goods that people make at home I would always rather have like a layer cake than some sort of fancy, you know, European pastry. And so I think that your book is is everything that I want to bake and more and I think a lot of people will find it immensely comforting and a good companion in the kitchen.
Cheryl Day 34:06
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I mean I'm the same way so yes, I still kind of think of myself as a home Baker turn professional I've been doing we've had our bakery obviously for 20 years and so it has been trial and error and a lot of the recipes that I've created have also been created out of trial and error sure know
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:28
your book Cheryl days treasury of southern baking is available at bookstores everywhere you can support your your local independent bookstore is there anything else you'd like to plug in addition to the new book?
Cheryl Day 34:38
Oh, I just started a small batch provisions line called Jamie cute provisions named after my mom Janie queen. I don't know if you all know this but I am a little salty because there are a lot of women in my family like like four or five women were named either by their first name Queen, or middle name queen and somehow it skipped over me, not over it. So, cue provisions is available at our site back in the day bakery. And it's just a division that we started during the pandemic, it was our great pivot. I love making jams. They're all different fruits, like you said many that I would get in my CSA box during the pandemic. And I have a herb garden. And something that I always love doing is adding botanicals to my jam. So each jam that we make, there's a strawberry camera meal at blueberry, Rose, peach lavender, and then I'm doing other little biscuit mixes that people can make at home. Because we don't ever want to get in a position where folks write a flower and can write thank you for mentioning that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:54
Yeah, you bet. We will link to Janie Q provisions where people can order all that stuff in the show notes. Cheryl. Thanks again for being on the show. This was so much fun.
Molly 36:01
Thank you. Thank you.
Cheryl Day 36:03
Thanks so much for having me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:08
Is there is there anything else that we need to say about hand pies, or
Molly 36:12
I think it's been said and more. This episode is gone. So many places. Cheryl de thank you for joining us. Krampus. Yeah, thank you for joining us. fruit pie the magician.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:26
You were cancelled back in 2006. We are removing you from our packaging. Should we do a little now but wow. Let's do it. Do Do you have any animal crossing or colonic quilts? I haven't eaten any ketchup since last time.
Molly 36:38
My my child has not been interested in her switch for a long time. And I frankly haven't remind you to
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:45
get your kid back into video games like we need. We need to contemplate you
Molly 36:50
know what she is really into right now. She is really into the book, my side of the mountain.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:56
That sounds familiar, but I don't remember what it is
Molly 36:58
a little boy named Sam in New York runs away and lives in a hollowed out hemlock tree in the woods. Mountains. She has already read it once now we're reading it aloud at bedtime. And I have to say there's a lot of mentions of what he eats. You know, because he's like fending for himself in the woods.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:23
Do you and June is planning to run away and befriend a falcon in a weasel.
Molly 37:27
You know, I think that she already went through a little trial considering running away. Oh, she had like a tote bag that she had a bunch of stuff in. It was sitting next to her bed and I was like this was like a few months ago and I was like June what's in this tote bag? Like can we put this stuff away? And she goes no, don't look in there. It's mine. Oh, okay, stashed it under her bed. And recently when I was helping her do kind of a big like purge of her room. I pulled out the tote bag. I figured enough time had gone by and I was like June so tell me as I like went through it. It had two full sets of clothing. Okay. A super mashed up bag of pretzels.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:12
Just like you'll need Yeah, hairbrush,
Molly 38:13
a stuffy a flashlight. And I said to her Jun, did you pack this because you were going to run away? And she just kind of smiled. And I was like, Do you think we can unpack it now? And she was like, Yeah, sure. And so she unpacked it and we put everything away? It sounds like she was going on a quest. I think she was gonna go on a quest. I mean, maybe she just wanted some onion rings. Who knows? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:35
that's fair. Yeah, like Yeah, she was gonna walk to Renton and back. She's gonna need all of that
Molly 38:38
stuff. It True. It's gonna take a long time. All right. Okay, now but wow
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:50
this one is not that new, but it's new to me. And maybe it'll be new to you too. So I have been on a big punk rock kick lately. I think there is an incredible amount of good punk rock being made these days. Like I already recommended the Linda Linda's on a previous now but wow. And this week I want to talk about the audio karate album malo, and audio karate is a punk band from LA who made a couple of good albums in the early 2000s. Then it just kind of went dormant for quite a while and then came back in 2019 with the original lineup, and this terrific album malo it's got great hooks it's got sunny California vibes are toto adios is a great singer like a classic punk rock singer. If you like Joyce manner if you like Titus Andronicus if you like the strokes, you're probably gonna love audio karate. Malo, we'll link to it in the show notes. Wow,
Molly 39:40
I fascinated that the strokes made it onto that. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:44
I was trying. Like so. So I was like, this reminds me of Joyce Manor and Titus Andronicus, two bands that you probably also have never heard of. And so then it was like what is what is the singer in particular remind me of? Oh, you know, he's definitely got like a bit of a Julian Casablancas vibe going on.
Molly 39:59
Okay. Fun. All right. Well, our producer is Abby circuit tele.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:04
You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. And not only can you but you should.
Molly 40:08
Yes. You can also chat with other spilled milk fans. I don't know if I mean, I'm calling them. They're called themselves. Okay, listeners, you can chat with other spilled milk listeners on our subreddit. It's reddit.com/are/everything spilled milk.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:28
And we haven't we haven't mentioned a while that we have transcripts if you'd prefer to read or instead of or in addition to listening to the show, you can find those on our websites build out podcast.com And in the show notes in your podcast player,
Molly 40:42
as always, thank you for listening to spilled milk. We are roaming the streets roaming
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:49
the streets. We have very long tongues with
Molly 40:51
very long tongues and we're I don't know we're gonna wait outside your kids school and see what happens. I'm Matthew Amster-Burton. I'm Molly Weissenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:09
Oh, yeah. Still going, okay. Okay, like dang dogs. Did you see some ding dongs?
Molly 41:22
No, that would be that would be Pornhub Oh yeah.