Serendipity - Updated with Margaret's recipe

**Update** - Margaret got back into town, and she shared her recipe with me.  It turns out that my memory, as often happens, was faulty.  It was not Cayenne Zucchini Bread that she made, but Cayenne Pumpkin bread.  Jump ahead for the recipe.

Necessity is the mother of invention, the saying goes.  And dumb luck never hurts, either. Often a cook will have to substitute what's available for what's called for in the recipe, and discover that the substitution works better.   But sometimes the best cooking inventions come about totally by accident.  That's what I call serendipity.

Just today, as the gang from church was having a post-church brunch in the restaurant across the street, Pat (who starred in another one of my posts, with her name poorly disguised) was telling me about a baby shower she was hosting at her house.  She was baking a cake for the guests, and had poured the cake batter into a springform pan instead of a tube pan.  The time for the guests to arrive was swiftly approaching, but the cake was far from done.  While the edges were cooked, the center was still soft and gooey.  So she took the cake from the oven, scooped out the soft center, and returned it to the oven.  Meanwhile, she whipped some cream with a little sugar and some lemon zest.  She had already prepared some lemon custard with sweetened condensed milk.  Once the center batter had been scooped out, the rest of the cake was ready in short order.  Of course, it didn't look very pretty.  So Pat removed it from the springform pan, let it cool a bit, filled the center with the lemon custard, and slathered the whole thing with the whipped cream.  The dessert was a huge success, and Pat got lots of compliments.

I also remember some zucchini  pumpkin bread that my friend Margaret made one time.  She passed it around during a church meeting, but apologized for it in advance, saying she didn't know what it was going to taste like.  While making it, she had reached into her spice cabinet for what she thought was cinnamon - and dumped in a couple of teaspoons of cayenne pepper instead.  It was already stirred into the batter before she realized her mistake.  So she baked it anyway, and we all tried a piece.  It was delicious!  The cayenne pepper gave it just a bit of a bite, and stimulated the taste buds.  Now, Margaret makes her zucchini pumpkin bread that way on purpose!  (Unfortunately, she's out of town right now - as soon as she gets back, I'm going to get her recipe and publish it.  Keep checking this post for the recipe.)

But my favorite serendipitous cooking discovery belongs to my Grandma Sauder.  Grandma was a baker par excellence.  When she was a young woman, she and her sisters owned and operated a bake shop in Newport News, Virginia.  Grandma's specialty was pies.

Grandma's pie crusts were a thing of beauty.  They were invariably light and flaky, and always picture-perfect.  Once, when I was in my early twenties, I asked her to show me her technique, so I could learn it too.  Grandma's preferred shortening was pure lard, and she made pie crusts by feel.  Although she used rough measurements, she would always reserve a half cup of the flour when combining it with the lard, and add the rest of the flour only if it felt like it needed it.  She did not use a fork or a pastry blender; she always worked the lard in with her hands.  I remember she told me that the flour and lard had been properly combined when it felt like coarse cornmeal and small peas.  Grandma also said that pure lard took less flour than vegetable shortening.  Then, she would add ice cold water, a little at a time, just until the dough held together when pressed between the fingers.  She was able to roll her dough out in a way I've never managed.

Try as I might, I've never been able to duplicate Grandma's pie crusts.  (My Uncle Don, on the other hand, made pie crusts with her several times, and his are awfully good.)  So nowadays, I often just buy pie crust.  I'm just never quite satisfied with the ones I make - mostly because I'm comparing them to Grandma's perfection.

Grandma made all kinds of pies.  Grandpa was something of a scavenger - he would buy fruits that were about to go bad (or that were already half-bad) for next to nothing, and Grandma would turn them into pies.  They would also stop by the side of the road to pick wild fruit.  I remember Grandma's elderberry pies.  They were one of my favorites.  She also made other berry pies, peach pies, mincemeat pies, and shoo fly pies.  But Grandma's best pies were her apple pies.  They were wonderful.  And I'm about to share her secret with you.

Grandma said that she discovered the secret to apple pie because she had five children.  She would peel and slice her apples, combine them with the sugar, flour, and spices, and then set them aside while she went and attended to the children's needs.  When she got back around to baking the pies, she discovered that the apples, while sitting around, had become a bit soupy.  The sugar and the spices had penetrated the apples, and created a sauce.  When baked in Grandma's perfect pie crusts, they became the most marvelous apple pies in the world.

Grandma went on to her reward in 1989.  But her apple pies live on, as her serendipitous secret has been passed down to succeeding generations.  And now you know it, too!

Alice and J. Paul Sauder, 1964

Cayenne Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin (cooked or canned)
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dried cranberries or dried apricots (or a combination of both)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine the dry ingredients, along with the chopped pecans and dried fruit, in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and shortening together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and beat until smooth.  Add the pumpkin, and then the milk and the vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir just until all the dry ingredients have been moistened.  The batter will still be lumpy.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake about 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool, slice and serve. 

Pie crust (for a 2-crust 9-inch pie)

2 1/4 cups flour

2/3 cup pure lard

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cold water

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt (reserving 1/2 cup of the flour).  Cut lard into flour with a pastry blender or two knives.  (Grandma would have done it with her hands.)  Add reserved flour as necessary, but do not overmix; it should feel like a mixture of coarse cornmeal and small peas. 

Add water gradually, sprinkling 1 tablespoon of water at a time over the mixture.  Combine lightly with a fork until all particles of flour have been dampened.  Use only enough water to hold the pastry together when it is pressed between the fingers.  It should not feel wet.

Roll dough into a round ball, handling as little as possible.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.  Then divide into two balls.  Roll out on a lightly floured board.  Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick, and 1 inch larger than the diameter of the top of the pie plate.

The second (top) crust does not need to be quite so wide.

Grandma's Serendipitous Apple Pie (one 9-inch pie)

3 cups sliced apples

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp of each - I prefer nutmeg)

2 tablespoons milk or cream

2 tablespoons butter (optional)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Pastry for two 9-inch crusts (see above)

Note - I have 10-inch deep-dish pie plates.  Although the amount of pie dough necessary is about the same (the above recipe will always leave you with leftovers), that extra inch means I need to double the amount of filling.

Combine apples, sugar, flour, spices, and milk or cream in a mixing bowl.  Mix together well, and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside (unrefrigerated) for at least 45 minutes; 2 hours is better.  Apples will develop a liquid.

Roll out the pie dough, place it in the pie plate, and fill with the apples.  Add dots of butter over the top, if desired, and sprinkle on the optional nuts if you are using them.  (I don't remember Grandma putting nuts into her apple pies, but I like to do so if I have some on hand.)

Roll out the top crust and place it on the pie, and fasten the top and bottom crust together securely at the edges (dipping your fingers in water helps make this easier).  You can also make a lattice crust for the top, if you desire.

Bake in a 400° oven for 50 minutes.