Professor Butter Beard and Eastman Johnson’s “Sugaring Off”
“I happen to know everything there is to know about maple syrup! I love maple syrup. I love maple syrup on pancakes. I love it on pizza. And I take maple syrup and put a little bit in my hair when I've had a rough week. What do you think holds it up, slick?” - Vince Vaughn, actor and writer
For seven delicious springs, I rented a cottage on the edge of the Berkshire mountains, just above Northampton, Massachusetts. Time stood still there. The cottage sat on six acres of land dotted with ancient apple trees, hidden ponds that funneled into a nearby river as the snow melted, and a herd of slightly overweight vain cows who preferred to mind their own sweet business. Winters were long evenings reading by the fireplace, spontaneous potluck dinners and sleeping under heavy homemade quilts. Ah, but spring! Even when frosts were still teasing, I would open the bedroom window slightly in order to wake with the first birdsong, an occasional “moo,” and a waft of maple in the breeze.
The landlord’s son, and his sons, would already be at work in the log cabin just up the hill from my bedroom window as I would creep down the spiral staircase to grind the coffee beans for my morning pot of “Joe.” I would whip together some quick buttermilk biscuits, shower and dress in my chef whites ready to head towards the restaurant kitchen in Northampton. But before I would leave, I would hike up the hill in my boots to say hello and share some biscuits, jam, coffee and laughs. When I got into my Jeep to drive down the mountain, I could still smell the wood smoke and the hint of maple that permeated my whites for the day.
Known in his day as “the American Rembrandt,” Eastman Johnson is considered one of the most important American painters of the 19th century. Born and raised in Southwestern Maine, Johnson painted portraits of such notable figures as Hawthorne, Emerson, and Longfellow. After studying in The Netherlands in the 1850s, where he was influenced by the great Dutch Old Masters, Johnson returned to the United States where he developed a reputation for his depictions of American life.
At the time of the Civil War, Johnson created a series of oil sketches depicting the charm of Yankee life: kettle tenders, storytellers, children with sleds, and woodcutters all culminating in large oil sketches of the “sugaring off,” a party at which townspeople and farmers would gather around bubbling sap kettles for a feast.
The paintings illustrate the production of maple syrup from clear, tasteless sap dripping into buckets tapped into the just-awakening trees, to the dark deliciously sweet syrup that quenched the culinary needs of rural New Englanders. Johnson captured the traditional parties, usually toward the end of February, which celebrated the last days of winter with bonfires, music, sugar-on-snow, doughnuts, and pickles. According to local residents, the sugaring off was more than a great party; it signaled the dawn of spring and marked the community's spirit of hope and joy.
“Maple sugaring is still an important part of New England life today,” said Michael Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute. “This living tradition can be seen all around the Berkshires at the many farms that invite the public to watch them make maple sugar and host pancake breakfasts in the winter.”
As much as I love drowning my banana pancakes and cornmeal waffles in melting butter and warm maple syrup, I am also known to extend by passion for everything maple into evening desserts. I do enjoy a nice pie! This beauty captures everything maple and is brightened with the addition of freshly grated ginger and touch of orange flower water. I’ve played with the traditional butter crust by enhancing it with sweet ground pecans and wrapping the finished work of art with a crown of pecan shortbread cookies (made from the same pie dough). Breathe in the waft of maple and know that fiddle-head ferns, asparagus and daffodils are just around the corner.
Maple Buttermilk Custard Pie with a Pecan Shortbread Crust
One delicious pie!
Crust:
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup pecans, plus 12-14 extra for the cookies as the top “crust”
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
8 ounces unsalted butter, frozen overnight
6-8 Tbsp ice water
1 egg (for egg washing the cookies)
Filling:
1 cup maple syrup – the best you can find
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg and 4 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla paste
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
½ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp orange flower water
1) The night before, place two sticks of unsalted butter in your freezer
2) In a food processor, pulse together the flour, ¼ cup pecans, salt and sugar. Remove the sticks of butter from the freezer. Cut each into ¼” cubes. Add half the butter to the processor and pulse until incorporated and then add the remaining butter and pulse again (three or four times). Add 6 Tbsp ice water and pulse until dough starts to come together. Turn the dough into a bowl and gather with your hands into a large ball. Cut the ball in half, flatten into two discs, wrap each in plastic wrap and chill one hour.
3) After the hour, roll one of the discs into a large circle to fit into your pie plate. Lightly place the rolled dough into the plate and crimp the edges as you prefer. Chill the pie shell while you heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the pie shell with tin foil to hold the pastry in place and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes to dry the shell. Set on a rack to cool.
4) While the shell is baking, roll the second disk ¼” thick and cut into desired cookie shapes. Re-roll and cut again to create 12-14 cookies. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment, brush with an egg wash (made from the one egg and a Tbsp water), place a pecan on the cookie and then sprinkle with granulated sugar. When the pie shell comes out of the oven, bake the cookies for about 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Also cool the cookies on the wire rack.
5) In a small saucepan, heat the syrup to a light simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk together the one egg and four yolks, the vanilla paste, the grated ginger and salt. Measure one cup of heavy cream into a 4-cup glass measuring cup and whisk in the hot syrup. Lightly whisk the maple/cream into the egg mix. Strain this liquid back into the glass measuring cup, and lightly whisk in the one cup buttermilk, the orange flower water and the grated nutmeg. Pour this mixture into the pie shell, place the pie in the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 60-75 minutes until the custard is just set and still a bit wobbly.
6) Cool the pie on a wire rack and place the cooled cookies around the edge.
Eastman Johnson self-portrait, 1863.
