I understand your concerns, but in this case, you can relax. First off, let me say that I am a potter and have been for more decades than I care to discuss. I have never used lead or any toxic chemicals, and have always been super careful with any products that have been produced for me by vendors.

We started making the cookie stamps in China in 1996. All of the resins and paints used on the handles had to pass FDA tests for food safely, even though the handles themselves do not come into contact with the cookie dough. The ceramic bottoms are made of a lead-free clay body composed of silica (sand), feldspar (from granite), kaolin (an ingredient in Kaopectate), other clays, and iron. All of these ingredients are non-toxic and inert. We have always stipulated the formula, and our body and body color are copy-righted.

In addition, the ceramic is fired to a high enough temperature that the particles vitrify and become glassy. This chemically binds them in such a way that even if lead were contained in the body (which it isn’t), it could not leach out into foods. The only time lead is a problem is if it is under-fired and therefore not chemically bound in glass, AND if it comes in contact with acid foods. This would certainly be the case if you put orange juice into an under-fired ceramic pitcher that had been glazed with a lead based glaze.

The original cookie stamps with the figurative handles were all made in China. Between 1997 or ’98 and 2001, a few cookie molds and I believe only 2 shortbread pan designs were made in China. Other than that, BB products have always been made in the United States by small potteries. We also had a pottery in England make some cookie molds and shortbread pans for one year, but I can’t remember the year. No matter. It didn’t work out anyway, and THEY didn’t use a clay body with lead in it either.

Bottom line, all BB products are and have always been totally safe.

This is probably more information than you either expected or wanted, but I feel that consumers have the absolute right to know what they are using so that they can make informed decisions. This is especially true when it comes to making food for their families. I’m glad you gave me the opportunity to lay it all out.

Have fun baking,
Lucy

Note: You will need to use a large pie plate. The 11” Ibis Pie Plate that we used to make is unavailable, so use the closest approximation you can. You will just wind up with a thicker pie. You also might want to put a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom of the oven to catch drips.

1 recipe Basic Pie Crust
4 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into ½” pieces, about 1 pound
OR unsweetened frozen rhubarb
2 “large” eggs
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups sugar, depending on your sweet tooth
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons neutral oil (not olive oil)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Line a pie plate with one half of the pie crust, allowing the edges to drape over the rim. Prick the entire surface with a fork.

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl. Now take a pastry brush and dip it into the egg white. Paint the bottom crust with the egg white.

Beat the eggs until they are light. Beat in the sugar, flour, oil, and vanilla. Stir in the pieces of rhubarb. If you are using frozen rhubarb, it doesn’t have to be fully defrosted when you add it to the filling. Just be sure that the pieces are separated and not frozen together in a block.

Pour the filling into the prepared pan, cover with the top crust and fold up the edges to seal in the juices. Crimp the edges decoratively if you like. Cut steam vents in the top crust.

Bake at 410° in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350° and bake about an additional 40 – 50 minutes*. The pie should be well browned, and the juices should bubble up through the steam vents. If you are using frozen rhubarb, it will take a little longer for the pie to bake.

This pie is good hot from the oven, warm, room temperature or cold. Just be sure to refrigerate any uneaten portion, since the filling does contain eggs.

*Note: Baking time will also vary depending on the pie plate you use. Pyrex and ceramic dishes take longer than do metal pans.

In spite of my generally poor attitude, I did learn things in that class. One of them was this recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie. Though I have tried a number of different recipes over the years, this remains my favorite.

½ recipe Basic Pie Crust
6 Tablespoons (3/8cup) corn starch
1 1/2 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups water
3 large eggs, separated
1 ½ Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons (3/8 cup) fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt

Make one half of the Basic Pie Crust as directed. Roll it out in a 13” circle and line your pie plate with it.

Prick the entire surface with a fork, then fold up and crimp the edges decoratively.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the crust. Pour in dried beans or pie weights, and bake the crust at 375° for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and the beans and continue to bake the crust until it is a light, golden brown, about another 10-15 minutes. Take the crust-lined pie plate from the oven. Turn the heat down to 350°.

While the crust is baking, start the filling. Mix the corn starch, sugar and salt in the top part of a double boiler. Add the water, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps. Place the pan over low direct heat and cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until bubbles form and the mixture looks clear.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they are thick. Add the hot corn starch mixture in a thin stream as you continue to whisk vigorously. Return the mixture to the top of the double boiler and set the pan over simmering water.

Cover the mixture and cook over simmering water until it has thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid and cook another 3 minutes, stirring. Add the butter, lemon juice and grated lemon rind. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell.

Prepare the meringue. Using absolutely clean and grease-free beaters, beat the egg whites on medium high speed until frothy. Add the salt and cream of tartar and continue beating until the whites hold very soft peaks. Increase the speed to high. Add the sugar one Tablespoon at a time, as you continue to beat. The meringue should be stiff and glossy.

Mound the meringue onto the lemon filling. Put the pie on the top shelf in the oven and bake 10 minutes or so, or until the tips of the meringue start to brown.

Refrigerate the pie for at least 4 hours before serving. This pie should be eaten the day it is made. The lemon filling will tend to separate if it has been kept for more than 12 – 18 hours. As with all pies that contain eggs, this pie should be kept refrigerated.

½ recipe Basic Pie Crust
2 ¼ cups sweetened condensed milk from 2 cans
3 egg yolks
¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
4 teaspoons grated lime zest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       3 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           pinch of salt
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)

Make one half of the basic Pie Crust recipe as directed. Roll the dough out in a 12” – 13” circle and line you pie plate with it. Prick the entire surface with a fork, then fold up and crimp the edges decoratively.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the crust, then pour in dried beans or pie weights. Bake the crust at 375° for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and pie weights and continue to bake until the crust is a light golden brown, about another 10 – 15 minutes. Remove the pie crust from the oven and allow it to cool.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until they are thick and light lemon colored. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk. Gradually whisk in the lime juice and grated rind. The mixture will thicken as you add the juice. Pour the filling into the baked pie shell.

Prepare the meringue. Using absolutely clean and grease-free beaters, beat the egg whites on medium high speed until frothy. Add the salt and cream of tartar and continue beating until the whites hold very soft peaks. Increase the speed to high. Add the sugar one Tablespoon at a time, as you continue to beat. The meringue should be stiff and glossy.  If you are using the almond extract, beat it into the meringue at the very end.

Spread the meringue over the top of the pie filling, making sure that it touches the edges of the crust. Put the pie in a preheated 350° oven on the top shelf and bake for about 8 -10 minutes, or until the tips of the meringue are lightly browned.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or up to 24) before serving.

As far as I was concerned, that trip explained a lot.

On other trips, I had seen magnificent gardens in England. Some had grand vistas, some wide borders within different floral “rooms”, one leading to the next, some were “landscape gardens”, where seemingly natural pathways wound through structured views. And there were the famous “Cottage Gardens”. They were more personal, more intimate, and their plantings looked more casual, though they were very carefully planned and organized.

Then we went to Ireland. There the gardens showed a strong English influence. They were beautiful, too, but somehow, were different. I couldn’t figure out how gardens sharing the same general climate, many of which displayed the same plants, could be so similar and at the same time so consistently different in feeling.

On the fourth day, we viewed an Irish Cottage Garden. Same enclosed setting, same plants as I had seen previously in English gardens, same general structure… almost. Our guide pointed out one huge difference. Every so often, there was a tall spike of yellow flowers rising from a large rosette of course, grey-green furred leaves. It was a Mullen. Apparently, gardeners would allow a Mullen to self-seed and pop up at random in an otherwise structured flower bed. So much for human control!

For me, this epitomized the famous “touch of the Old Nick” I saw and valued so much in my family. It was an herbal example of playfulness, of welcoming the unexpected (since it will be there, like it or not), of joking around. I loved it. It made me think of my beloved uncle Graves, and how he would sit back at the dinner table sometimes, laugh and burst into full-throated song. We had been taught not to sing at the table, but… what the heck.

So this St. Patrick’s Day, I will sing, I will laugh with friends, and I will embrace my Mullens, where-ever they pop up. But I won’t drink green beer.

This is the rationalization I use as I serve myself a big slice for breakfast.

Strawberry – Yogurt Pie is a beautiful dessert for Valentine’s Day.

½ recipe Basic Pie Crust
1 ½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
1 cup small curd cottage cheese (not fat free)
1 pint strawberries
¼ cup mild honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Line a medium bowl with an 18” square of clean, white Indian gauze or with several layers of cheese cloth. Pour the yogurt into the bowl. Gather the corners together, tie a strong string around them, and hang the yogurt to drain for 4 hours.

Make one half of the Basic Pie Crust recipe as directed. Roll the dough out in a 13” circle and line a 10” pie plate with it. Prick the entire surface with a fork, then fold up and crimp the edges decoratively.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the crust, and press it out to conform to the pan and hold the crust in place. You can pour in pie weights or dried beans if you like, but I find that the aluminum foil holds the crust against the sides of the pan well enough. Bake the crust at 375° for about 25 minutes, or until golden. Remove the pie plate from the oven and allow to cool.

Pick out 2 perfect berries and set them aside for garnish. Cut the stems off of the rest of the strawberries and slice them into the cooled pie shell.

Place the drained yogurt in a clean bowl. Force the cottage cheese through affine sieve, then add it to the yogurt. Stir in the honey and the vanilla. Pour the filling over the berries in the pie shell.

Place the pie in the refrigerator and chill for 3 or 4 hours.

Garnish with the reserved strawberries and serve.

I dreamed I will hunker down in front of the fire and catch up on reading the pile of books I have been stocking up.

In my fantasy, the cat will be in my lap, and Sophie Dog will be curled up on her bed at my feet. Maybe I’ll finish knitting that sweater I started a couple of years ago. HA!

Instead of kicking back, I’ve been kicking into high gear. I think I’m introducing more new things this month than I have in many, many years.

And it’s really fun.

I find that one idea inevitably leads to another, then another. I am a very lucky woman, since my “job” is also what I best love doing. And the “perks” are great.

I may have a hard time justifying buying myself a big expensive toy. However, since I simply had to up-grade my camera so that I could take better pictures of all 8 of the new Cookie Stamps, and both new Shortbread Pans, I went for it. It’s great.

Please do go check out the pictures of the new Meadow Flowers and Carousel Shortbread Pans. My grandson, Paul loves the Lion from the Carousel Pan best. I fluctuate between the silly Bird and the Horses.

I’ve been a little late getting up the pictures of the series of Heart Cookie Stamps and the British Isles Series.

I wanted to have everything done by January 1, but “the best laid plans…” Of course the fact that Sophie Dog is a Lab and a serious opportunistic eater didn’t help anything. She ate almost all of the sample cookies I had baked to photograph. Back to the kitchen I went to bake more cookies she didn’t get.

Have fun. Stay warm.

Lucy

P.S. If you love Carousel animals as much as I do, and if you are in New England at some point, be sure to visit the Shelburne Museum, in Shelburne, Vermont. They have an absolutely staggering collection of carved wooden carousel animals. I have spent hours there, drinking in the incredible artistry involved in these figures for an amusement park ride, something which might be considered frivolous by some.

A few years back, I decided that so spread out, many of the town’s elderly probably needed a little stimulation off and on. They needed a little contact, a little something out of the ordinary to perk their minds, a little love. Valentine’s Day would provide a real opportunity.

With the collusion of our post-mistress, I gathered the names and addresses of all 39 of the town’s elderly.

Then I baked up 39 pretty little heart-shaped molded cookies, using heart cookie stamps and cut-apart heart cookie molds. I placed each cookie in a plastic sandwich bag, and I tied each bag closed with a ribbon and a cut-out paper heart tag which read “Be my Valentine!” or “From your Secret Admirer”. I swore Sue to secrecy, and we delivered the cookies.

The recipients LOVED it! The cookie was sweet, but the mystery of where the cookie came from was sweeter still. It drove everybody nuts. They knew that Sue had been part of the plot. They tried to pry the information out of her for months, to no avail. We never told.

So make someone smile and wonder why they just got a Valentine kiss; where did it come from? Make some cookies. Drop anonymous little gifts on the desks of all of your co-workers (include yourself!), put them in teachers’ “in” boxes, take a basket to a nursing home. Share the love.

Your shortbread pan will bake shortbreads that are perfect for Valentine’s Day, Weddings, Mother’s Day, or any time you want to let someone know that they are dear to you.

Check it out: Shortbread Pan Website

½ recipe Basic Pie Crust
7 or 8 large, tart apples. Cortlands, Northern Spy, MacIntosh, Jonathans, Granny Smith are all good.
Juice of ½ lemon
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut in small pieces
½ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Roll out the pie crust in a 13” circle and line the bottom of a 10” pie plate with it. Fold up the edges and crimp them decoratively.

Peel and core the apples. Slice them thin. Toss the slices with the lemon juice, then spoon them into to prepared pie shell, mounding them gently.

Put the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is the size of small peas. (You can do this part in a food processor, if you like. Just a few pulses will do it.) Stir in the rolled oats. Work the dough with your hands until it starts to clump together.

Sprinkle the topping over the apples, covering them evenly and completely.

Bake the pie in the middle of a preheated 375° oven for 40 – 50 minutes. Poke a small pointed knife through the topping to test if the apples are done. They should feel soft, but they should still offer a little resistance. This pie should not be cooked so long that the apples fall to pieces. The topping will be a toasty brown.

Serve the pie warm or at room temperature.

When you knead bread dough for a long period of time, you are developing the stretchy gluten fibers. This is exactly what you don’t want to do with pie crust. That would result in a tough, bread-like crust.

You can make a great crust by hand using a pastry blender or two knives, or with a food processor. The basic technique is very much the same.

Recipe for a 10” double crust pie:

2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup cold butter PLUS 4 Tablespoons cold solid shortening, cut into small pieces
OR ¾ cup total cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons ice water

By hand: Place the flour, salt, butter and solid shortening in a medium sized bowl. Using a pastry blender or two table knives, cut the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles very course meal. The little pieces of butter should be about 1/8” across.

Dribble in 5 Tablespoons of ice water and mix quickly using your fingertips. The dough will look like a bowl full of moist crumbs. Turn the dough out on to your counter and firmly press it into a low mound. Using a wide knife or bench scraper, cut the mound in half, pick up one half, place it on top of the other half and press down to reform the flattened mound.

The dough will still look terribly crumbly at this point and will look very unpromising. Don’t worry. Keep repeating the cutting, layering and flattening process until the dough comes together into a solid mass. Since you have not been pulling and stretching the dough, it won’t have developed the tough gluten in the flour, and it will bake up into a delicate, flaky crust.

Cut your lump of pie dough in half and press down on each of the halves to flatten them out slightly. Wrap the two pieces of dough in plastic or waxed paper. Refrigerate them for 10 to 15 minutes. Roll the pie dough out on a generously floured surface, using a floured rolling pin.

Proceed as directed in whatever recipe you are using.

Using a Food Processor: Place the flour, salt, butter and solid shortening in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 4 or 5times, or until the fat has been cut into pieces about the size of peas.

Pour 5 Tablespoons of ice water down the feed tube. Process just until the dough starts to look damp and clump together. This should only take a few seconds. Don’t over-do it.

You may want to add a tiny bit more water if you think the dough is taking too long to come together.

Turn the dough out on to the counter and proceed as described in the instructions for making pie crust by hand.

You can store your dough in the refrigerator for later use. If you do, just be sure you let it sit at room temperature for a little while to soften before rolling.

I love pies. I make them all the time, but it wasn’t until quite recently that I noticed that my pie baking had definite patterns; Rhubarb in May, Apple in September, Maple Pecan in the long days of December.

Never mind the fact that I always freeze quantities of rhubarb; somehow I don’t think to use it until the new crop is just starting to poke through the soil. Never mind the fact that I can buy apples and pecans at the grocery store at any time of the year. My pie baking seems as firmly regulated by some internal clock as does my waking and sleeping.

In this book, I have put together a calendar of pies, with a different recipe for every month of the year. Of course you can use them whenever you like. Just because my family gets Lemon Meringue in April doesn’t mean that yours can’t be eating Classic Apple Pie.

I’ve also included a tried and true recipe for Basic Pie Crust, and four recipes for savory pies that know no season.

I hope you come to enjoy making pies as much as I do. You may find that you develop pie patterns of your own.

Lucy

The gatherings seemed huge, with more cousins and relatives than I could then count.  I remember sitting on the steps in Aunt’s house with all of the other little kids, singing my heart out, trying to remember all of the words, enfolded in what seemed to me to be the essence of Christmas.

Now, as a much older woman, Christmas still brings anticipation, joy and family gatherings, but it is bitter-sweet as well.  The loving gatherings are smaller. 

I remember all those dear ones that are gone.  I miss the fullness of the family, but I feel incredibly blessed that I can hold all of those memories in my heart.

This year, I celebrate the love with which I am surrounded.  I celebrate that my darling son Dan will this year be marrying Michaela, his long-time love and partner. 

I celebrate that my wonderful son Alan will be marrying Maria, that the two are expecting a second child this summer to join their son, Paul Graves, and that the family has plans to move to the Concord area in New Hampshire.  My cup runneth over.

With love and best wishes for you and your family, this time of year and always,

Lucy

Nice to hear from you, Lori:

Lots of people ask about cookie molds.  I really feel that is a body of work that is complete for me, a closed chapter.  I have also been asked if I would sell the designs so someone else could produce them.  That feels even worse.

I truly believe that the reason people have responded to the molds the way they have is because they represent a very personal product in an increasingly impersonal marketplace.  They are a little piece of me.  They are tools that people can use to create something personal for them to give to someone they care about.  It would be a violation of core beliefs to past the molds on to some company that wouldn’t understand this, just to make money.  I destroyed all of the master molds to make sure this could never happen.

The good news is that almost everything shows up on e-bay sooner or later.  Also, I would like to dedicate some portion of my blog as a place where people could post the designs they are looking for.

May I post the part of your letter that asks about the cookie molds?  So many people have the same question that I think they might be interested in why there will be no more cookie molds.

Enjoy the autumn.  I hope you aren’t quite as soggy as I am here in NH.  We’re growing moss on our moss.

Best,
Lucy