Pennsylvania Dutch Corn Pie

Late April in Tulsa. Brayden is thirty-one weeks old. He is crawling consistently now — not just the eight-inch crawl from last Saturday but full thirty-foot crawls across the apartment’s open floor. The apartment is on the second round of baby-proofing. The outlet covers are in. The cabinet locks are in. The bookshelf is anchored to the wall. The coffee table’s sharp corners are padded. The space is now mostly his to navigate.

The Pennsylvania Dutch corn pie is a heritage recipe from Mama’s grandmother — Grandma Carlton, my great-grandmother, who married into the Carlton family from a Pennsylvania-Dutch family in Lancaster County in 1936 and brought a small notebook of family recipes with her to Oklahoma when the family moved west. The corn pie is a savory pie — a double-crust pie filled with sweet corn, chopped onion, diced ham, hard-boiled egg, parsley, and a milk-and-egg custard that sets during the bake.

The pie is a heritage recipe that has been in the family for ninety years. I had not made it before. Mama had made it three times in my life that I remember — at the 1998 family reunion when I was not yet born, at the 2008 reunion when I was seven and Cody was thirteen, and at Grandpa Eldon’s funeral lunch in 2011 when I was nine. The recipe was in the small handwritten notebook Mama keeps in the kitchen drawer at her house in Sapulpa.

Mama had photocopied the recipe page for me Wednesday and Cody had brought the photocopy up to Tulsa on his Friday afternoon visit. The pie is the kind of pie that connects the generations: the woman who wrote the recipe in 1936 was my great-grandmother; the woman who made the recipe at the 2008 reunion was my mother; the woman making the recipe Sunday in 2022 is me; the boy crawling on the apartment floor next to me is my son.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
2/3 cup cold butter, cubed
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
3 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 cup diced celery
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Make the crust. In a large bowl, combine flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cut in cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until the dough holds together. Divide dough in half, flatten into discs, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disc of dough and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate, letting the edges hang over slightly.
Build the filling. Layer half the corn over the bottom crust, followed by the sliced hard-boiled eggs, onion, bell pepper, and celery. Season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Add the remaining corn on top. Pour milk evenly over the filling and dot the surface with small pieces of butter.
Top and seal. Roll out the second disc of dough and lay it over the filling. Trim both crusts to a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold and crimp the edges to seal. Cut several small vents in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake. Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling through the vents. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pennsylvania Dutch Corn Pie