Today’s “Quarantine Cooking” adventure comes from one of our readers! Kimberly Voss, professor of journalism at the University of Central Florida, was inspired by our series of staff posts to make Mango Pie from a classic cookbook that we published nearly 50 years ago: Jane Nickerson’s Florida Cookbook.
Here’s why Kimberly chose this recipe:
This recipe sounded comforting during these challenging times. When Jane Nickerson (the first food editor at the New York Times—before she relocated to Florida) wrote this recipe in 1973, mangoes were considered an exotic fruit and she included it in a “Lesser Known Fruits and Vegetables” section in her cookbook. She was a scholar of her adopted state.
Mango Pie
- Pastry for a 2-crust pie (9 inch)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 3 ½ cups peeled, sliced, half-ripe mangoes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Line a pie pan with the pastry. Chill. Chill pastry for the top pie crust also.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour.
- Arrange a layer of mangoes in the pastry shell. Sprinkle with some of the sugar mixture. Repeat layering fruit and sugar mixture until ingredients are used. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and butter. Cover with remaining pastry; make slits in the top.
- Bake 10 minutes on the lowest rack in the oven. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 30 to 40 minutes longer, or until mangoes are tender (test by inserting a paring knife through a vent in the pastry). Remove and cool on a rack.
Variation: Substitute 1 cup ripe papaya slices for 1 cup mangoes. Increase the lemon juice to 2 tablespoons.
Kimberly’s verdict:
The pie was amazing. This is wonderful and easy to make. Luckily, mangoes are easy to find at the grocery store—even during the pandemic. This would also work well with peaches.
Photos by Lance Speere
The Florida Bookshelf 