Name: Nostalgic Curly Slab Pie from 1950s
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 12 Servings
Cuisine: Russian
Ingredients: Sugar: 1 cup; Flour: 2 cups; Large eggs: 3 each; Baking powder: 1/2 tsp; Butter: 3/4 cup or 12 Tbsp; Fruit jam: 1 cup; Powdered sugar: 2 Tbsp

Cuisine:

Russian

Give This Slab Pie A Try!

40 minutes
Serves 12
Easy

Ingredients

1 cup Sugar
2 cups Flour
3 each Large eggs
1/2 tsp Baking powder
3/4 cup or 12 Tbsp Butter
Can be substituted for margarine
1 cup Fruit jam
I have baked this pie with Apricot and Peach Jam, Orange Marmalade, Grape Jelly, Apple Butter
2 Tbsp Powdered sugar
Optional

Directions

Curly Slab Pie from 1950s

A nostalgic curly slab pie from 1950s. This slab pie was widely popular in Eastern Europe. It was especially loved in the Soviet Russia, where every respected hostess had her own favorite recipe for it. Curly Slab Pie is a very versatile recipe. You can bake it with any fruit filling of your liking. You will still get amazing results! Curly Slab Pie is easy and cheap to make, so no wonder that folks have been enjoying it for generations.

I got this recipe from my Aunt Irina, who lives in the Asian megapolis of Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan. Auntie has been baking it for family and friends for years and years. She got this recipe from her Godmother, who started baking it back in 1970s. We only know that she acquired the recipe from her mom who made it in 1950s. That is as far as I can track it down in my family. What about yours? Have you guys been baking it, too?

Who invented the FIRST GRATER?

I think there is a good chance that home cooks have been baking a Curly Slab Pie in its multiple variations since the days of when the very first grater was invented! Do you know when that happened? I’d say go to your kitchen, take a good look at your grater and get this: THE FIRST GRATER WAS INVENTED IN FRANCE IN 19540! Wow, who knew! Francois Boullier, a French gentleman, who evidently got tired of slicing hard cheeses by hand, invented a cheese grater and made it of pewter. I think that for his invention, he deserved a monument in his honor! Without his genius, there is no way that we would be able to bake this Curly Slab Pie any time whenever the mood strikes!

How else could one improve a cheese grater?

So if there is a detailed history of cheese graters out there, I have not had a privilege of reading one. I bet that it would be highly entertaining. Some folks collect cheese graters, did you know? And some curious minds are never satisfied with the state of things as they are. So once upon a time, back in the Great Depression times, to be exact, there lived an American gentleman named Jeffrey Taylor of Philadelphia. Jeffrey tried his best to stretch a buck, so he made his own cheese grater upon the Monsieur Boullier’s invention. You ask me how? He got creative and sharpened the holes in a metal shower drain! Kathleen Thompson Hill, a writer at Culture Cheese Mag , has an interesting article on the history of cheese graters.

Now I don’t know if Jeffrey Taylor’s wife baked him a Curly Slab Pie or not. And if she did, did she do it with the help of that shower drain or not? That I cannot tell you, but I am positive that you should give this amazing pie a try!

When you want something foreign yet accessible that is coming straight from your kitchen oven, very these oh-so-good Danish Hazelnut Cookies!

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Steps

1 Done	Preheat the oven to 375F.
2 Done	In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter (or margarine). Stir and let it cool for 5 minutes.
3 Done	Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl beat by hand eggs and sugar. Add butter to the mix and give it a stir. Add flour, sprinkle baking powder on top and mix it all together, first with a spoon, then by hand. You should get a ball of stiff dough. Divide it and roll into 4-5 small balls. Cover dough with a plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
4 Done	Grease a cookie sheet lightly with cooking spray, oil or butter. On a large hole side of your cheese grater, grate half of the dough balls onto the cookie sheet. Spread the curls evenly on the cookie sheet and press them down with the palm of your hand. With a knife or a spatula, smear fruit jam or jelly of your choice evenly on top of the pressed dough.
5 Done	Grate the rest of the dough balls evenly over the jam filling. Press the curls down lightly. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the dough curls on top turn golden brown.
6 Done	Sprinkle the curly slab pie with powdered sugar when still warm. Let the pie cool off, cut in pieces and enjoy!