crust is really nice with something sweet.” After taking the butter out of the freezer, she moved quickly and calmly, working the butter in with her thumbs, showing us the texture of the dough as she went along. “If it starts to look like a shaggy cookie dough before you add liquid, you’ve gone too far.” It should have a mealy consistency, with a few smaller and larger chunks of butter remaining. Then Donovan slowly added some of the ice water — about one-fourth cup, then a tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together when squeezed. She turned the dough out onto a plastic, floured cutting board and worked it over just a few times until a ball formed. She wrapped it in plastic and then put it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. As the dough cooled, she combined the ingredients for the pie’s filling — a bowl of very thinly sliced Meyer lemons that had macerated in sugar with eggs, salt and almond flavoring. This time of year, Donovan likes a Shaker Meyer Lemon Pie. “I sort of block the months of the year off with types of pie,” she says. “I get really tired of buttermilk and sweet potato pies by this time. I just love citrus in winter.” In the Shaker way, this pie combines simple ingredients and makes no waste — even using the skins of the lemons with just a few basic ingredients. “It’s essentially like a lemon custard,” she says. The pie speaks to Donovan’s philosophy since she prefers church cookbooks purchased at flea markets over pricey celebrity chef versions. She doesn’t have a lot of expensive tools in the kitchen, and while she can certainly appreciate a good bakery, she gets just as excited “about women who were making divinity in the ’60s.” Donovan pulled the dough from the freezer. She mashed divots in it with her fingers (a trick that keeps dough from splitting that she learned from an elderly friend). She rolled the dough into a thin piece, placed it in the pie pan, filled it with the lemon mixture and then topped the pie with a second layer of dough. She crimped the edges, demonstrating her technique, and then dusted it with sugar before slipping it into the oven. While the lemon pie began baking, she formed the remaining pastry into fruitfilled hand pies, cutting them into round shapes with the back of a tea plate. “It’s not how fancy you can make it, it’s how good you can make it with what you’ve got,” she says.
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