Enjoy these traditional Vermont Recipes
We hope you enjoy these wonderful, country Vermont recipes. They have been shared with us by real Vermonters who have lived and worked in our beautiful state through generations. Just the sort of dishes you would expect from families brought up in small villages, family farms, maple orchards and maple tree filled woodlands.
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A special thanks to Scott Wheeler of the Vermont Northland Journal for making these recipes available to us. Scott’s work is famous around the world and highlights the history of the fabled Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Give yourself, friends or loved ones a gift of a subscription to his wonderful publication today!
Pittsburgh Potato
The following recipe was provided by Donald Wheatley. In the early 1930’s his mother Mary, was asked to make a casserole for a church supper and was given the recipe. Like many cooks at that time she made extra to feed the family at home. It proved to be something that the family did enjoy – and still does. Donald’s mother passed away in 1979 at 92 years of age. This recipe is just a small token of something wonderful she left behind.
(from Mary Markolf Wheatley, born 1886 – died 1979)
- 1 quart of raw potatoes, cube and boil until slightly tender, drain and put in baking dish
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 can pimentos, cut into small pieces and added to onion and cook 5 minutes
Add to:
White Sauce
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
- 1 pint of whole milk
- 1/2 pound of cheddar cheese
Pour over potatoes and bake until brown.
Maple Pudding Cake
Rachel Ducharme, shares a family recipe
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup of milk
- 1-1/2 cups maple syrup
- 3/4 cup of water
- 2 tablespoons butter
Directions: Heat the maple syrup, water and butter in small saucepan until butter melts. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk. Pour into a greased 8″ pan. Pour heated syrup over the batter, do not stir. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped topping. Serves about 6.
Almond Macaroons
- 1 – (7 ounce) package almond paste (7 or 8 ounces)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 egg whites
- 3 dozen blanched whole almonds
Directions: Grease cookie sheet. Break almond paste into small pieces in large bowl. Stir in flour, powdered sugar and almond extract. Add egg whites. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed about 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until smooth.
Place dough in decorating bag fitted with #9 rosette tip. Pipe 1 1/2-inch cookies about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Top each with almond. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 325º. Bake about 12 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Store in airtight container.
Banana-Cornmeal Cookies
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (1 medium)
- 1 egg
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions: Heat oven to 375º. Grease cookie sheet. Beat brown sugar, 1/2 cup
granulated sugar, the butter, banana and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. (If dough is too soft to shape, cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.)
Mix 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with fork dipped into cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
Graham Muffins
- 1-1/2 cups white flour
- 3/4 cup graham flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons Crisco oil
Beat egg until light. Add milk alternately with
dry ingredients. Stir. Add sugar. Add Crisco oil. Stir.
Pour into greased muffin pans. Bake 15 min. at 400.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1-1/4 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca (a grainy starch that comes in a little box), dash of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Cut 1 pound of rhubarb stalks into half-inch pieces to make 3 cups. Quarter enough strawberries to make 2 cups. Add the rhubarb pieces and strawberry chunks to the sugar mix and toss gently to coat the “fruit.” Let it stand for 15 minutes, while you make your favorite double-crust pie crust recipe and roll out the top and bottom crusts.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and assemble the pie. Seal the edge, and cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape. To prevent over browning of crust edges, cover the edge of the pie with foil (I tear a sheet of foil into thirds and join them to make a long strand to wrap the edge). Bake for 25 minutes; remove the foil and bake 25 minutes more. Cool before serving.
An excellent change to this recipe comes from Deb Evans and Hadley Evans Nash in Middlebury, where instead you place the rhubarb and strawberries into the bottom crust first. Then heat together (over low heat) 3/4 cup maple syrup, 1/3 cup butter, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons cornstarch,
until it steams. Remove from the heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. This recipe bakes for the same amount of time (50 minutes) but at 350 degrees instead.
Old Fashioned Rice Pudding
- 4 cups milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp. long grain white rice (not instant)
- Dash of nutmeg
Bake in buttered casserole at 350F for several hours. Stir 3 times in first hour and then frequently over the next 3+ hours. Add milk as it gets dry and stir crust into pudding. Bake until thick and creamy.
Snow Pudding with Custard Sauce
- 2 pkgs. unflavored gelatin
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups boiling water
- 5 egg whites
Dissolve pkgs. of unflavored gelatin in cold water and add lemon juice. Add this to sugar and boiling water. Let it set until it is syrupy and just starting to set. Beat egg whites ’til fluffy and beat in gelatin mixture and pour into cold wet mold or individual dishes and chill.
Graham Muffins
- 1-1/2 cups white flour
- 3/4 cup graham flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons Crisco oil
Beat egg until light. Add milk alternately with dry ingredients. Stir. Add sugar. Add Crisco oil. Stir.
Pour into greased muffin pans. Bake 15 min. at 400.
Blueberries and Cream Pie
Make pie shell. Fill with 3 cups blueberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup cream
Turn mixture over berries. Bake at 400 degrees for 35–40 minutes. Serve hot.
Apple Roll-Up
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 2 cups hot water
- Melt the sugar and water together and set aside.
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Roll mixture long like a jelly roll. Fix 3 cups diced apple. Place on dough. Dot with butter and cinnamon.
Roll up and cut in slices. Drop each into a Pyrex glass pan of hot syrup mixture.
Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.
Traditional Apple Pie
- 5 cups thinly sliced apples
- 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1-½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water, beaten
- Sparkling sugar for crust, (optional)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out the dough for the bottom of the pie and place into the bottom of a lightly greased 9-inch oven-safe pie dish. In a large bowl, add apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Toss around to coat evenly.
Pour the entire filling into the pie dish, on top of the pie crust. Spread into an even layer.
Add butter throughout the filling. Roll out the remaining dough for the top of the pie. Do whatever design you want but all I did was roll it out and put it on top and crimped the edges with the bottom crust to seal.
Brush egg mixture on top of pie then sprinkle sparkling sugar throughout. Using a sharp knife, create a steam hole on top.
Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes.
If the crust looks like it’s getting too brown, you can tent it with foil, but I had no issues so I didn’t need to do that.
Let sit for 15 minutes then slice and enjoy with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
Pie Crust
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter or 1 cup shortening
- 5–9 tablespoons ice cold water
In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt. Stir to mix together. If you are using any butter, cut it into small pieces.
Work in the fat (butter, shortening, or combination of the two) into the flour using a fork, pastry blender, or food processor. If you are using butter, be sure to leave small, pea sized chunks of butter. Don’t overwork the dough!
If you used a food processor, add the fat and flour mixture back in to the bowl.
Add some ice water a small amount at a time, stirring after each addition. The pie crust should just start to come together and should stick together when you press some in your hand. You don’t want it to be sticky, but don’t be afraid of adding too much water either.
When the dough comes together, dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Use your hand to form the dough into a uniform mound.
Separate the dough into two each pieces. Place one half on another piece of plastic wrap. Press each half into a round disc and wrap well in plastic wrap.
Chill for 15-30 minutes. Then roll and use as directed in the pie recipe above.
Company Casserole
- 1 pkg. (8 oz.) medium noodles
- 1-1/2 lbs. ground beef
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 teaspoons pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
- 1 cup dairy sour cream
- 1 cup creamed cottage cheese
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese.
Cook noodles until tender. Drain and rinse. Melt butter and add hamburger. Cook. Add salt, pepper, garlic salt, and tomato sauce. Simmer 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, onions, and noodles. Alternate layers of noodles and meat mixtures in 2-qt casserole. Top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Snickerdoodles
Mix together:
- 1 cup soft shortening
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- Sift and add:
- 2-3/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Chill. Roll into medium balls. Roll in mixture of 2 teaspoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Place on ungreased tin.
Bake 8 minutes at 375 degrees. Cookies should be soft when removed from oven. Do not overbake.
Filled Cookies
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 3-1/2 cups flower
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk
- Salt
Roll thin and place a teaspoon full of filling* on circle, cover with another circle of dough, pressing edges together firmly. Bake about 14 minutes at 350 or 375 degrees.
*(Marmalades, jelly, or preserves may be used. You can also fill these cookies with grape jelly or pineapple preserves.)
