Blueberry Pie: Remembering Gideon’s, the Last Kosher Bakery in Washington Heights

When I first moved to Washington Heights some years back, I was entranced at the idea of living in a real live Jewish neighborhood. There was something faintly mythical about it all—nostalgic, even, for some Disney-fied ancestral past, so unlike the suburban California of my childhood. The wholesome-looking families out on their Shabbos walks. The courting couples walking back from the subway at night, smiling shyly, never touching. The shelves, plural, of yahrzeit candles in the kosher aisle at the local Key Food. (Why yes, there is a lot to unpack here!)

And then there was Gideon’s, the last remaining kosher bakery in Washington Heights, a holdover from the neighborhood’s glory days as a haven for German Jewish refugees in the mid-20th century, when the population of immigrants from Germany was so high the area was known as  Frankfort on the Hudson. Washington Heights was, at the time, home to numerous kosher bakeries, butchers, and businesses of all kinds. By 2012, though, Gideon’s was the last holdout—the last commercial one, anyway; there are still some older residents who grew up in the German enclave, and an active German shul. And now, since summer 2016, it’s gone too—and the space it occupied remains vacant, two years on. Sometimes I still walk by, gaze longingly into the empty windows, salivating after a phantom caraway salt stick.

When I wrote about the recent closing of Glaser’s Bake Shop on the Upper East Side, I mentioned Gideon’s in passing, with a nod to their retro-tastic sugar cookie blueberry pie. Though it wasn’t my most frequent purchase—that’d be the challah rolls, whether egg or water, soft or hard, whole wheat or white, plain or everything, all shockingly cheap—it was, I think, my favorite. Yes, even surpassing the abundant selection of my beloved sprinkle cookies.

Though I miss Gideon’s dearly, I can’t in all honesty say the quality was uniformly high. Their challah could be hit or miss, and their decorated cakes, while pretty to look at, fell somewhere short of delicious. So did the rugelach (though, to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted great pareve rugelach).

But there was plenty that was good. They had all kinds of holiday treats—from hamantaschen-shaped challah around Purim to apple- and shofar-shaped honey cookies at Rosh Hashanah to, improbably enough, Christmas tree sugar cookies in December. Gideon’s was the place where I first learned that yeast-dough hamantaschen were a thing (and they made a pretty solid rendition themselves), and they made a mean prune Danish.

But, as I said, my absolute favorite was their blueberry pie. It had that sweet, gooey pie filling that could’ve (and probably did) come straight from a can, the kind I secretly crave even though I shouldn’t. And being pareve, as most of Gideon’s goods were, they had to get a little creative with the crust. Instead of the sort of rich, flaky butter bomb more commonly associated with pie, this crust was straight-up sugar cookie. It was sweet. It was simple. It was delicious.

This is not that pie. I admit this post is, in large part, motivated by my desire to bake another pie featuring Serious Eats’ divine vodka pie crust (flaky butter bomb variant). I made a pie for the first time in years last weekend for my mother’s birthday (sour cherry and peach; I didn’t blog it, but you can catch it on my Instagram if you’re curious). It is the Platonic ideal of pie crusts. I hear you can get similar results using vinegar instead of vodka, but why mess with a good thing? (Even so, I promise you a sugar cookie pie crust another day!)

And the filling? The filling is tart, citrus-kissed, faintly floral. Not much like the canned stuff, nostalgically satisfying as it can be.

The vodka pie crust is from Serious Eats; the filling is inspired by recipes from Serious Eats and Bon Appetit.

Vodka Pie Crust

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons sugar

12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch slices

½ cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

¼ cup cold vodka

¼ cup cold water

Process 1 ½ cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl with spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Blueberry Filling

4 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained, or frozen

5 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup granulated sugar

Toss blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a large bowl. If you like, smash some of the blueberries with a potato masher or fork to release more juices.

To Assemble

Remove one chilled disk of dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature 5 minutes to soften. Roll out the disk on a lightly floured surface to ⅛” thick (about 16″ in diameter). Transfer one round to a tempered-glass pie plate or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.

Scrape into prepared pie shell and top with remaining dough, using a solid sheet, cutouts, or a lattice-top design. Trim away excess dough and refrigerate to ensure top crust is completely chilled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 400°F.

To Bake the Pie

Place chilled pie on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan. Bake until crust is golden, about 40 minutes, then loosely cover with tented foil. Continue baking until filling is bubbling, about 15 minutes longer. The time can vary considerably depending on the thickness and type of pie plate, the amount of top crust, how long the pie was refrigerated, et cetera.

Cool for approximately 3 hours. Serve slightly warm, at room temperature, or cold. Refrigerate leftovers, up to 4 days.