Fried Pie Recipe

Missouri's First Fried Pie Shop Comes To Eureka

Construction is under way on a new restaurant in Eureka that will be different from any others in town. The new eatery will feature flaky, fried pies of all types. The fruit and nut pies come in many flavors, including pineapple, pecan, peach, apricot, apple, blackberry and cherry.

“All of our fruit pies can be made sugar free,” said Agnes Wong, a Wildwood resident who is part owner of the shop.

In addition to fruit and nut fillings, they have cream pies made in lemon, vanilla, coconut and chocolate flavors. Customers can fold in any fruits or nuts into a cream filling to customize their pie. 

The restaurant will have pies for breakfast, including sausage, egg and cheese and bacon, egg and cheese. For lunch or dinner, the various pies include the varieties of pizza, Tex-Mex, chicken and vegetables, beef and vegetables, spinach and mushroom, broccoli and chicken, and a specialty pie called “comfort food.” This pie has Polish sausage and potatoes in a light cheese sauce.  

“All of these pies can be made in just four minutes,” said Wong. "So this is a good way to get a quick meal at an affordable price."  

Wong grew up in the restaurant business, but she has been a tax accountant for the last 25 years. “This is the first Fried Pie shop in Missouri. My partner and I are franchising the shops all through the state.”

The franchise started in 2009 with the first restaurant in Davis, OK. There are now 11 shops, with seven in Texas and two in Arkansas.

“One of these pies is a meal in itself. Most of the pies cost $3 to $4. They’re very filling,” Wong said.

The new eatery will have enough seating for around 40 people and they will offer carry-out as well. "We want to have a homey feel at the new shop," said Michael Wilkes, a co-owner of the new venture. "Fried pies are very much a Southern tradition, and we think our pies taste just like the ones grandma used to make."  

Eureka resident Jacob Wolf is the manager of the new restaurant, and he is looking forward to the store opening. He has been training in some of the other locations throughout the country. "I know that our menu will be a crowd-pleaser," said Wolf. "Everything is made fresh daily, never frozen." 

Nancy Fulton, the "fried pie lady," is the founder of this chain of restaurants. In 1990, she decided to use her grandmother's fried pie recipe as a new concept in dining.

Pieday: Fried pies galore at the two Ms. Lena's | Eat Arkansas

Summer seems to be the season for fried pies… which, while not set in a pie tin or topped with meringue, are indeed pies. There’s no denying the appeal.

This week marked the introduction of a new restaurant in the tiny community of Casscoe. That’s where Carl’s makin’ his mamma’s pies. Ms. Lena’s Fried Pies and Café opened Monday. There you’ll find the famed pies, along with pork BBQ sandwiches, burgers and beignets, five days a week. Carl plans to be open Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thing is, it ain’t easy to get there. While the instructions don’t include the term “turn off the paved road,” Casscoe is a good hour and a half from Little Rock. And Ms. Lena’s is tucked far back in the community, past the post office and off the main highway. The good thing going for the place is that it’s on Cooks Lake Road — which is be-speckled with large duck lodges that will be full come this fall.

I tried my first strawberry fried pie there last Monday. Man oh man, it’s just strawberries and sugar, no gelatin or spices or none of that, wrapped in Ms. Lena’s own recipe fried pie dough — which only Carl makes. Don’t worry, pie worshippers, he’s still cranking that dough out on Saturdays for the original Ms. Lena’s in DeValls Bluff. More, plus directions, over at Tie Dye Travels .

Cecil, I'm not quite sure what you mean by a floury dough, but I can second your statement about pan frying. My grandmothers pan-fried their fried pies, too. My Louisiana-born grandmother called them tarts instead of fried pies, as an aside.

As deep-frying becomes the norm for almost any fried dishes (fried chicken, fried okra, e.g.) that have long been typical of the Southern table, people both in the South and elsewhere are beginning to assume that these dishes have always been deep-fried. They haven't. They've been pan-fried, lovingly, slowly, carefully, usually at home, in small batches.

And there's no comparison at all between the flavor and texture of those traditional Southern fried dishes when they've been pan-fried, and when they've been deep-fried. The decision of restaurants to go with the latter technique, and to call it "traditional" Southern cooking, is driven by monetary motives.

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