Over twenty-five years ago, my old friend, Patricia Butler—God rest her soul—hand-wrote some of her favorite recipes for Ray and me before she died. She had been a production baker at the Old Pecan Street Cafe, one of Austin’s favorite breakfast-and-brunch spots in the 1980s and ’90s, and she was among the bakers who produced the pastries and baked goods the restaurant was famous for.

Today, I pulled out Patricia’s recipes and flipped through them slowly, reminding myself of what she had included. That’s when I stumbled upon her recipe for honey-sweetened buttermilk pie. I hadn’t tried it before, but I knew that if Patricia had included it, it would be good. With the better part of a quart of buttermilk left over from a peach cobbler I’d made for our family Christmas dinner, I thought, No time like the present.

Though I trusted Patricia’s cooking chops, I also knew baking with honey wasn’t her specialty, so my expectations were low. Still, once the two pies came out of the oven and had been refrigerated for a few hours, Ray and I were both pleasantly surprised by just how good they were. Not too sweet, with just the right hint of lemon flavoring from a quarter cup of fresh lemon juice. My only tweak might be to add a little lemon zest and perhaps serve the pie with a honey-sweetened blueberry compote on the side. Other than that—just right.

Two thoughts came to mind from today’s baking experiment. First, Patricia really was an excellent baker. Second, my friend’s love and presence felt as close as that handwritten recipe book itself. It was as if she reached across time to tell us both that she loved us.

We love her, too.

I’m sure she was chuckling as she watched us both take just a sliver more of her buttermilk pie, about which she had written, “Affectionately referred to as ‘BM’ pie.” That was—and is—Patricia, alive and well in another dimension and surely whipping up her award-winning pecan pie that made the Old Pecan Street Cafe famous in Austin.

I can’t wait to try more of these recipes, but we might have to pace ourselves. We do need to be able to fit through the front door.

Below are photos of the finished pie, her booklet to us, and her recipe. Feel free to give it a try. I think you’ll like it.