Butterscotch Pie

As you may have noticed if you’re a regular around here, I am very fond of pie. It’s not as mainstream, it seems,  as cake or as trendy as cupcakes but to me, pie is the quintessential Appalachian dessert. My mom makes delicious made-from-scratch cream pies like chocolate and coconut. She doesn’t have a recipe for either, she just makes it up as she goes but pinning her down to an actual recipe is on my to-do list. In the meantime, I swiped this recipe from her recipe box.

The funny thing about this recipe is that I don’t remember her ever actually making butterscotch pie. The original recipe is type written and aged, but she doesn’t remember its origin. It was somewhat vague so I’ve tried to make it more specific where I could. It’s absolutely delicious and very easy to make. No boxed fillings here, just the essentials: brown sugar, milk, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt, and flour.

Try it, and amaze your family with a delicious, homemade pie!

Butterscotch Pie

You’ll need:

1 baked pie shell (I use a frozen crust; follow package instructions)

Filling:
3 egg yolks
2 cups of whole milk
1 cup of brown sugar
6 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Combine eggs and milk in a deep dish skillet (I used cast iron) or a medium saucepan. Don’t turn on heat until mixture is well combined. You don’t want scrambled eggs here.

 Once combined well, turn on heat to medium. Add in sugar, flour and salt. Cook, stirring constantly until thick. This make take a while. You’ll start to wonder if anything is going to happen. Then just as Phil Collins feels it coming through the air tonight, you’ll feel the mixture start to actually thicken and turn into pie filling. Oh, Lord. When that happens, turn the heat down to low and add in:

4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir into filling until well combined. It’s going to smell unbelievably amazing. Pour into baked pie shell. Lick the spoon and whatever kind of pan you mixed this up in. At this point, your pie is done. The filling is cooked and you’ve baked your shell. You have several options. You can eat it just like this when cooled.

You could top it with some Cool Whip or Redi-Whip as you serve it. Or you can go the traditional route, and make a meringue. Since you’ve already got the egg whites, why not go for it?

For the meringue:

Beat 3 egg whites with 3 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form. I use a stand up mixer and beat the egg whites and sugar for several minutes using the whisk attachment at medium speed. ​

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Pour meringue on top of filled pie, making sure to spread it to the edges of the pie as the meringue will shrink a little and you don’t want to leave your pie feeling exposed.

Bake at 400 degrees until the meringue is brown, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Perfection!