Crème Brulee Pie
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comIt took me three tries to get this pie to turn out. Sometimes everyone has trouble in the kitchen. The first try never congealed. It was a wet mess! The second filling was boiled too long and went into the hard cracked stage of sugar, and had a deep burned taste. The third time was the charm. You must watch the sugar boiling. You have about 15 seconds of a window that it needs to come off the stove top before you have over-cooked it.
I start with a freezer pie crust. Thaw it for about 10 minutes and press the areas together that have separated during shipping. Follow the directions on the shell to cook it. The only thing I do differently when I cook an open shell is use pie weights. Take a piece of aluminum foil and spray (with Pam) the part that is going to touch the shell. Push the foil into the bottom of the shell and put a layer of pie weights. If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dried beans or peas. Cook until golden, and then cool.
Have a strainer and a large bowl ready for when you have to strain the filling. Have the egg yolk mixture ready to go also. Have one of the cups of cream on the stove area ready to use also. You need to stop the heat as soon as you can when the boiling sugar has reached the right point. You must have a silicone or high heat spatula for stirring the sugar mixture. Be very careful of the boiling sugar mixture, it is like molten lava! It will burn you very fast if you get it on yourself.
Ingredients:
Directions
Filling:
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comIn a small bowl, mix together corn starch, flour and milk. Add egg yolks and 1 teaspoon butter flavor. Mix well. Try to get all the lumps out. Set aside.
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comIn a medium non-stick sauce pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Add in sugar, corn syrup and 2 tablespoons of cream. Cook on medium heat. The mixture will dry out to begin with. As it cooks, the sugar will start to melt. *** You must watch this the whole time you are cooking it. After the sugar melts, will start out as a light brown. Turn the heat down to medium low or low.
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comThe longer you cook it, the darker it will get. Stir it quite often. Between 12-15 minutes it will be a very dark brown color. Just as you see the first sign of wispy smoke … Take it off the heat. Add the one cup of cream, very carefully! It will bubble up—do not get any on you. Keep stirring until you feel that the heat has come down and it is not cooking the sugar any more. Continue stirring until the temperature has cooled down quite a bit.
While whisking, add a little bit of the hot syrup to the egg mixture. You are warming the egg mixture up, so when you add it to the sugar mixture it does not scramble the eggs. While stirring, add the warmed up egg mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix well. Cook until thickened.
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comPlace the sugar custard into a fine strainer over a large bowl and get as much of the mixture out of the strainer without lumps as possible. After strained, add one tablespoon of butter and ½ teaspoon butter flavoring. Mix well. Cool slightly and put into the cooled pie shell. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Meringue:
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comPre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until they look frothy. Gradually beat in sugar a little of a time. Add the vanilla and beat it until you get stiff peaks and it looks glossy. Put all of the meringue of the top of the pie. Push it to the edges to seal it. Place the flat part of the spatula on parts of the top and pull it away quickly to make the swirl on the top.
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.comBake for 8-10 minutes until topping is golden. Re-chill the whole pie 10 hours. Serve cold.
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.com
