| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 1 hr 20 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 50 min |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons Scotch whisky
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup whipped cream, for garnish
- Piecrust, baked blind, recipe follows
- 2 egg whites
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 12 ounces (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup ice water (strain out the ice just before using)
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, combine the milk and cream, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside.
- In a large, heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Stir in the brown sugar, raise the heat to medium-high, and cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly, to caramelize the mixture. (You will smell a characteristic nutty-caramel odor when the butter browns, signaling that the mixture is ready.)
- Whisking constantly, gradually add the butter/brown sugar mixture to the hot milk/cream mixture. If the mixture is not smooth, blend for 20 seconds with a hand blender or pour through a fine sieve.
- Put the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk in about 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture. Whisk in the cornstarch and salt until dissolved. Whisk the cornstarch mixture back into the hot milk mixture in the saucepan. Add the scotch and whisk in.
- Whisking constantly, cook over medium-high heat until thick and just boiling. When the mixture thickens, the whisk will leave trail marks on the bottom of the pot and the mixture will have a few large bubbles boiling up to the top.
- Turn off the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract. Pour into the pre-baked pie shell and chill, uncovered, at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- For the meringue top: Whip whites with the salt to soft peaks, then add sugar and whip until sugar is dissolved and whites are glossy. Spread meringue on top of the slightly cooled pie and bake for 5 minutes until lightly browned (cappuccino colored). Chill until ready to serve.
- In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), mix the flour, salt, and sugar for 1 minute. Add the butter and mix just until you have a crumbly, sandy mixture. You should still be able to see the pieces of butter.
- In a small bowl, stir the water and vinegar together. With the mixer running at medium speed, drizzle in the water-vinegar mixture and mix just until a dough forms. You should still see small bits of butter.
- Turn out onto a work surface, divide the dough in half, and shape into round, flat disks. Wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before using. (Or, refrigerate up to 48 hours or freeze up to 1 month before using. If frozen, let thaw in the refrigerator overnight before rolling out.)
- When the time comes to roll out the dough, let the dough warm up for a few minutes at room temperature. Dust a work surface with just a few tablespoons of flour and keep some extra flour at hand. If you like, you can roll out the dough between two sheets of waxed paper (flouring the bottom sheet and the top of the dough before rolling), which makes it much easier to transfer to the pan later on. However, you won’t be able to check the progress of the dough as easily. It’s entirely up to you.
- Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and start rolling outward from the center with quick, light strokes. Don’t worry if the edges split a bit; concentrate on getting a good circle going from the center. Lift up and rotate the dough 1/4 turn every minute or so to help ensure even rolling. The dough should feel smooth and soft; some say it should feel like the inside of your forearm. If it gets sticky, sprinkle on a bit more flour, but don’t do this more than two or three times; the dough will absorb too much flour. Instead, put it back in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm the butter up. Keep rolling until the circle is at least 2 inches larger than your pan (for example, 11-inches wide for a 9-inch pie pan), or 3 inches larger for deep-dish pies.
- Set your pie or tart pan nearby. We always use heavy aluminum pans, because glass pans seem to bake the crust too fast. However, we know that the advantage of glass is that you can easily check the color of the crust. Again, it’s up to you. Either choice will work.
- To transfer the crust to the pan, we find it easiest to roll a finished crust up onto the rolling pin, then gently unroll it in the pan. Or, you can fold it gently in quarters, lift it up, position the center point on the center of the pan, and unfold it into the pan. If using waxed paper, peel off the top layer, turn the crust gently into the pan, and peel off the remaining paper. Make sure that the dough is allowed to settle completely into the pan.
- Don’t stretch and press the dough into the corners; stretched dough will likely shrink back when you bake it. Instead, lift the edges of the crust to let it settle down into the corners. If the dough tears a bit, don’t be concerned; it will patch easily. Using scissors or a sharp knife, trim the dough to within 3/4-inch of the rim. Use any extra scraps to patch the crust, pressing with your fingers (wet them if necessary) or set aside.
- For a single-crust pie: Working around the rim, turn the crust under itself (not under the rim of the pan) to make a thick edge, pressing it firmly against the pan to reduce shrinkage. To decorate the rim, just press it all around with the back of a fork. For a slightly more advanced look, press the thumb and forefinger of one hand together. Use them to gently push the thick dough rim outward, while pushing inward with the forefinger of the other hand, so that they intersect in a “V” with the dough in between. Repeat all around the rim to make a wavy edge.
- Chill the finished crust or crusts for 20 to 30 minutes before filling the pie. When the bottom crust is filled, rest the top crust on top and pinch the edges together, turning them under all the way around. To decorate the rim, just press it all around with the back of a fork. For a slightly more advanced look, press the thumb and forefinger of one hand together. Use them to gently push the thick dough rim outward, while pushing inward with the forefinger of the other hand, so that they intersect in a “V” with the dough in between. Repeat all around the rim to make a wavy edge.
- For a prebaked pie or tart crust (blind baking): Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line the inside of the chilled crust with aluminum foil (don’t turn it down over the rim, but leave the extra sticking up so that you have something to hold on to). Fill the foil all the way up to the top of the shell with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until dry and beginning to turn “blond”. Lift the foil and weights out of the shell and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, checking frequently to prevent overbaking, until medium brown.
- Yield: 2 crusts
- Preparation time: 15 minutes plus rolling and shaping
- Cooking time: 30 minutes
- Ease of preparation: moderate
- Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, “Butter Sugar Flour Eggs” by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, Julia Moskin: Clarkson N. Potter Publishers, 1999
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 795 |
| Total Fat | 48 g |
| Saturated Fat | 30 g |
| Carbohydrates | 80 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 34 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Cholesterol | 178 mg |
| Sodium | 507 mg |
Reviews
Great
This recipe is absolutely, eye-rollingly delicious. Level of difficulty is marked correctly: it’s a little involved. Used storebought crust, omitted scotch and meringue. This was a fun bonding activity for my daughter and me, and having two sets of hands helped a lot with all the tedious stirring and whisking while pouring. We brought the temps up very slowly, so we avoided any burning. As noted elsewhere, the sugar mixture did solidify when added to the milk, but mixer fixed the problem.
Undertale.
I am an experienced baker & as I was browning the butter, adding the brown sugar & cooking the mixture I knew the instructions were wrong. As directed I simmered my milk/cream mixture & set aside. As soon as I added the browned sugar to the milk, the sugar seized & became a hard blob of brittle. You cannot add hot sugar to cooled liquid!! I put the milk & sugar mixture on low & simmered until the sugar melted & that worked. The taste is incredible. If I’ve used 3 yolks for the filling, doesn’t it make sense to use the 3 whites (instead of 2) for the meringue. I used a recipe for meringue from the Betty Crocker site instead. There’s easier recipes for butterscotch pie with the same delicious results.
There’s only the piecrust recipe. HELP!!!!
My 12 year old son made this (with a little help) for Thanksgiving. It was, simply put, phenomenal. Great butterscotch flavor, great presentation.
As others have noted, it is a fairly complicated recipe — at least more so than I thought it would be. Some of the confusion comes from how the recipe is written. For example, it doesn’t clearly point out that if you are going to make the pie crust then you need to make that first, so that it’s ready for the filling. The high butter content of the crust almost led to an oven disaster when we went to bake the shell: the crust fell in on itself and could have turned into a lumpy mass. Luckily, we pulled it out in time, lined it with parchment paper and filled it with rice to keep the shell in place until it was cooked.
The meringue topping was nice, but we found it too bland, so we added a few more tablespoons of sugar and some vanilla.
To brown the top, we used a propane torch (any plumbing torch will work)
As others have noted, it is a fairly complicated recipe — at least more so than I thought it would be. Some of the confusion comes from how the recipe is written. For example, it doesn’t clearly point out that if you are going to make the pie crust then you need to make that first, so that it’s ready for the filling. The high butter content of the crust almost led to an oven disaster when we went to bake the shell: the crust fell in on itself and could have turned into a lumpy mass. Luckily, we pulled it out in time, lined it with parchment paper and filled it with rice to keep the shell in place until it was cooked.
The meringue topping was nice, but we found it too bland, so we added a few more tablespoons of sugar and some vanilla.
To brown the top, we used a propane torch (any plumbing torch will work)
3.5 stars, actually. Tricky recipe, but decent. The weeping is annoying. A chef I work with said “the butterscotch has to be totally cool before you put the meringue on it” so i’ll try that next time. The scotch leaves a bit of a too boozy taste for me, but i might try this one again. This is a recipe where you can’t leave the stove-top. Use a deep sauce pan, the milk makes a mess.
I found the recipe itself not particularly easy to follow and unnecessarily complicated. My pie ended up pretty delicious but it was because i had to do improvise quite a bit because the recipe’s instructions didn’t really yield the results it described. Because I’ve made pudding on a stove top plenty of times, i was able to salvage the filling and turn out a tasty pie. My brown sugar and butter mixture seemed dry for several minutes and then all of a sudden it melted and the oil from the butter separated. After another minute of heavy stirring, it turned into a dark, extremely thick caramel that seemed borderline burnt. As I added it to the milk mixture gradually, it seized up and became brittle, so I had to just “re-melt” it in the milk with the heat on and a whisk. Also, the pie crust is good, but you really should make the pie crust first and let it cool. Then make the filling.
This pie is a little time consuming but awesome. I’ve subbed a nice aged-tequila and bourbon for the scotch and the pie remains fantastic. I typically serve with whipped cream instead of meringue. Highly recommended.
This is a delicious pie, but not easy to make (at least for me, mostly because cooking the butter/brown sugar didn’t work the first time. I tried to caramelize the sugar so that it melted and it ended up burning the butter. I never did get that “characteristic nutty-caramel odor” before it turned very dark and smelled burned. On the next attempt I used a little lower heat. The mixture first became a putty-like mass, then it turned back to more sugar crystals and finally it started to melt a little, turn a little darker and some of the butter liquid started to run out of the solid. At this point I removed it from the heat even though all the sugar had not completely melted. (I’m not sure this is right, but at least the sugar mixture didn’t burn. When I put the sugar mixture into the milk, it sizzled a lot, but dissolved well using an electric mixer. I am a big butterscotch fan and this pie is wonderful, so I hope these hints will help others like me who are only novice cooks.