I made a pie for Pi Day, of course. I have pretty often in the past as well. I went with something new: a cooked custard pie. Since Sophia is a fan of chocolate pie and few other desserts that are not ice cream (which she gave up for Lent), I gave that a whirl. Note, in these photos? My stove top is gross. That is the disadvantage of having a stove top that is a drawer--I can push it in and forget it until next time. I do this more than I want to admit. But I do clean it. Really I do.
First, into a medium saucepan, combine 3/4 c sugar, 1/4 c cornstarch, 1/4 t salt, and 3 cups of milk.Warm it over medium heat, stirring. While it warms, separate 3 eggs--you keep the yolks and not the whites, but get rid of as much white as possible. Put this bowl to the side.
Then add a cup of chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate) to the milk and sugar mixture as it warms up. Stir this in and let it come to a boil eventually and stir it for 2 minutes while it bubbles.
Drop a quarter cup or so of the thickening milk mixture into your egg yolks to accustom them to the temperature (I assume?). Then dump the egg mixture into the saucepan and stir while it combines fully and thickens up.
Off the heat it comes, and stir in 2 T butter. Once that is incorporated/melted, dump it all into a pre-cooked pie shell. Chill for 3 hours. Top with whipped cream or cool whip if you're too lazy (I was tonight)
It is awesome. Next time I will work more diligently to pull out the yolks completely, because egg whites in a custard create lumps. Not too many lumps, but Sophia was totally turned off by the lumps and had only a few bites. More pie for me. Maeve and Leo didn't seem to notice (but you can see a few there on the slice I photographed).It makes me happy. I will perfect this one.
That's the way I make coconut cream pie, but I use the whites for meringue on top.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted to do that, but the recipe I started with and tweaked didn't have a meringue option and I was afraid to overcook the custard...I'll have to tweak the coconut one or something, so that I can use the whites because I hated tossing them.
ReplyDeleteBridgett, you should have used the whites simply to make Pavlova, the great Kiwi dessert (the Aussies claim it too - we'll never agree). I'll give you a recipe if you want (it's just a soft meringe really).
ReplyDeleteDo tell.
ReplyDelete