Butterscotch Pie
By: Kare
Published: Saturday, January 9, 2010 - 10:48pm

Ingredients




The Pie Crust

1 sleeve of graham crackers (about 1 1/2 cups)
5 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
The Pie Filling

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar or ½ cup packed golden brown sugar + 1 teaspoon 
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup 2 percent milk
1/4 teaspoon salt plus a pinch more
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons scotch whiskey (optional)
The Pie Topping

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (my apologies! this originally said ½ cup. fixed now!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

1 First, the crust. Place the graham crackers in a Ziploc bag, and with a rolling pin, crush them. My guy always comes around when it's time to do this, and does it for me. I think he likes it. 2 In a medium bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar. 3 Add the melted butter, and mix well. 4 Press the graham cracker mixture into a pie plate, and refrigerate for about a half hour. 5 Now, the filling! Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. 6 Stir in the brown sugar (and molasses, if you're using it). Keep the heat low, and stir until the brown sugar is all melted and bubbly. 7 Add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream, and stir until the brown sugar and butter are dissolved. 8 Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of the heavy cream, all of the milk, and the salt. 9 Remove from heat, and let cool until lukewarm. I find this only takes about 10 minutes. 10 Mix together the cornstarch and water, and pour it into the pudding mixture. 11 Reheat over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture starts to thicken. It'll thicken fast with all that corn starch! 12 Turn heat to low, and continue to stir vigorously while keeping it at a good simmer for about a minute. 13 Remove from heat, and stir in the whiskey and vanilla. Whiskey wasn't in my original Butterscotch Pudding recipe, but I love the addition for this pie. Gives it a little extra somethin' somethin'. 14 Pour the pudding mixture into the chilled pie crust. 15 Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours. 16 Ready for the topping? Whip the 1 1/2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream with the wire whisk attachment on your stand mixer (you can do this by hand, but it would be quite the workout). 17 Add the sugar and vanilla to the cream while it's whipping. It's ready when soft peaks form. Yum. 18 I'm stating the obvious, but remove the pie from the fridge and take off the plastic wrap. 19 Pile on the whipping cream. I like to spread it almost to the edges, but not quite - gotta give folks a glimpse of the actual pie yumminess! 20 If you want, garnish with a little shaved chocolate. I just took the carrot peeler to a Hershey bar. 21 Or leave it plain. Either way! 22 Enjoy!

About


Not long after I posted the recipe for the sinfully delicious Butterscotch Pudding, I received a comment from the lovely jnine. "I'd like to try this in a pie for Thanksgiving!" she said and I paraphrase. She wondered about the adjustments needed to make that happen. And then, so did I.
I couldn't just let it be. I had to try it for myself.
A yummy piece of butterscotch pie
Add more cornstarch - check. Find the perfect crust - check. Figure out what to top it with - check. Enhance the flavor of the filling even more with a touch of whiskey - check, check, check.
Butterscotch Pie was a huge hit with my official tasting panel - my guy and his buddy. Let's take a quick peek into the conversation, shall we?
My guy: "Mmmm. I want to eat the whole pie."
His buddy: "Can we figure out a way to just, like, intravenously insert it into our veins?"
My guy: "But, but, then you couldn't taste it!"
His buddy: "Oh yeah."
I'd say that's at least a couple grunts up from the panel.
Here's the recipe. Oh, a note about the crust: With the graham cracker crust, this pie is very sweet. For some people, that's a good thing. But I think this would be excellent on a pre-baked classic flaky pie crust. If you try it that way, let me know! I'm not sure I'll get away with using anything other than the graham cracker crust. My graham-cracker-lovin' guy's crestfallen face at the discovery would break my heart.
Anyway! The recipe!

Comments:
Helen Pitlick

I'm vegan... but I might cheat for a bite of this pie.