Vanilla Custard Pie
With strawberry and mango sugar topping.
Vanilla Custard Pie is great basic pie to have in your baking arsenal. Smooth, lush and creamy, this dessert is delicious on it’s own, but also lends itself well to a wide variety of topping options making it a dessert you could serve time and again in many different ways. Shaved chocolate, fruit compote, toasted chopped nuts, or caramel sauce would all be fantastic choices as toppings for your custard pie.
The topping pictured in this recipe is a duo of tangy freeze dried strawberries and mangos that are a delightfully tart counterbalance to the cool vanilla custard. I borrowed the idea from Erin Jeanne McDowell’s recipe for her Two-Tone Ginger Custard Pie in New York Times Cooking. (Unfortunately the pie recipe itself received very mixed reviews so I was reluctant to try it.)
The technique for making vanilla custard is very similar to making pastry cream. Scald milk & cream, temper the egg mixture and combine the two. The main difference is baking the custard in the pie shell rather than finishing cooking on the stove. To avoid spills carrying a liquid filled pie to the oven, I recommend carefully pouring the custard into the empty pie shell while it’s sitting on the oven rack.
Vanilla Custard Pie Recipe
Yield:
One, 9-inch pie
Difficulty:
Easy
Special equipment:
Instant read thermometer
9 inch pie plate (metal or Pyrex, not ceramic)
Mesh sieve / strainer
2 pieces of letter size paper
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 large egg white
For the custard:
3 large Eggs, room temperature
2 large Egg yolks, room temperature
⅔ cup (132 grams) Granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (340 ml) Whole milk
1 cup (227 ml) Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
¼ tsp Table salt
1 TBSP Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
For the topping:
20 grams Freeze dried strawberries, finely ground
20 grams Freeze dried mango, finely ground
4 TBSP Powdered sugar (I used non-melting powdered sugar) https://shop.kingarthurflour.com/items/snow-white-non-melting-topping-sugar-16-oz
Custard pie before the topping was added. Still beautiful and delicious.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Roll out pie dough to 13 inch circle and line a 9 inch pie plate (glass or metal). Flute edges as desired and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Line inside of pie with foil then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 min. Remove foil and weights.
Dock the bottom of the crust with a fork. Brush egg wash on the inside. Cover the edges of the pie with a shield or aluminum foil. Bake for another 10 or until light golden brown and bottom looks dry. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Place empty baking sheet on a rack in the center of the oven and lower heat to 300° F.
Place the sieve over a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Whisk together eggs, egg yolks, and granulated sugar in a medium size bowl and place near the stove.
Combine milk, heavy cream, and salt in a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat, stirring slowly to avoid milk burning the bottom of the pan. Scald the milk mixture by heating it just until bubbles start to form around the edge and you see wafts of steam rising from the pot. Turn the heat down to low, take 1/3 cup of the milk mixture and whisk it rapidly into the egg/sugar mixture. Once combined, pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the rest of the milk and cream. Stir until thoroughly combined.
Pour the mixture through the sieve to remove any bits of egg and stir in the vanilla extract.
Add a piece of parchment to the baking sheet that’s been heating in the oven. Pull out the oven rack a little, place pie on top making sure it is stable, and carefully pour in the custard. Bake until an instant read thermometer inserted into the middle registers 170° F. Around 35-40 min. The edges should be set, but the center should still be jiggly. It will firm up while cooling Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. This might take 2-4 hours. Refrigerate until you’re ready to add topping and serve.
While the pie cools, grind your freeze dried fruit to a powder and set each flavor in separate bowls. Add 1-2 TBSP powdered sugar to each bowl.
Tip: (Powdered sugar is fine but serve it within a few hours of topping or it will start to dissolve into the pie. I use non-melting powdered sugar so this doesn’t happen. Both taste great.)
To decorate:
Place a piece of 8.5 x 11 inch paper (standard letter paper) over one half of the pie.
Sift mango sugar mixture over the exposed pie until completely covered.
Carefully remove the paper and place a clean piece of paper over the decorated side.
Clean out the sifter, add the strawberry sugar mixture and sift over the other side of the pie. Brush off excess sugar from crust with a pastry brush.
Reduce your mess by placing the pie in a baking sheet to catch excess sugars. (Photo by Daniel Marks)
The sugar on the crust does look pretty, but I brushed mine off for a more polished look. (Photo by Daniel Marks)
To serve:
Slice three pieces of pie in the pan before removing the first. It will be easier to remove one whole piece this way without breaking the crust. Wipe off your knife between each cut. Refrigerate any leftovers for 3-4 days.
