It’s officially November which means that it’s time to plan your Thanksgiving menu. If you’re like me, menu planning begins with dessert. (Wait, not everyone does that?) When it comes to Thanksgiving, you know you’re going to make turkey, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. The menu makes itself! So, we might as well talk about dessert
Pie is a must for Thanksgiving dinner. (Although watch out! I’m going to make a compelling argument for an apple tart later this month.) Pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pecan pie are all traditional favorites. Those pies are great and I will probably make all three myself. But I’m here today to suggest you throw a wild card into the mix and make a buttermilk pie as well.
What is buttermilk pie? It is what people used to call a desperation pie: the kind of pie you make in the dead of winter when there is no fruit to be had. It is sometimes confused with chess pie, another traditional Southern dessert. But unlike chess pie, buttermilk pie does not contain cornmeal.
The key to buttermilk pie is the silky, not-too-sweet custard. Yellow as a daisy, the custard quivers with anticipation in its flaky shell. The first bite slides down your throat as you marvel at the subtle tang of the buttermilk and the earthy sweetness from the maple.
The buttermilk custard is so light that before you know it, the whole slice is gone and you have to fight the urge to have a second. My husband insisted that the texture of the custard reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. To me, the custard is almost like flan or creme brûlée, which is hardly a bad thing.
I can think of few better ways to end a large holiday meal than with a slice of this delicate custard pie. And since no one is expecting to see buttermilk pie at Thanksgiving dinner, you will show your family that you still have a few culinary tricks up your sleeve.
Ingredients
- Crust
- 7 ounces cold, unsalted butter
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup ice water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Filling
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons brown or maple sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- Pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 cups buttermilk
Instructions
- Cut the butter into small cubes and place half of the cubes in the freezer. Return the other half to the refrigerator until needed.
- Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the chilled butter from the refrigerator to the dry ingredients and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Add the frozen butter to the food processor and pulse until the butter is in small but still visible pieces.
- Combine the lemon juice and ice water and add six tablespoons of the mixture to the ingredients in the food processor. Pulse several times until combined. Pinch a bit of the dough and if it holds together, you do not need to add more liquid. If it is still dry, add more of the liquid, one-half tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough to a bowl or a well-floured board.
- Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Divide the dough into two and wrap each half well in plastic wrap. Place half the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least a half-hour. Reserve the other half for another use. (Can be done in advance.)
- If your dough was chilled for longer than thirty minutes, remove from the refrigerator and allow to soften for ten to fifteen minutes before rolling it out.
- Prior to rolling out the dough, strike it with your rolling pin to flatten. This will soften it further.
- Preheat the oven to 375 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.
- Liberally dust a pastry board or mat and your rolling pin with flour.
- Roll the dough out, rotating it and turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is the size of your pie plate and between ¼ and ⅛ of an inch thick.
- Carefully center the pie dough in the plate and press it into the bottom and sides. Trim or fold over any excess dough around the edges and make a pretty crimped crust by pinching with your fingers.
- Blind bake the crust by covering it with parchment paper and filling with pie weights or raw rice. Bake for twenty minutes, then remove the parchment paper and pie weight and bake an additional five minutes. Remove from the oven and turn down the heat to 325.
- Allow the crust to cool completely before filling.
- Make the custard by whisking together the eggs, sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Pour in the vanilla, maple syrup and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
- When the crust is cool, pour in most of the filling and then transfer the pie plate to the oven. Pour in the remaining filling and bake until the filling is set, about 50 minutes to one hour.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing.
