Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie

Ingredients

Pie filling

• 220g (1 cup) brown sugar
• 500ml (2 cups) milk
• 240g (1 cup) heavy cream (whipping cream)
• 2 tbsp water
• 9 eggs
• 56g butter
• 3 tbsp cornstarch (other starches will do)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Whipped cream topping

• 240g (1 cup) heavy cream (whipping cream)
• 30g (¼ cup) powdered sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp butterscotch liqueur/syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Pie Crust

• 250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 62g (½ cup) ground almonds
• 226g (2 sticks) unsalted cold butter
• 1tsp salt & sugar each
• ~6 tbsp ice water (no cubes!)
• 1 egg

Summary of important ingredients

• 10 eggs
• 500g whipping cream
• 250g brown sugar
• 250g flour
• 30g powdered sugar
• 300g butter
• 0.5l milk
• 75g ground almonds
• butterscotch/caramel syrup
• Cooking starch
• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon

Method

Preparing the pie crust

1. Mix 250g flour, 65g of ground almonds, and 1 tsp of sugar and salt each.
2. Add half of the butter (113g) and mix thoroughly.
3. Add remaining butter (113g) and mix until the butter pieces at most are as large as peas.
4. Mix in 60ml ice water. Keep adding little bits of ice water until the dough is barely holding together.
5. Don’t add too much water!
6. Put the dough on a flat surface and push down on the crumbles a few times (“fraisage”).
7. Split off a bit of the dough and roll it out in a line. Make a braid out of three strips of dough.
8. Roll out the remaining dough and spread it out in a pan.
9. Refrigerate both bits of dough for at least thirty minutes, and start working on the filling.

Butterscotch filling

You will need a somewhat large pot and a medium sized bowl from here on out.

1. Split the 9 eggs and keep only the egg yolks. Mix half of the brown sugar (110g), egg yolks, 3 tbsp of starch, and 2 tsp of cinnamon in the bowl. Mix thoroughly until no chunks of sugar are visible and set aside, we won’t need this for a little while.
2. Brown 60g of butter on the stove at medium-high in a smal pot. Take it off once it stops bubbling, else it will burn!
3. If you are low on pots, put the butter into a separate small bowl and clean the pot,
4. Next, heat up the remaining 110g brown sugar with 2 tbsp water and stir until reaching 240°F (115°C), also known as the soft ball stage. Turn off the heat. Don’t let it get too hot, or it won’t mix in properly later!
5. If you can, get someone to help you with your pie crust now.
6. Now mix milk and heavy cream, heat it until it starts steaming, and then add it to the caramel you just made, together with the browned butter. Mix it in slowly to prevent burning the milk.
7. Get the egg mixture we made earlier, and SLOWLY mix in half of the cream mix to temper the eggs.
8. Then put the milk mixture back on the stove, setting it to medium, and mix in the egg mixture. Scrape the bottom of the pot to prevent eggs from sticking to the pot, possibly ruining the filling. Also, always keep whisking or the eggs will scramble!
9. Keep whisking until the mixture is gooey.

Getting ready to bake

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

1. Roll out the remaining pie dough and put it into a pan. Put the braid you prepared earlier on the edge of the crust. Now get the last egg, make an egg wash by mixing it with some milk or water until it is colored pale yellow.
2. Use the egg wash to treat the pie crust and braid.
3. Your pie mixture should be done by now, so pour it into the pie and even out the top.
4. To make sure it will bake evenly, cut out some tin foil and make it only cover the crust.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, then let it cool off. Once it is sufficiently cold, refrigerate it. Don’t immediately refrigerate your pie or you will ruin your freezer!

Cream topping

Combine 240g cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp butterscotch syrup, 1 tsp cinnamon and 30g powdered sugar. Beat until firm, then decorate your cooled pie with it.

SIDE NOTE

The original recipe uses pre-baked pie crust. You can do that, too. The recipe provided in this excerpt however was taken from here.