The pie was tasty and fairly simple to make, even though I had never made pudding from scratch before. I liked the creamy vanilla pudding with the crumbly crust of the graham cracker. I topped the pie with fresh whipped cream and a touch of ground cinnamon.
Vanilla Custard Pie
(Makes 1 Whole Pie)
Printable Version
Ingredients:
- Graham Cracker Crust
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup egg yolks (about 12 yolks)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
- Heavy whipping cream, beaten
- ground cinnamon
- In a saucepan, combine the milk, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the vanilla, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yolks, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and cornstarch until smooth.
- Take out a whisk, a ladle, and a large glass or ceramic dish to have ready. Heat the milk mixture in the saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a simmering slow boil, whisking it as it gets steamy. When you see the first bubbles boiling up, take the pan off the heat and place it on a potholder next to the egg mixture.
- During the next steps, stir constantly or the eggs will coagulate and you’ll have scrambled eggs. Take a ladleful of hot milk and pour it in a thin stream into the eggs, whisking constantly. Continue stirring, and add one or two more ladlefuls of hot milk to the eggs in the same way. The tempered eggs are now ready to add back into the hot milk.
- To do this, whisk the hot milk constantly and slowly pour the tempered eggs in. When fully combined, put this mixture back on the stovetop over medium heat and continue to whisk constantly. The mixture should be ready to come back to a simmer very quickly. When the custard nears the consistency of pudding, take very short pauses in stirring to look for signs of a bubble surfacing.
- When you see the first blurp, remove the pan from the heat immediately and whisk in the cubes of butter. Whisk until fully combined and immediately pour the pudding into a large glass or ceramic dish to cool it down. While the pudding is still very hot, stretch plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. Smooth out any air pockets to make the pudding airtight. Refrigerate the pudding until it isn’t too hot, about 30 minutes.
- Stir the pudding and pour it into the crust. Smooth the top with a spatula.
- Chill the pie, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.
This pie was so good.