Cream Pie - Master Recipe

Winter is the season for cream pies. When good fruits are hard to come by any of the cream and custard pies make for a rich and impressive dessert at your dinner table.

Cream Pie with Meringue Topping

My mother regularly made coconut cream pie, and I use this same recipe base to create chocolate and banana cream pies as well.

Coconut Cream Pie - Stabilized Whipped Cream Topping

Using your standard pie crust recipe, or even a frozen crust, you simply pre-bake the empty crust and then prepare the filling. I've found that getting this right is mostly a matter of staying at the stove top and whisking the filling continuously were noted in my recipe. Even though I've made these pies hundreds of times, I still follow the written recipe to ensure I end up with a good cream pie, and not ice cream topping (scorching during cooking or even slightly wrong quantities of ingredients can cause a cream pie to fail to set properly.)

Chocolate, Butterscotch and Vanilla Cram Cups

Meringue Notes: For coconut cream, I prefer a tall meringue topping (as shown in the photo at the top of this entry.) If having a dinner party, I try to make the crusts the day before. Then the morning of the party I make the filling refrigerating it in the shell with a film of plastic wrap to stop it from developing a membrane. An hour or so before company arrives, I'll use the egg whites left over from the cream filling to make the meringue topping. I finish it with a blow torch to add browning, and refrigerate until serving.  You can also brown it under a broiler or in a hot oven, just get it in and out as quickly as possible. While meringue is easy to prepare, always remember to use a little cream of tartar powder to stop it from shrinking and a wet clean knife when cutting each slice.

Coconut Cream Pie

Stabilized Whipped Cream Notes: After making an angel food cake, I have a dozen yolks that need to be used, and that means homemade noodles or cream pies. When I make cream pies from these yolks, there are no egg whites left for meringue. In this case, I usually make a stabilized whipped cream. This is simple to do but don't fall for any gimmicks that use gelatin or corn syrup. You'll have a gooey unnatural mess. Simply replace the granulated sugar in the whipped cream with 1 1/2 times the powdered sugar and whip until thickened. With a few drops of vanilla or coconut oil it will be delicious and ready to go on your pies. It will hold its shape and be fine for at least 4 days if kept refrigerated. For every cup of heavy cream I add 1  1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar, just after the cream is whipped to a soft peak. I also add the vanilla at this stage and continuing whipping until I have shiny stiff peaks of whipped cream. 

I'm sure your guests will love these pies as much as I do.  Below you will find my master recipe for cream pie, which is the base for all of my cream pie variations.

Ingredients:  (for 2 deep dish cream pies)
1 1/2 cups  sugar
1 1/8 cups  flour
3/4 teaspoon  salt
7 1/2 cups  milk
9 egg yolks
3 tablespoons  butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 baked pastry pie shells
                 
Meringue Topping:
9 egg whites
1 teaspoon  cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/2 cup  sugar

Instructions:
Mix sugar, flour and salt in a heavy saucepan.  Add milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Lower heat, cover and cook 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Place egg yolks in a mixer bowl and attach wire whisk.  Turn to Speed 8 (moderately high) and beat 1 minute.  Slowly add small amount of milk mixture to yolks.  Add to pan and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is thick and beginning to bubble.  Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Cool and pour into baked pie shell.

The trick to this pie is all in the wrist.  It is essential that you continuously stir the filling where indicated in a rapid manner, using a whisk. 

This is the base for my other  cream pies.  To make both pies into the below flavors, do the following. For one pie of each, cut the ingredients in half.

Coconut Cream Pie:  Add 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract and 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut to filling before pouring into shell.  Sprinkle 3/4 cup flaked coconut on meringue. Brown in oven or with blow torch.

Chocolate Cream Pie:  Add 6 ounces melted, unsweetened chocolate to filling along with butter and vanilla.  Proceed as directed above.  Top with just slightly sweetened whipped cream rather than Meringue Topping.

Butterscotch Cream Pie:  Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup.  Add 22 ounces melted butterscotch morsels to filling along with butter and vanilla.  Proceed as directed above.  Top with sweetened whipped cream rather than Meringue Topping. Or see these recipes for my Classic Butterscotch Pie or my Easy Butterscotch Pie. 

Banana Cream Pie:  Replace the vanilla above with 2 teaspoons banana extract to make two pies.  Slice one whole banana for each pie and place the slices on the bottom of the crusts.  Add two more sliced bananas to the cream and proceed as directed above.  Top with sweetened whipped cream at serving time.

 

Meringue Topping:  Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.  Combine the egg whites and sugar in a large mixing bowl and set the bowl in a pan of simmering water.  Stir gently for a minute or so, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm, but do not overheat to avoid cooking the eggs. Remove the bowl from the water and add the cream of tartar and salt.  Beat the egg whites at high speed until they stand in peaks.  Gently spread the egg whites over the pie filling, completely covering the filling to the edges of the crust.  Slip into the top 1/3 of the oven  for 1 or 2 minutes, or until the peaks are brown or use a kitchen blow torch.