Happy National Pie Day!

Today is a wonderful day!  It's National Pie Day!  Did you know that?  How neat is that!  I thought I'd do a little post to help celebrate.  The American Pie Council created this day to celebrate the pie.  On this day they encourage you to bake a pie (of course), eat a pie, share a pie with friends and try something new.

Here's the pie I decided to tackle, first off I made my crust using my Never Fail Crust recipe.  You can use your favorite crust or shh...a store bought one.  I like Pillsbury the best.

Then I used one of my favorite books to make cookbooks Sweetie Pies to make a Butterscotch Pie.  My husband loves Butterscotch pie.  I've never made this kind of pie before.  I usually make fruit ones.

Gather your ingredients

Miss Odella Goodlow's Butterscotch Pie

Prepare the crust ahead of time by prebaking it.

Make the filling
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. flour
2 cup whole milk
4 large egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the Meringue
4 large egg whites, room temp.
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a double boiler.  Pour in enough milk to make a paste.  Stir in the egg yolks.  Stir in the remainder of the milk.  Cook slowly over boiling water, stirring constantly, until filling is thick.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Pour into pie crust.  Make the meringue, in a medium bowl using a mixer beat egg whites and cream of tartar together until foamy.  Beat in sugar 1 tbsp. at a time beating well.  Add the vanilla and beat until shiny and stiff peaks form.  Bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees *Note recipe says 375 but I decided to up the temp. a little bit based on other recipes I read.  Let cool completely. 

Makes one 9 inch pie.


Other notes*  I used 1% milk and I did not have good results.  Our pie regretfully didn't set up, since then I realized a few of my mistakes and am willing to try this again.  Please make sure you follow all the steps and I'm sure you'll have better results than me.   It was still tasty!

Here is my crust dough before adding the liquid, dry crumbs.



Add your liquid, egg mixture and the dough starts to pull away from the sides and look like this



Then flatten and place in refrigerator to rest.  This is so important, don't skip this step.  My wonderful daughter helped me with the pictures and the artwork you see here.  If you aren't planning on making pie just pop this is the freezer!

Making the filling

Filling complete

Make the merigue

Here it is just out of the oven!

Here's some random thoughts about pie. 

Pie is home, no matter where you are.  Men love home. 

When men eat pie, they think somebody is taking care of them.

from The Lost Art of Pie Making by Barbara Swell  I love this little book, it has great tips about pies.

"Now you can win the praise of your family- so easy!" Aunt Jenny

My favorite, Pie fixes everything!

So gals, put on those aprons, get out that rolling pin and make a pie!  I challenge you to do something that is becoming lost in our country.  Don't worry about making it perfect, they will love you for it anyway.  I'd love to hear all about your pies, what's your favorite kind of pie?  I don't think I can pick just one but if I had to it would be the Amish Apple Pie.  A close second Coconut cream, followed by sugar cream.

Happy Pie Day!

Carey