April Coffee and Pie Chat

Hey y'all! How's the pie baking going? I am so excited for this month's pie. Do I say that every month? It's just so exciting to try my hand at a new pie each month. I learn so much! This month, Daenel over at Living Outside the Stacks and I decided on a Butterscotch Pie with a Curry Crust. It has fennel seeds and curry in the crust! How yummy does that sound? The recipe is from Bon Appetit.

While this recipe wasn't as tedious as last month's Mamaw's Lemon Meringue Pie, it was still step intensive. I'm not sure how I feel about my results since I was hurried when I was making it. It didn't help that the census lady literally walked into my house without knocking. Just opened the door up and walked right in. Then proceeded to argue with me about providing her with answers. And refused to leave. Like I was literally about to call the police. Needless to say, I finally got her to leave by 'escorting her to the door'. I will be calling her office, but because of all that I'm not sure how the pie will be. It tasted okay and looked okay, but it had some lumps in it that just weren't there before. But let's get on with it, shall we?

The Recipe:

The Crust:
1 tsp fennel seeds
8 oz. vanilla wafer cookies
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp raw sugar or granulated sugar
1 tsp Madras curry powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled

Place a rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 325F. Toast fennel seeds in a small dry skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small plate; let cool, then finely chop.

Pulse cookies in a food processor until very fine crumbs form (you should have about 2 cups). Add fennel seeds, flour, sugar, curry powder, and salt and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture is consistency of wet sand.

Transfer mixture to a 9" pie dish. Using a measuring cup, press firmly onto bottom and up sides of pie dish. Place pie dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake crust, rotating halfway through, until dry and set, 20-25 minutes. Transfer pie dish to a wire rack and let crust cool.

Do ahead: crust can be baked 1 day ahead. Store wrapped tightly at room temperature.

For the Filling:
1 envelope unflavored powdered gelatin
1 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar, divided
1/8 tsp baking soda
3 large egg yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Unsweetened whipped cream (for serving)
1/2 cup chopped salted, dry-roasted cashews

Place gelatin and 2 tbsp milk in a small bowl; let stand until gelatin is softened, 5-10 minutes.

Place granulated sugar in a medium saucepan; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and add pod. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is melted, then cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture turns amber in color, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly add cream (mixture will bubble vigorously), stirring until smooth (see #4 below under 'Tips & Tricks'). Return to heat and add 1/2 cup brown sugar and remaining milk. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and caramel mixture begins to steam, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add baking soda, and whisk until bubbles subside; remove vanilla pod and discard.

Whisk egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in half of warm caramel mixture. Pour egg-yolk mixture into caramel mixture in saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly; reduce heat to low and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in gelatin mixture, butter, molasses, and salt, whisking until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Transfer filling to a large bowl and chill, stirring occasionally, until slightly cooled and thickened, about 1 hour. (Stirring and cooling pudding before chilling in crust will give it a luscious, creamy texture.)

Pour butterscotch filling into crust, smoothing top if needed. Chill until set, at least 2 hours.

Just before serving, spoon whipped cream over pie and top with cashews.

Do ahead: pie can be made (without whipped cream) 2 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.

Tips & Tricks:
1. I've never made a crumb crust before. When spreading it into the pan and judging the thickness, just do the best you can. It's also personal preference on how much crust you want.
2. Save those egg whites and use them elsewhere.
3. Don't make your gelatin/milk mixture until 5-10 minutes before using. I don't really like gelatin and I've never used it before so I'm not sure what it was supposed to look like and mine was the putty. But maybe that's how it was supposed to be? See the pic below. I would like to try to make this recipe without gelatin in the future.

4. This is very important: make sure that you are stirring and slowly adding the cream to the caramel!! I didn't do this. I just dumped the cream into the caramel and the caramel got hard! I had to add it back to the heat and remelt the caramel before proceeding to the next step. I think it was fine, but still. Don't do what I did!
5. I didn't chop up my fennel seeds. I just put them in the food processor before the vanilla wafers and chopped them that way. I liked that there were chunks of fennel in my crust. Again, it's personal preference.
6. Don't worry about speciality ingredients. I used regular curry powder, dark molasses, and light brown sugar because that is what I have on hand. Bon Appetit is a gourmet magazine so they are going to use gourmet items. We are not gourmet here. Feel free to make it as fancy, or as plain jane, as your heart desires though!
7. The initial melting of the sugar takes some time. I wasn't expecting this. It will take a good 10-15 minutes before it starts to melt. Then it goes fast.

I think that's it. I can't wait to hear about your pie making!! And how yummy you think this pie is! I can't wait to dig in. Until then--enjoy!!