Do you have a special food memory from your childhood? Was there something that your mother or grandmother or some other special person in your life made that you loved but then, for whatever reason, stopped making? And years later, did you eat it again and think, “this is not the same recipe that ____ used, I wonder what happened to that recipe.”?
That happened in my family with Butterscotch Pie. When I was a preschooler, my mother made an amazing pie. She made it in a double boiler and served it often. I think it may have been my paternal grandmother’s recipe. My father and I loved it. My mom, who hates puddings and custards, did not care for it much. When the opportunity presented itself, she expanded her repertoire to fruit pies and stopped making butterscotch. My father and I never forgot that pie and have reminisced many times over the years about how good it was. Mom decided to make it again for us when I was a teenager, but it was simply not the same. Somewhere along the line, our memories and the recipe she used parted ways. She said we were nuts, but Dad and I have stayed true to the idea that somewhere out there, our Butterscotch Pie waited for us.
After decades of search, I finally found a recipe that matched my memory. The color, the smell, the texture brought me zipping back in time to a little kitchen on Westover AFB, Massachusetts where I sat happily devouring Butterscotch Pie.
You may find it weird that I continued to obsess over this pie even after I went gluten free. Maybe it is. My family loved it. The Good Guy said that it was better the second day, so let it stay in the fridge over night if you can. I had to stand guard and put on my Kitchen Police hat to keep my marauding teens out of it. When my father comes to visit this summer, I will make it for him and see what he thinks. You, however, can make it today for Pi day tomorrow.
1. Info for Butterscotch Pie
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: unavailable
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Butterscotch Pie
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup + 2Tbsp boiling water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1 eggs
- 4½ Tbsp flour
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- pre-baked pie shell
3. Directions:
- Put brown sugar, salt and butter in a large microwave safe bowl.
- In a separate container, boil water in the microwave.
- Add the water to the brown sugar mixture and stir until butter is melted.
- Combine egg, sugar, flour and milk in a small bowl until smooth.
- Temper this mixture with the brown sugar mixture by adding a small amount of the hot stuff into the cold, stirring all the while.
- Pour the egg mixture into the brown sugar mixture and stir to combine.
- Cook in the microwave 1 minute at a time until thickened.
- Be sure to stir it between cooking.
- The mixture will seem to thicken and then upon stirring will thin out.
- Keep doing this until it stays uniformly thick, but not stiff.
- Add vanilla.
- Pour into a baked pie shell.
- Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving, but overnight to achieve the best flavor.
- Serve with whipped cream.
