Maple buttermilk pie

Hey you all! Yes I know I don't publish a lot, I just keep delaying whatever post I have in mind and things keep piling up... I already did that with emails and I am not surprised I am doing that with this blog. In the case of this post I was just wondering whether to share that recipe or not, I made this pie last week end and it sort of got lost in the midst of all the good food we had. Yes I can promise you won't starve if you come visit me! it's sort of a family trade mark I think :).

I found this pie on one of the first blogs I followed and was very excited about trying it but I have to admit that I am not completely sold on the result... My mistake was maybe that I did not have lemon so I used lime, I am not really sure, I am slightly modifying it here in hope to improve it. This is the pie recipe and I did switch the pie crust for the one I use in my apple pie. Talking about pie crust, it is so unbelievably easy to make, especially if you have a food processor, I am not really sure what the big deal is, I never actually used a store bought one.

The maple buttermilk pie is sort of a creamy, spicy, lemony pie, slightly sour. It has the texture of lemon curd pie but creamier. I really don't know how I feel about it... So I will let you make your own opinion.

Ingredients:

crust
- 1 1/4 c AP flour

- 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes

- 2 tbsp cold vegetable shortening (I used butter flavored one)

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 3 tbsp ice cold water

filling

- 1 tsp lemon zest

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

- 6 egg yolks (you can use the egg whites for a meringue :) )

- 1/4 c AP flour

- 2/3 c maple syrup

- 2 c buttermilk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp salt

- coarse sugar for topping (I skipped it but would use it next time)

Instructions

- Preheat the oven to 375F

- Prepare your dough. Pulse together flour, salt, butter and shortening in a food processor until it resembles coarse, wet sand with some pea size lumps of butter. Sprinkle the water uniformly and pulse until it just comes together, to test, squeeze a small handful of dough, if it doesn't hold together add more water 1 tbsp at a time.

- Turn the dough on a floured surface and knead the dough quickly until if comes into a smooth ball. Flatten into a disk an refrigerate until firm (I have to admit that I skip that step sometimes).

- Roll out the pie crust being careful not to overwork it or stretch it too much. Line a 9 inch pie plate with the crust, trim the edges about an inch away from the rim of the pie plate using scissors. Tuck the over hanging dough under it self and crimp. Prick the dough with a fork and place in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

- Pre-bake the pie shell, in order to do that place pie weights uniformly in the bottom of shell and bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Then remove the weights and let cool completely 

- Reduce the oven to 325F

- In the mean time you can prepare your pie filling: combine lemon zest, brown sugar, egg yolks and flour in a bowl until lump free, then stir in carefully the maple sirup, buttermilk, vanilla extract and salt.

- Once your pie shell is cooled, place onto a baking sheet and fill with about 2/3 of filling, place in the oven and carefully pour in the rest of your filling. Bake until the filling is set, about 1h, carefully take out of the oven, sprinkle with coarse salt and let cool. I served it at room temperature and cold (out of the fridge) and I am not sure which one I prefer.

Notes:

1- Be careful when tucking in the dough, you want it to go slightly over the edge, I had to toss my first dough because it slid in the plate when pre-baking... (stretching also affects that so watch out)

2- I do not have pie weight but you can use any kind of bean (I have garbanzo beans), you can then reuse them over and over again but please note that you won't be able to eat those bean, they should either be tossed or devoted to pie making (and live forever...)