Year of the Pie #5: Maple Custard

March can be a bear weather-wise. Snow one day, 60's and sunny the next. At least there is one upside to March in northern New England: sugaring season! As a tribute to the liquid gold that comes but once a year, I found a Maple Custard pie in the book.

This is a pretty simple recipe with only a few ingredients - heavy cream, maple syrup (REAL maple syrup), sugar, vanilla, salt and egg yolks, in a flaky crust, and is very easy to prepare: "combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl and whisk briefly, until evenly mixed." Seriously. The crust took longer to make! Only one bowl to wash? Sweet!

The recipe suggested using light amber maple syrup to give it a more delicate and refined flavor. I don't really believe in Grade A or B or any other letter syrup. My parents tap and boil on their property and produce something more hearty than the standard grade - it's delicious, which is all that matters. And frankly, the pie was really just another excuse to consume syrup, so the more maple flavor, the better.  

the makings of the pie                               whisking the day away

I did make the mistake of making a larger-sized crust than I needed. I am usually pretty good about checking the amount of filling compared to the crust size, but neglected to do so. At least until I was pouring the filling into the crust. The recipe suggested either a 9 inch standard or a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pan. I opted for my blue glass pan, which is a 9 1/2 inch pan. Based on the proportions of filling, and how much I expected the filling to puff up, the smaller pan (8 or 9 inch) would have been fine as the custard filling didn't quite fill the crust as I thought it should. Another option is to increase the filling by half - another excuse to consume more syrup. . . 

This was also my first experience with a custard, so I didn't know quite what to expect. I think I baked it longer than I needed to - I had a hard time judging when it had gone from soupy to jiggly.

 

right from the oven - jiggly, not soupy
. . . I think . . .

The pie cooled, then chilled for a while. The custard fell a bit when it cooled, which I sort of expected, but it in no way affected the overall taste (just left a much taller crust!).

fallen, but still delicious!

It still tasted REALLY good chilled and would be great garnished with some whip cream. This one is definitely on the make again list - and got great reviews.