Salted Honey Custard Pie
Don't skip the last ingredient - it makes all the difference!
Are you looking for that next dessert that’s perfectly sweet, thick and creamy? If so, this is definitely the one you’re looking for. Salted honey custard pie. It’s a thick custard with plenty of honey and notes of vanilla in it. The sugars in the custard, once baked, begin to caramelize, giving you a deeper, richer flavor…you guys, it’s ridiculously good, you’ll see.
So the base of this pie is the custard. You have to get the custard right in order for this dish to work, and we’ll walk you through the process. You start by combining heavy cream, brown sugar, cornstarch and salt over medium heat. Careful: you might want to turn the heat up a bit to expedite the process, but that will burn the sugar and cornstarch…low and slow is the way to go. This mixture will thicken and bubble up, at which point you take it off the heat and stir a small amount of it into your egg yolks. This small introduction of hot liquid will slowly raise the temperature of the yolks (it’s called “tempering”) and make sure they don’t scramble in the process of adding the rest of the hot liquid.
Now this isn’t just a honey pie, it’s a salted honey pie. The addition of sea salt at the end, before serving helps bring out extra flavor, along with adding the perfect amount of zip to each creamy bite, keeping it from being too sweet. This dessert is such a good choice for any occasion; pot lucks, birthdays, brunches – there’s never a bad time for such a delicious pie!
Salted Honey Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust, homemade or store-bought
- 4 egg yolks, beaten
- 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- sea salt, as needed
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 375º F and line pie dish with pie dough.
- Place beaten egg yolks in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine heavy cream, brown sugar, cornstarch and salt, and bring to a rolling boil.
- Stir continuously until mixture starts to thicken, then remove from heat once a full boil is reached.
- While whisking constantly, carefully pour a small amount of hot cream mixture into eggs to temper them. (This is an act of slowly raising the temperature of the eggs by adding hot liquid bit-by-bit so they don’t scramble).
- Add some more hot custard into the eggs and whisk until combined and smooth, then add in remaining custard mixture.
- Stir in honey and vanilla extract, then pour filling into prepared pie crust.
- Place pie dish in oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until pie bubbles in the center and starts to brown. It will still be jiggly.
- Remove from oven and let cool, then transfer to refrigerator to set. Sprinkle with sea salt to serve.
Recipe adapted from Life Love and Sugar