On Wednesday, I got home and made a butterscotch pie, basically, butterscotch pudding in a crust, topped with a carton of all natural Cool Whip that I got out of the freezer and set on the counter to thaw (even though the label says not to).
It was good – we ate it for our dessert course in front of TV at 9:00, after the leftover chicken enchiladas*. I took the first piece that devolved into a pile of goo on my plate and let the guys take the more wedge-shaped slices. By the time I had my second slice, Thursday night, it had chilled enough to hold its shape.
I used the tried & true Betty Crocker recipe: Combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch and a good pinch of salt in a 2-qt saucepan. Slowly whisk in 3 cups of milk – I used the almost out of date 2% that I had in the fridge; my real motivation for making the pie was use up that milk. Heat the mixture, whisking occasionally, until it is almost boiling. Meanwhile, separate 4 eggs – put the yolks in a bowl big enough to hold the milk mixture – I like to use my 4-cup Pyrex measure – and save the whites for something else. When the milk mixture is hot, whisk it into the yolks, and then scrape it all back into the pot. Continue cooking until the mixture thickens and really boils, then boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in 2 TBLS butter (salted is OK, and can be good, in fact) and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Pour into a graham cracker crust – pre- or home-made. For homemade, grind up 10 graham crackers in a food processor, and add 3 TBLS sugar, and 4 TBLS melted butter, pat into a 9 inch pie pan, and bake for 10 minutes. Let the pie cool first on the counter and then in the fridge before topping with the whipped topping – or whipped cream – either way a hot pie will melt & ruin the topping.
Of course, since I used up my milk in the pie, I had to borrow Mark’s for my coffee – his was a week older than mine, but still seemed OK – I just put the last of it in my coffee this a.m. and no telltale butterfat lumps.
Butterscotch pie
Topped (and cut into) butterscotch pie
Enchilada note – when we got back from Chicago on Sunday, Al & Emma had left us (in addition to the sink full of dirty dishes) a big bag of corn tortillas and an opened can of refried black beans. I had cilantro, and some odds & ends of cheese, so after I finally finished cleaning up & answering student questions on email & unpacking, I biked to the grocery store (first time I had my bike out for the year, yay!) and bought some chicken breasts to poach and shred, and canned green enchilada sauce, and made chicken-black bean enchiladas.
