Contents
A pale, tangy custard pie, close kin to chess pie and to the English whitepot it descends from. Buttermilk is the whole flavour: acid enough to stop the sugar cloying, and thin enough that the filling stays light where a cream custard would be heavy.
It is a pantry pie. Nothing in it is seasonal and nothing in it is expensive.
What makes it work
- Real cultured buttermilk. The thin, sour liquid left from churning, or the cultured supermarket version. Milk soured with lemon juice is a poor substitute here because the flavour, not just the acid, is the point. See buttermilk recipes.
- Flour, not cornstarch. Two tablespoons of flour gives a softer set with a faint body that suits the tang; cornstarch sets it too firm.
- Nutmeg on top, generously. Traditional and correct.
- Low oven, wobbly centre, like every custard pie in this folder.
- Blind bake and seal the shell.
Ingredients
One 23 cm pie. Serves 10.
- 1 blind-baked shell — all-butter pie crust
- 350 g granulated sugar
- 30 g all-purpose flour
- 115 g unsalted butter, melted
- 3 eggs
- 350 ml buttermilk
- 4 g fine salt
- 2 tsp vanilla — see Pure vanilla extract
- zest and 1 tbsp juice of 1 lemon
- nutmeg, freshly grated
Method
Blind bake the shell. Set the oven to 165 °C / 325 °F.
Whisk the sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in the melted butter, then the eggs one at a time, then the buttermilk, vanilla, zest and juice. Do not beat air in.
Pour into the shell, grate nutmeg thickly over the top, and bake 45–55 minutes, until set at the edges with a 6 cm wobble in the middle.
Cool completely, then chill if you like — it is good both ways.
Notes
- It browns unevenly and that is fine. A slightly freckled top is what it looks like.
- Coconut buttermilk pie — 80 g of desiccated coconut folded in — is a common Texas variation.
- Keeps four days refrigerated.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Pie and tart recipes · pies and tarts · buttermilk recipes
Nearby: chess pie · sugar cream pie · custard pie