Caramel Pie

This pie recipe is a Southern recipe, so that usually means to let go of all those calories that you're counting and just enjoy the rich flavors. It tastes better without guilt anyways. The calories are definitely well worth the taste though; the rich, creamy caramel filling is sandwiched between a buttery, flaky crust and a pillow soft merengue. Doesn't that sound like a slice of heaven? Quick warning though, If you don't have much patience then this recipe isn't for you since it does take a while to cook the filling. Let's get started!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
4 tbsp flour

1 tbsp cornstarch1 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 pie shell, 9-inch, baked
Meringue

3 egg whites

1/3 cup sugar, for meringue
1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

Directions:

Separate three egg yolks from the whites and place them in a bowl. 

Beat them in a stand mixer or with a hand held whisk until they're smooth and add the milk.

Mix in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, preferably a glass mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, and butter.

[I made my own brown sugar for this recipe, since I was out. If you're in a similar situation as me and you have regular white sugar and molasses on hand, you can make your own fluffy brown sugar. Of course not everyone has molasses on hand, if you don't then it's probably best to just go out and buy a bag of brown sugar. A tablespoon of molasses should work for a cup of sugar. Whisk them together to incorporate the molasses evenly. If you add more you'll get a darker sugar with a strong molasses taste, and vice versa if you add less than a tablespoon. In this case you might want to add a little less since the taste of molasses will definitely show through in the filling.] 

Once combined, add your milk and egg mixture and incorporate it into the dry ingredients.

Now, if you already have a double boiler than you can skip this step. But if you don't, you can easily create one out of your everyday kitchen supplies. Stack a glass mixing bowl over a big enough sauce pan so that the bottom of the bowl can go well into the pan.

Pour water into the pan until it hits the bottom of the bowl, don't pour too much since you're going to need to get the water to boil and if you use too much it might overflow. Once the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-high just so you can maintain the boil and not heat it up further. Cook the mixture in the double boiler until the butter melts and until the mixture thickens up. I recommend using a heat resistant spatula to stir the mixture constantly, since you can easily feel as well as see when the filling becomes thick. This process will take a while since you're using a double boiler but it will help ensure than nothing burns.

Once you think it's thick enough, spoon a little bit out onto a cold bowl and drag the spoon through the mixture. You should be able to see the spoon tracks for at least 10 seconds or so before they fill up again.

This is what the finished filling should look like.

To create the meringue, pour the 3 egg whites into a stand mixer bowl and whisk them on high until you get soft peaks. Add your sugar and cream of tartar little by little in order to incorporate them evenly and continue mixing until you get stiff peaks.

Pour the filling into the crust and spoon the meringue over it.

Bake the pie in a 400℉ oven for 10 minutes until the peaks turn a beautiful golden color.

Let the pie chill thoroughly in the refrigerator to make sure the filling sets, it will still be very creamy and ooze out a little but if you try eating it warm the filling will just melt out onto your plate.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! I sure did, I had two slices within two hours of each other (shhh!)

-Bruni