Egg Custard Pie

This week I thought I'd go with a sweet pie. I've always enjoyed a good custard pie, so I figured that would be a good first sweet pie for the blog.

I tried a new pastry recipe for this one, and it's real easy - promise.

Put into a blender:
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter chopped into pieces.

Blend on a medium speed until it's coarse. Then add 3 tablespoons very cold water and blend on low until it starts to clump a bit. Tip it out onto a floured surface then scrape it all up with your hands until it forms a loose ball. Squish it down, then sprinkle some flour on top and roll it out flat. You might need to lift it off the surface, flip it over and roll the other side, or it can end up sticking to the surface and then ripping. Cut around your upside down pie tins then line the suckers - no need to worry about a lid this week.

For the custard filling:

Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan, then stir in 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 cup of caster sugar (or use plain sugar if that's all you've got). Add 1 cup of cream, or milk. Stir it all up. Add 3 beaten eggs and stir. Finally, add 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla essence (use real vanilla if you can) and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Stir over a low heat for few minutes.

Put your lined pie tins in a 200 degree celcius oven for about 4-5 minutes first, then pour in the custard mixture. You want to bake it first to stop the wet, sloppy custard from soaking through the crust too much.

Bake the pie(s) for around 30 minutes for small individual pies, or a bit longer for a single big pie. You'll know it's done when a knife inserted into the middle of the pie comes out clean.

Bear in mind that this isn't going to look like your traditional yellow custard pie from the shop (I think they add yellow colouring to those bad boys). Mine caramelised on top, but was still delicious. Next time I make it I'll try a recipe closer to a store bought custard pie.