Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Buttermilk Pie


Saturday night I saw The Waitress. I just LOVED this movie. It was very artfully and cutely directed, and being a foodie, I loved the use of food as a medium of self-expression. I'm also a huge Keri Russell fan since the good old Felicity days. Anyway, the movie gave me a ridiculous craving for some form of pie. Now, considering the fact that it's finals week and I really should be studying/writing papers, pie-baking is not high on my list of this to do. But amidst my procrastinating today, I found a recipe for a pie that took less than 5 minutes to prep AND used all the leftover buttermilk that I got for the cilantro buttermilk biscuits. I saw several variations of this pie, many of which included real pie crusts which I didn't have pre-made and I didn't want to make (considering I technically don't have the time to be baking at all...heh), but this one was pretty basic.

The result was SO delicious. The pie has a sort of custard-like consistency, but the top is firm and crunchy. It only used 1 cup of sugar (Paula Deen's recipe called for 1.5 cups), and I still found it very sweet and rich. I certainly didn't mind, but if you are sensitive about too much sweetness, you could get away with using less sugar. It probably also depends on how tart your buttermilk is. I have seen it topped with confectioner's sugar and/or cocoa powder, but I used a mixture of sugar and cinnamon which was excellent. It reminded me of some dessert I knew I had at a friend's house as a child, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Either way, if you have some extra buttermilk on hand that you need to use or just want a really quick pie, this one is definitely for you.

Buttermilk Pie
adapted from Paula Deen

1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Bisquick (or, as I used: 6 tbsp flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp oil)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch pie pan.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and blend for 1 minute with a handheld electric mixer. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes.

Top with powdered sugar, cocoa powder, or (my favorite) cinnamon.

3 comments:

marc said...

That sounds delicious. I love custard or anything with the qualities of it. It turned out beautiful.

Unknown said...

When you said it reminded you of a previous pie, was the previous pie at all lemon flavoured? If you like this sort of pie, and you love lemons, I'd reccomend a lemon chess pie being just the thing! Your pie looks like it turned out perfectlly, it's making me crave some too.

Lyra said...

Maybe you had tres leches cake at a friends house. that would have a similar taste perhaps. But if it was a pie I dont know...