Butterscotch pie is a

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

in American cuisine made by cooking

brown sugar Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar. Brown Sugar may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul * ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...

with egg yolks,

corn starch Corn starch, maize starch, or cornflour (British English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or sou ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, and

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

to make a butterscotch

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...

pie filling which is topped with meringue and browned in the oven. Variations on the basic

can be made with grated

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

or orange rind which are sprinkled on the warm filling under the meringue topping.

History

The pie is said to have originated at a

Connersville, Indiana Connersville is a city in Fayette County, east central Indiana, United States, east by southeast of Indianapolis. The population was 13,481 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of and the largest and only incorporated town in F ...

creamery in 1904 when Sarah Wheeler accidentally made butterscotch out of burnt custard and made a pie out of it for her sons. The recipe for this pie was published in the 1904 edition of a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church cookbook, and helped her launch a chain of restaurants. The last Wheeler's restaurant closed in 1969, but according to the recipe published by the

Indianapolis Star Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, attributed to Sarah Wheeler, the filling was made by stirring caramelized brown sugar into a mixture of flour and egg yolks, then adding butter and vanilla.

Preparation

There are different ways to make the butterscotch filling. The egg yolks and milk can be added to the brown sugar and thickener, then butter and vanilla mixed in after the mixture has started to bubble, or the egg yolks can be added after the milk and sugar mixture has thickened. Another way to make the filling is to melt the butter first, and then add the other ingredients to the melted butter, first the sugar and cream, then scalded milk added in two portions with thickener. For the second version egg yolks are stirred in at the end. The pie filling can also be made with dark corn syrup, and evaporated milk can be used instead of milk or cream.

References

{{American pies American pies Cuisine of the Midwestern United States Custard desserts Sweet pies Meringue desserts