This pie is in honor of someone I recently worked with. I am a flight attendant in addition to a dessert blogger, and occasionally I come across truly spectacular people on my crews. I met this flight attendant and learned that she was choosing to continue flying through chemo after her diagnosis with breast cancer. Her strength and courage was truly inspiring to me, so I decided to ask what her favorite dessert was and she said butterscotch meringue pie. I didn’t tell her then that I asked so that I could make my own recipe and dedicate it to her, so here we are! 

 This recipe serves 6-8 people

 Ingredients:

 For the Crust:

½ Cup (1 Stick, 56g) Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into cubes

1 ½ Cups (195g) All Purpose Flour

¼ Tsp (1g) Salt

5-6 Tbs Ice Water

  For the filling:

2 ¼ Cups (532mL) Whole Milk

1 Cup (237mL) Heavy Cream

6 Tbs (85g) Unsalted Butter
1 ¼ Cups (265g) Light Brown Sugar

3 Large Room Temperature Egg Yolks

¼ Cup (30g) Cornstarch

½ Tsp (1g) Salt

3 Tbs Scotch

2 Tsp (8g) Vanilla Extract

 For the Meringue:

5 Large Room Temperature Egg Whites

½ Tsp (1g) Cream of Tartar

¾ Cup (175g) Granulated Sugar

Directions:

1.     To make the crust, add the flour, salt and butter to a food processor or into a large bowl and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. You can do this by hand as well and simply pinch the bits of butter into the flour, handling it delicately so you don’t warm it up. Once the butter is broken up into various sized pieces, add the ice water starting with 5 tbs and combining, then if the dough is too dry, add more. 

2.     Once the dough comes together, dump it onto a floured surface, knead it a couple times to bring it together then form it into a disk and refrigerate for 20 minutes covered tightly with plastic wrap. 

3.     After the dough is chilled, roll it out on a floured surface into a disk that is about 13 inches in diameter. Transfer it to a 9-inch pie dish and gently let the dough fall into the dish, don’t stretch it. Cut any excess off that hangs over the edges, and if desired, crimp the edges to make it look neater. 

4.     Put a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and fill the dish with beans or pie weights, whatever you have, and bake the pie dough at 350 Degrees F (180g) for 20 minutes, then remove the sheet of parchment and prick the dough all over with a fork and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown, then allow to cool before using. 

5.     For the filling, heat the milk and heavy cream in a saucepot until it comes to a boil, then turn off the heat. 

6.     Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the brown sugar once the butter is melted. Cook the sugar and butter until it boils and starts to caramelize, you’ll be able to see what the sugar is dissolved. Once it boils, don’t stir with any utensils, simply swirl the pan around. 

7.     Once the sugar is dissolved, while constantly whisking, pour it into the hot milk and cream. 

8.     In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, salt and cornstarch with a whisk, and while constantly whisking, pour about 1/3 of the hot milk mixture in a thin steady stream into the egg yolks, then pour the hot egg yolk mixture back into the pan with the rest of the milk while constantly whisking. 

9.     Add the scotch then continue to cook and stir occasionally over a medium heat until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Once bubbles start to come to the surface in the middle of the pan, the mixture should be pretty thick (custard-like). Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. 

10.  Pour the filling into the cooled crust and set aside. To make the meringue, add the egg whites and cream of tartar to a large bowl and beat with a whisk or mixer until stiff foamy peaks form. At this point, continue to mix while gradually pouring in the sugar. Once the sugar is all added, mix on a high speed until glossy peaks form. It should stand up straight when you pull the whisk out of the mixture. 

11.  Spread the meringue all over the top of the pie, making sure the meringue touches the complete outer edge of pie crust to seal in all of the filling. You can use a spoon to make decorative swirls and swoops in the meringue if desired. 

12.  Bake at 325 F (160 C) for around 10 minutes or until the meringue turns golden brown. Once you remove it from the oven, you can use a kitchen torch on the meringue to give it more color, but this is optional. 

13.  Chill the pie uncovered in the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours before cutting. 

-Store covered in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.