Night of two Pies, part 1: Salty Honey Pie

Last Friday I made two pies. They were both quite good. This post will be about the first of them: a Salty Honey Pie, possibly the most decadent and/or delicious dessert I've made yet.

This pie has an enormous amount of honey and sugar and salt too. It is not a healthy pie, and will give you the sugar jitters. But it is delicious.

The recipe came from the proprietors of the Brooklyn pie shop Four & Twenty Blackbirds, which I confess to my shame that I haven't yet visited. The recipe can be found here (thanks to Ryan and Su for forwarding the link).

Here's the recipe, crust first:

Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Crust
By Melissa and Emily Elsen

This recipe makes one double crusted, 9-inch pie.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8-10 tablespoons ice water with cider vinegar, or more as needed (combine 1 cup cold water, 1/8 cup cider vinegar and ice)

Whisk the dry ingredients together and blend with a hand-held pastry blender the chopped, cold butter, being careful not to overwork during this step. The butter should be in pea-sized chunks, not too big, but not completely incorporated.

Slowly add the ice water and vinegar mixture and bring the dough completely together by hand, again being careful not to overwork. Aim to create a marbleized effect, so that the butter is still visible.

Divide into 2 discs, wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour or more before use.

To pre-bake a crust for a custard pie: Roll one disc of crust out to fit a 9-inch pan, about 1/4 inch thick. Place in a buttered pie pan, and crimp the edges as desired. Allow to rest and cool in freezer or fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Line the rolled-out crust with tinfoil or unwaxed parchment paper, add pie weights or about a cup of dry beans if you don’t have pie weights. Distribute them evenly.

Bake in a 375 F oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before filling with custard.

Here's the dough, wrapped and ready to refrigerate:

And, rolled out and draped over a pan:



Shaped with nice edges:



And, edges crimped carefully and ready to pre-bake.



Now, for the filling!

Four & Twenty Blackbirds
Salty Honey Pie
By Melissa and Emily Elsen

Makes one 9-inch custard pie.

Preheat oven to 350F.
Have prepared one pre-baked pie shell of your choice. We use an all butter crust. Recipe below.

For filling:
1/2 c butter melted
3/4 c white sugar
2 Tbsp white cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c honey
3 eggs
1/2 c cream
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 or 2 Tbsp flake sea salt for finishing (Maldon is a good choice)

–

All of the mixing can be done by hand, or with an electric mixer.

Melt butter and combine with the sugar, salt and cornmeal to make a thick paste. Add the honey, vanilla and vinegar and mix together. Fold in the eggs, add the cream and blend.

Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie shell and bake at 350 F for 45 to 60 minutes. The filling will puff up like a marshmallow and the center will be just slightly wobbly. Once cooled (at least one hour), finish with a sprinkling of flake sea salt. Slice and serve with freshly whipped cream.

Here's what the filling looked like, being poured into the prepared, pre-baked crust:

Here it is, pretty and ready for baking:




In the oven and starting to brown on top. This made me nervous: "Is it supposed to do that?"




The answer is yes. Here it is, fresh out of the oven. (With an unfortunate dent visible from where I touched the delicate top with a finger)




My first time using fancy sea salt. What a lovely pie.




A couple hours later, with some sweetened whipped cream on top, here's what a slice looked like (note a generally firm texture, but with honey ooze):

And, midway through a slice at lunch the following day:

Part Two will feature a honey-sweetened berry pie! Coming soon.