Maple Cream Pie

This maple cream pie has a flaky brown butter pie crust base filled with a rich, maple flavored custard, then topped with maple leaf pie crust cutouts for a simple, but delicious fall dessert!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Chilling Time 4

Total Time 5

Servings slices

Calories 411kcal

Author Kyleigh Sage

Equipment

Ingredients

Brown Butter Pie Crust

¾ cup unsalted brown butter cold
2 cups pastry flour substitute all purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup water cold

Maple Custard

2 cups half & half substitute whole milk
¼ cup light brown sugar
⅓ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup maple syrup
5 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon unsalted butter room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste substitute vanilla extract
½ teaspoon maple extract optional

Top With

homemade whipped cream
nutmeg

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Brown Butter Pie Crust

I use my homemade flaky pie crust for this recipe. You can check out this blog post for all my pie crust tips and tricks!
Chill the brown butter in the fridge until firm, then roughly cut into small chunks. [If you don't want to use brown butter, regular unsalted butter is fine!]
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add in the cold, brown butter and use your hands to press it into the flour mixture until you get pea sized crumbs.
Add cold water and combine until dough forms a nice ball but is still slightly sticky.
Take the formed ball of dough and separate into 2 equal sections and shape into slightly flattened disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is important to keep the butter from melting so that the crust will be nice and flaky. The chilled dough is also much easier to work with for rolling out and creating designs.
Form into 2 disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Remove 1 disk of pie dough from the fridge and on a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to about ¼ inch thick and about 2 inches wider than your pie pan. Roll the pie crust into the pie pan and be sure to poke the bottom a few times with a fork to allow air to escape during baking. Cut away any undesired excess crust and crimp, curl, or decorate the edges however you like!
Chill the pie crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking (if you skip this step, the pie crust will shrink). While the crust is chilling, preheat the oven to 425°F.
Place a piece of parchment paper or heavy duty aluminum foil inside the pie crust and fill with pie weights (uncooked rice or dry beans also work great).
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. Carefully lift the parchment paper and pie weights then return the pie crust to the oven to bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown.
Let the crust cool completely before filling with the maple custard.

Maple Custard

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks until smooth and set aside.
Add the half & half to a microwave safe bowl, then heat until very hot but not quite boiling (about 2 minutes).
In a large sauce pan, combine the cornstarch, brown sugar, nutmeg, and salt.
Over medium-low heat, slowly add in the hot milk about ½ cup at a time while whisking constantly.
As the filling begins to thicken, add in another ½ cup of hot milk and continue whisking.
Once all of the milk is adding, mix in the maple syrup and continue to cook until the filling has thickened enough the coat the back of a spoon. Then remove the pot from the heat.
Pour about ½ cup of the filling into a glass measuring cup and then slowly drizzle it into the beaten egg yolks, whisking constantly until fully combined and smooth.
Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the rest of the filling cook for an additional 5-7 minutes or until the filling has thickened to a pudding consistency.
Stir in the butter, vanilla, and maple extract until smooth.
Pour the custard through a fine mesh strainer to remove any lumps.
Cool the filling for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, before pouring into your cooled pie crust. Cover and chill in the fridge overnight (or a minimum of 4 hours) to let the filling set.

Pie Crust Leaves

While the pie is chilling, make the fall decorations!
Preheat oven to 350°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Lightly flour your surface then roll out the remaining pie dough to about ¼ inch thick.
Use your favorite pie crust impression cutters to cut dough into cute little designs (like maple leaves). Place the cutouts onto the sheet pan.
Bake at 350°F for 8-12 minutes or until fully cooked and just beginning to brown.
Let cool completely to room temperature. Then use to garnish the chilled maple cream pie!
If desired, top with homemade whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Notes

Note: Most standard pie pans are about 1 inch deep. So if you're using a deep dish pie pan (1 ½ to 2 inches deep) this recipe will not yield enough filling to completely fill your pan and you may want to double it.

To make brown butter, melt unsalted butter over medium heat, stirring frequently. Watch closely for the butter to develop brown specs and a nutty aroma. Once you start seeing brown specs, let cook for just a few seconds longer (watch very carefully or it will burn). Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl so that it doesn't continue to cook. Set aside and let cool for about 30 minutes in the fridge until firm. If you don't want to use browned butter you can just use cold unsalted butter. Note: For every ½ cup (1 stick or 113g), you'll lose about 1 tablespoon (14g) to evaporation while cooking. So you can either add in an extra 1 tablespoon before browning, or if you're browning big batches, just make up the weight difference in your recipe with regular unsalted butter if needed.

Nutrition