Buttermilk pie is a traditional southern dish with a custard filling and a delicate pastry shell. It’s an old dish from the age of “desperation pies,” which Southern ladies baked for their family during times of war and hardship.
To make the pie sour and bitter during the early years of the Great Depression, Southern ladies frequently added vinegar, green tomatoes, and other pantry goods.
What Does Buttermilk Pie Taste Like?
Buttermilk pie has a taste similar to crème brûlée and is light, buttery, and creamy. Fans of the glistening “lid” on top of crème brûlée will be delighted to hear that buttermilk pie, too, has a crackly top.
Cracking your fork through the top of a buttermilk pie and into the creamy custard is one of life’s great small pleasures, like crème brûlée.
This delicacy’s custard filling is velvety smooth and delicately sweet. The sugary layer caramelizes while the custard bakes, giving it a crunchy texture.
The buttermilk provides a little acidity, while the melted butter provides a delicious richness.
The flour in a Buttermilk Pie is necessary for structure, but it is not designed to taste like butter; rather, it provides a soft and tangy flavor to the pie’s filling.
Furthermore, the flour in the pie crust prevents the pie from burning. To avoid a browned crust, use coconut flour with ordinary flour. If you’re concerned about gluten, try almond or coconut flour.
How Is Buttermilk Pie Made?
Buttermilk pie is created using pantry staples (eggs, butter, sugar, and flour), the filling is produced in a single bowl, and the mixture thickens to form a custard.
The pie, on the other hand, bakes in the oven without the effort of heating milk, tempering egg yolks, or any of the other awkward tasks involved with a custard pie.
The buttery pastry crust of buttermilk pie is topped with a creamy dairy-based filling. Butter, eggs, sugar, fresh lemon juice, and a nutmeg-flavored pastry crust comprise the filling.
The pie may be eaten warm or cold, although it tastes best chilled. It can also be frozen. However, you must allow the pie to cool fully before freezing it.
Buttermilk Pie Recipe
Place the prepared pie dough in the pie plate and roll it out. Refrigerate after trimming and folding the edges as needed.
The most important guideline of making flaky pie crust is to keep it cool to avoid the butter from melting.
After mixing the eggs, put in the dry ingredients. Add the wet components as soon as they are incorporated. That’s all there is to it for the filling.
Pour the contents into the crust with care. Position the pie plate on a baking sheet to catch any filling bubbles.
Bake the buttermilk pie for 20 minutes on the bottom rack at 325°F. Then, move the pan to the center of the oven and bake for another 40 minutes.
If the pie crust browns too rapidly before the filling has set, screen it with foil or add a pie crust shield as needed.
Garnish with fresh fruit or whipped cream if preferred.
How Is Buttermilk Pie Different To Chess Pie?
Chess pie, if you’re unfamiliar, is a traditional dessert in the American South that originated in England. It’s a custard-style pie with a browned crust.
It is often cooked with a standard pie crust with a filling of milk, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, flour, and sometimes vinegar or lemon.
With this in mind, it’s easy to see why buttermilk pie and chess pie are frequently mistaken.
Buttermilk pie and chess pie are both Southern desserts that can please any sweet craving. The pies include comparable components that combine to make a delicious custard filling.
All buttermilk pies are chess pies in essence, but every chess pie is a buttermilk pies. Chess pie is an English meal that has long been renowned as a typical Southern dish.
In terms of flavor, buttermilk pies feature a vanilla filling that is more zesty and sour. Chess pie, on the other hand, generally includes a cornmeal filling and is better suited to folks who enjoy sweets.
Is Buttermilk Pie Healthy?
Not many pies can be considered as healthy as they usually have a lot of butter, milk, sugar, and other ingredients included in them which are absolutely fine in moderation, but you will likely not see any drastic weight loss if you eat pie on the daily.
Having said this however, research has shown that buttermilk is quite good for our digestive system. Buttermilk includes probiotic bacteria and lactic acid, both of which improve digestion and metabolism.
It also helps to maintain regular bowel motions and relieve constipation. Buttermilk can also assist with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
It also helps to avoid stomach infections, lactose intolerance, and colon cancer.
In addition, buttermilk is a calcium-rich beverage. Buttermilk contains around 116 mg of calcium per 100 mL.
Calcium is needed to keep our skeletal system healthy and to build our bones and teeth. Calcium helps to prevent degenerative bone diseases like osteoporosis.
Calcium is also required for blood coagulation, muscular contraction, and the beating of the heart.
How To Store Buttermilk Pie
To prevent a buttermilk pie from going off, it should be stored in the refrigerator in a container that is airtight. If it is stored this way, it should last about three to four days before it will start to go off.
For freezing, the method is pretty similar as it does best in either an air-tight container or zip-lock bag. When frozen, buttermilk pie will last much longer and can be kept for two months.
When it comes to defrosting the buttermilk, it is recommended to reheat it in the oven at 325 degrees F until it is nice and warm.
Summary
Buttermilk pie has a sweet flavor. It’s comparable to a chess pie but without the cornmeal. The filling is made with sugar, wheat flour, and butter, and it can be flavored with lemon zest, nutmeg, coconut, and other ingredients.
It has a delicate and flaky texture and a taste that complements any dessert. When producing a handmade version, be sure to thoroughly follow the directions.
Have you ever made something so delicious that you wished you could savor it forever?
Only to find that the recipe has now mysteriously vanished from your phone and the entirety of the internet. Yep, there’s not much more painful than that.
Hi, my name is Mark Williams and I have been infatuated with cooking since I was young. I would beg my mother to pull a chair up to the counter so I could watch what she was doing.
