Butterscotch Pie for Two

Butterscotch Pie has a gooey toffee filling with a flaky crust. Served with a dollop of whipped cream, this mini pie delivers big flavor!

I love Pi Day (March 14th, or 3/14), a day fully created to make my math tutor/chef’s heart skip a beat.

Not to bring back nightmares from Geometry, but pi (∏), an irrational number representing the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle, is 3.14159…).

This is definitely a day for Math nerds.

I, of course, also love pie, and math plays a part in that, too. For instance, how do you adjust a recipe for a full-sized pie to a mini pie for two?

(Why would you want to do that?)

Since I'm only cooking for my husband and myself, I want a pie that won't call to me from the fridge for the rest of the week.

Hmmm…there's only one way forward for me: MATH!

(gahhh!!)

Jump to:

• Kitchen calculations for pie
• Simple ingredients for big flavor
• How to make Butterscotch Pie
• Questions asked and answered
• Small size with big flavor
• Related Recipes
• Recipe

Kitchen calculations for pie

I see you cringing in your seat, don’t worry! I only needed to calculate the volume of a 7-inch pie pan and the volume of a 9-inch pie pan, then divide the two answers and adjust each ingredients weight by the result.

(Ummm…pie pans are sloped)

To the Interwebs! Except, an internet search came up empty. I found various answers for the volume of a 9-inch pie pan but none for the 7-inch pie pan.

Ok, new plan. Just fill each pan with water and pour that amount into a measuring cup.

The result? A 9-inch pie pan holds 4 cups of water and a 7-inch pie pan holds 1½ cups, so the ratio to adjust the ingredients is ⅜.

You know what? Just divide the recipe ingredient amounts in half and have done with it!

(Do you see what goes on in my head? It’s combat in here, folks.)

Simple ingredients for big flavor

Now that the math section is over, let's get back to our regularly scheduled recipe in progress.

(Yippee!)

This pie uses basic ingredients. and you don't have to do much to them. Really, the filling is just a butterscotch sauce recipe that's set with eggs.

Choosing dark brown sugar deepens the toffee flavor, but light brown sugar works as well.

How to make Butterscotch Pie

A Butterscotch Pie recipe has two major parts, making the crust and making the filling, and they're almost done concurrently.

Let's break it down.

Step 1: Par-bake the pie crust

You can make a homemade pie crust or get one at the store. I prefer my all butter No Recipe Pie Crust, using a 6-4-2 recipe ratio of flour-fat-liquid for half of a double pie crust. It makes enough for this smaller pie pan without too much waste.

Freezing the unbaked pie shell and wrapping it in foil will help hold it in place during the par-bake so you won't need baking beads. This is the same technique used for the Basic Shortcrust Pastry.

Step 2: Make the filling

While the crust is freezing, start the butterscotch filling.

Making butterscotch is essentially cooking butter and brown sugar together, then adding in cream. At this point you have a homemade butterscotch sauce. If you were to omit the eggs, you'd have a delicious sauce to pour over ice cream!

But since the filling needs to have a gooey yet solid structure, add in the eggs and the vanilla after the mixture has cooled a bit.

Step 3: Fill and bake the pie

You'll par-bake the pie crust wrapped in foil while the filling is cooling down (before adding the eggs). Finish up the filling just before taking the par-baked crust from the oven.

Carefully pour the filling into the hot par-baked crust. The pie will bake just until the center as a slight wobble, like when making a pecan pie.

Questions asked and answered

Here are some questions that you might have...

Small size with big flavor

Butterscotch Pie is quite delicious. It had the gooey consistency of pecan pie filling with a lovely butterscotch flavor from the salt and vanilla.

I almost wish I had made the full recipe just so it would call out to me. Anyway, I consider this year’s Pi Day well celebrated, with pie and math!

p.s. We lost Dr. Stephen Hawking, that eminent astrophysicist, on Pi Day, 2018. Hobbled in body, Dr. Hawking's mind soared in the universe using math as his spaceship. I think Pi Day is a fitting day to celebrate his life, don't you?

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