Dulche de Leche Pie

Year Two, Week One: It Begins With Pie

It’s summer and we’re back! And this year’s going to be bigger and better than ever! Admittedly, with only one year under our belts, this won’t be too difficult. We’ve got more contests (one, stay tuned), more competitions (maybe they’ll even be official), more news coverage (possibly??), and more pies (well, there’s still the same number of weeks, but more of the popular savory pies)! And this year we’re going to feature some local foodstuffs merchants, so you can shop and bake just like the Summer of Pie! Maybe we’ll even have a logo! Dare to dream! Have I used enough exclamation points?!

Welcome to the second annual Summer of Pie! Woohoo!

DULCHE DE LECHE PIE

Dulche de Leche

1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 large/tall pot

Boil the entire can, unopended and set on its side, of condensed milk for 3 hours. IMPORTANT WARNING: Make sure that the can stays completely covered in water for the entire cook and cool down time or it could explode. Refrigerate cooked contents until needed.

You want to use a very large pot for this.

Very cool!

Shortbread Cookie Crust

1 1/2 cups finely crushed shortbread cookies
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350°.

Melt butter and thoroughly combine with crushed graham crackers and sugar in a medium bowl. Press mixture firmly onto the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie pan. Chill the crust for an hour before baking; bake for 7 minutes. Set crust aside to cool.

Vanilla Custard

4 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Preheat oven to 425°.

Whisk eggs until thoroughly blended. Add sugar, salt, half-n-half, vanilla, and vanilla bean (scrape seeds into mixture first) and whisk until smooth. Pour into cooled crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° and bake until a knife inserted into the filling one inch from the edge comes out clean, or approx 30 min. Chill completely before spreading or piping the already prepared Dulche de Leche on top. Serve.