Lavender Custard Pie

Hello and welcome to my new blog! My name is Chala and I love to bake for my family and friends. This past summer of 2013 I decided to enter a local pie baking contest and shockingly (for me) I won. I attribute my win, at least in part, to following my intuition. The Lavender Custard Pie that I pulled out of the oven the morning of the contest had a shrunken crust and looked rather homely. I must confess, dear readers, that I almost gave up and backed out of the contest. Thankfully though, I listened to that very quiet but insistent voice that told me I should enter anyway because taste matters more than appearance. Clearly in this situation, following my intuition paid off. Receiving praise of my culinary efforts from people outside of my loving circle made me realize that maybe I am a decent baker and that I do have something to share with others. So here we go!

For best results, I would suggest: 1) chilling the uncooked pie dough overnight; and 2) adding the lavender to the milk in a covered container to infuse overnight in the refrigerator. These two steps will save you time the day of baking and give the milk more of a lavender flavor when you make the custard.

Pie Crust Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

pinch of salt (about ¼ teaspoon)

½ cup (1 stick) cold butter

2 tablespoons vodka *

+/- 2 tablespoons ice water

* For this pie crust recipe, including the 2 tablespoons of vodka results in a more tender dough. Gluten is a protein that can make dough tough and it forms more easily in water. By offsetting the water with vodka, which is comprised of more ethanol than water, less gluten forms and you end up with a better crust. No worries about the alcohol because it vaporizes while baking in the oven, leaving behind no discernible taste. (Although you can find many sources for the benefit of adding vodka to pie crust, I obtained the information in this paragraph from page 113 of the magazine, America's Test Kitchen – Best Baking Recipes, displayed until July 8, 2013.)

Stir together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Using a cheese grater, quickly grate the butter into the flour mixture.

Massage everything together with your fingers until the consistency has clumps of butter approximately the size of small peas.

Add the vodka and 2 tablespoons of the ice water and mix in until the flour will mostly hold together. If the dough seems to be too dry and is not holding together, add another tablespoon of the ice water. When it comes to water in pie crust, less is more, so proceed cautiously to ensure a tender final crust. Knead the dough until you can form it into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it soften on the counter for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how long the dough was chilled, and the temperature of the kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a circle slightly larger than your pie pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, tucking the overhang under, and then crimping all around the edge. A thick crust around the rim of the pie plate is less likely to shrink while baking.

Prick the dough all over the bottom and sides of the pan. Take an approximately 12 inch by 12 inch piece of parchment paper and crumple it into a ball, unfurl it a bit, and then place it inside the pie pan on top of the dough. (The crumpling of the parchment paper makes it fit inside of the pan more easily.) Fill the pan with pie weights or dried beans, as I have pictured here.

Bake for 8 minutes, then remove the weights/beans and parchment. Bake for another 5 minutes, until the crust looks set and dry. Cool on a rack while you work on the custard.

Custard Ingredients:

1 heaping tablespoon lavender

2 ½ cups milk

4 eggs

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

ground nutmeg

The lavender that I use in this recipe comes from my own garden. After I harvested it in May, I tied small bundles together and hung them upside down to dry inside my house for about 3 weeks. When I want to use the dried buds, I simply pull them off over a white towel (the better to see!) and store them in a glass container. If you don't have lavender in your garden or have access to it fresh from a farmer's market, you can buy it in specialty stores or on-line. A word of caution about that though, I would really recommend buying “culinary” lavender, preferably labeled organic so that you know it is safe to add to food. One of the many benefits of growing your own lavender is the assurance of where and how it was grown.

At least a few hours, or preferably the night before baking, add a heaping tablespoon of lavender to the milk, cover, and place in the fridge.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Lightly whisk the eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Place a strainer over the mixing bowl and slowly pour the milk over it so that the lavender is caught in the strainer. Discard the lavender and then mix well.

Carefully pour the filling into the partially baked pie crust and then sprinkle with nutmeg. Try to distribute the nutmeg all the way to the crust because as the pie bakes, the nutmeg will be drawn inward toward the center of the pie.

To prevent the crust from browning too quickly, cover only the crust with a ring of foil. Bake the pie for 25 minutes and then remove the foil. Bake for another 25 to 35 minutes, depending on your oven. The custard is done when the center jiggles only slightly and/or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate within 2 hours of baking and cover for longer storage.

This recipe was adapted from the one printed in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, Eleventh Edition.

I really hope you've enjoyed reading and making this recipe. Please check back soon for more!