This homemade butterscotch pudding pie has a chocolate ganache bottom and a salty pretzel crust. Blind-bake the crust first before filling it with chocolate ganache and butterscotch pudding and top with homemade whipped cream. A mix of sweet and savoury is always a winner for me!
4 Parts to this Butterscotch Pudding Pie
- Pretzel Crust: use store bought pretzels to make a slightly salty crust which is blind baked - don't worry, I'll show you how to do this!
- Chocolate Ganache: I'll show you how to make a chocolate layer at the bottom of this butterscotch pie. It's super easy but gives a great layering effect when you slice up the pie.
- Butterscotch Pudding: learn to make your favourite diner dessert - pudding! We'll make this on the stove and get a really creamy pudding.
- Whipped Cream: no pie is complete without whipped cream!
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Blind baking a pie crust
When I first got into baking pies, the whole blind baking vs parbaking felt really confusing! Really, it just means baking (or partly baking) your pie crust before you put your filling in. This is for fillings that don't need baking (like butterscotch pudding!) or only need a little bit of time in the oven (like a custard pie).
Do I need to dock or weigh down a crumb crust?
This recipe uses pretzel crumbs (and butter and sugar!), so unlike an all butter pie dough (like this bourbon apple pie recipe), we don't need to dock or weigh the pie down. Docking (which is poking the pastry with a fork all over) and pie weights are used to keep the pie dough from puffing up - but we don't have that problem with a crumb crust!
How to blind bake a pretzel crust
After you've fixed the ingredients together, press it evenly into the bottom and sides of an ungreased (important! Don't grease your pie plate) pie plate. I use a metal measuring cup to press it in evenly. Bake your crust for 15-17 minutes. You'll know it's ready when it smells nice and toasty!
FAQs and Tips
Yes you can! Any type of crumb will work here. You could have cookie crumbs, chips, cereal crumbs, etc.
There are two secrets to getting a super creamy butterscotch pudding. First, you need to temper the eggs. This means while it's on the stove, you add the eggs a little bit at a time, constantly whisking. This stops you from getting scrambled eggs! And two, you then strain the pudding through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of any lumps.
You can make this pie up to 24 hours in advance, but don't top with whipped cream until ready to serve.
Store this pie in the refrigerator!
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Have you tried this recipe? Don't forget to tag me @alpineella and leave a comment below!
Recipe
Butterscotch Pudding Pie with Salted Pretzel Crust
Equipment
- 9 inch deep dish pie plate
Ingredients
Pretzel Crumb Crust
- 230 grams pretzel crumbs 2 ⅔ cups
- 30 grams sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 128 grams unsalted butter, melted 8 tbsp
Chocolate Ganache
- 226 grams dark chocolate, chopped 8 ounces
- 156 grams heavy cream ⅔ cup
Butterscotch Pudding
- 2 egg yolks
- 340 grams whole milk 1 ½ cups
- 120 grams heavy cream ½ cup
- 106 grams dark brown sugar ½ cup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 28 grams cornstarch ¼ cup
- 14 grams unsalted butter 1 tbsp
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream
- 235 grams heavy cream 1 cup
- 50 grams sugar ¼ cup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Pretzel Crust
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C
- In a food processor, pulse the pretzels until they become fine crumbs. Add the sugar and salt with the pretzel crumbs. Add in the melted butter and stir to combine. The mixture should turn into pea sized clumps and easily hold together when it is ready. If not, add a little more melted butter
- Press the crust into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch deep dish pie plate
- Blind bake the pie crust for 15 minutes, it should smell toasty and go golden brown. Let the crust cool completely.
Chocolate Ganache
- Place your chopped chocolate in a heatsafe bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Once it begins to boil, pour it over the chocolate and leave it for 5 minutes. Stir gently with a heatproof spatula (not a whisk) until the ganache is smooth.
- Pour the ganache into the cooled pie crust, and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly. Let it set for 20 minutes.
Butterscotch Pudding
- In a medium pot over medium heat, bring the cream and milk to a simmer. Meanwhile, put the egg yolks in a small jug.
- In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt together.
- Once the milk mixture has started to simmer, whisk the egg yolks into the sugar mixture and whisk until combined. Pour in a splash of the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture and whisk to temper the eggs. Repeat twice more. Scrape this mixture into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it is very thick, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter, stirring until smooth
- Strain the pudding into a bowl to remove any lumps, and cover with plastic wrap directly to the pudding to ensure no skin forms.
- Once cool, pour the pudding straight on to your cooled pie, and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Refrigerate for 2 hours at the minimum.
Whipped Cream
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the cream on medium speed for 2 minutes until it becomes thick. With the mixer running, slowly stream in the sugar. Add the vanilla and use immediately.
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Aaron says
I made this pie and the whole family loved it! I used semi-sweet chips for the ganache because I had a ton of them and it worked out fine despite online warnings to the contrary. The pretzel crust is just brilliant and blind baking makes it top notch. I'd recommend making a double batch of the pudding because PUDDING!
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review! Also love the idea of double amount of pudding, the world needs more pudding!
T says
Choclate layer never set. What a joke. Butterscotch was too salty. I thought it woukd be with an entire tsp of salt. My husband likes salt and said it was toooo salty. It did have the Butterscotch flavor though. Nothing like the photo. Had to mix the two layers in order to keep from throwing it out.