Many times out of the holiday season I crave eggnog, so I decided to combine this craving with a dessert—hence Eggnog Pie.
The pie is actually an embellishment of a recipe I developed based on a dessert served at my junior-high-school cafeteria. Now, I refused to eat a single unspeakable dish that my cafeteria produced, with the exception of its custard-graham-cracker pie.
For years I tried to recreate this recipe without success. Was I, a proficient cook, to be outdone by a fifth-rate school cafeteria? Not on your life. It took several false starts to get the right custard and to overcome a major obstacle—the graham-cracker crust always seemed to disintegrate in the oven from the very liquid custard filling. A note in The Joy of Cooking suggested making the two separately, then combining them. Voilà, success!
The perfect custard—and I’m certain far more elaborate than the school cafeteria’s—turned out to be my favorite recipe for crème caramel, just cut in half. The additional embellishments to transform it into an eggnog flavor meant adding heavy cream, additional nutmeg, and dark rum to the custard.
You will need two 9-inch pie plates to make this recipe.
Begin by processing a package of graham-cracker crumbs, with sugar, nutmeg, and butter. Press the crumbs into one pie plate with the bottom of the other pie plate.
Bake the shell at 350-degrees for 5 minutes, then chill the crust.
In a saucepan, bring the milk and heavy cream just to the scalding point, and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks, and a pinch of salt until light and lemon colored.
Gradually beat in the sugar, then the scalded liquid, the vanilla, and dark rum.
Stir in a generous portion of freshly grated nutmeg. Very heavily butter your second 9-inch pie plate. Pour the liquid custard into the pie plate and place in another pan of boiling water, up 2/3 the sides of the pie plate.
Bake in a 300-degree oven for 25-30 minutes until the center of the custard barely jiggles. It will set more fully as it cools.
When it has set, run a sharp knife around the edge of the custard to loosen it. Gently slide the custard into the chilled pie shell. If the custard fails to slide, try carefully running an offset spatula around the bottom of it.
As evidenced by the photo, you are not going to have a picture-perfect pie for presentation. If the custard is too messy once it’s in the shell, you can try to smooth it out somewhat with a spatula. Again, don’t aim for beautiful. You may want to save this scrumptious recipe for family, rather than trying to impress guests with it. Once the custard is in the shell, grate another generous portion of nutmeg over it and chill for several hours.
