recipe: honeysuckle cream pie
It's nice being someone's aunt.
This week, we had a visit from my nephew, Gerry. Of the six nieces and nephews I inherited upon marriage, I’ve probably spent the most time with Gerry, and I’ve always had a soft spot for him because he wore a fedora in middle school, and I find that fedorable.
Gerry was coming to claim our old couch, which is now destined for the kind of stoney basement hang outs I dearly miss, but it’s nice to be able to live vicariously through a piece of furniture that I had almost given up on.
Before making the trip, Gerry texted me to ask if I could make him a honeysuckle cream pie, and I was so struck by the precision and earnestness of the request that I was unable to do anything but comply.
I took Hazel on a walk around the neighborhood to our honeysuckle spots, but to our dismay, they had mostly dried up, lengthening our walk considerably so that we could find enough to make the pastry cream. We came home sweaty with a light bag of honeysuckle blossoms and got right to work.
By all accounts, the pie was a success. Goggy’s crust was perfect as always. (The following pie dough recipe is c/o Kathy Emerson, aka Goggy, mother to my good friend, Elliott, and I lifted the whole recipe [with permish!] from her old blogspot.) The filling was a little on the loose side, but it worked, and the faint flavor of honeysuckle was there.
The picture I posted of the pie on IG got a lot of requests for more details, so here’s the recipe. This would be lovely with jasmine tea or flowers, or Earl Grey tea, and I bet you could do a chamomile version, though I’ve never tried; but putting flowers in and on pie is definitely a move I will be making again.
Honeysuckle Cream Pie
For the pastry cream:
This is where the majority of the honeysuckle flavor lives, so it has to be just right. The key is to steep the whole flowers (but no stems or leaves) in milk for at least thirty minutes before using the milk in the pastry cream recipe. Bring the milk and flowers to a decent simmer, and then turn off the heat, cover, and let the steeping begin!
I’m going to be real with you right now and share that I haven’t found a better recipe for Creme Pat than the one from King Arthur Flour. Use that one or your personal favorite once your honeysuckle milk has sufficiently steeped. I used about a cup and a half of honeysuckle blossoms to three cups milk, but you could go up to two and a half cups for a more pronounced flavor. Anything more than that, and it gets a little aggressive.
For the whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons honeysuckle simple syrup (1 cup honeysuckle blossoms, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, boiled/simmered until a syrupy consistency is achieved, and strained. Luckily I had some of this on hand already from earlier in the spring.)
For the pie crust:
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) sweet butter, chilled
6 tablespoons lard, chilled
5-6 tablespoons ice water, as needed
Directions
Prepare pastry cream according to the KAF recipe or your own personal favorite, and chill completely, ideally overnight, but if your nephew sprang this on you at the last minute, just do your best.
Prepare the pie crust. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add chilled butter and lard. Working quickly and using your fingertips, rub or cut fat into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles course meal.
Sprinkle on ice water, 2-3 tablespoons at a time, and toss with a fork. Turn dough out onto your work surface and, using the heel of your hand, smear dough away from you, about 1/4 cup at a time. Scrape it up into a ball and wrap in wax paper. Chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Roll dough out to 1/4-inch thickness on a floured work surface. Line a 9-inch pie plate with half of the dough. Crimp edges for a single-crust pie. Return to the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes before baking.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover pie crust with parchment paper and pie weights (I’ve been using the same dried beans for, like, a year, and I’m wondering how long I have before they turn to dust). Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and carefully set aside the parchment paper and weights/beans. Dock the crust using a fork, and return to the oven to bake for an additional 15-18 minutes or until the crust looks GBD (golden, brown, delicious). Set aside on a cooling rack.
Meanwhile, make the whipped cream. Add heavy cream to the bowl of a stand mixer, and whip until the cream begins to thicken. Slowly drizzle in the honeysuckle syrup, one tablespoon at a time. Look for nice peaks, and be careful not to over mix. Taste to assess flavor, scrape down the bowl, and adjust as necessary, adding a bit more syrup if you need it.
When the crust is cooled, spoon in your cooled pastry cream. Top with fluffy whipped cream, and garnish with fresh honeysuckle blossoms.