Butterscotch Pie Recipe (2024)

I am so excited to participate in Yinzerella’s blog Dinner is Served 1972’s first annual #Pieathalon where 12 bloggers have swapped vintage pie recipes and agreed to make those pies for today’s event. Here is a list of the blogger’s and their assigned pie:

Brian ofCaker Cooking– Chess Pie

Ruth ofMid Century Menu– Avocado Lime Pie

Mimi ofThe Retro WW Experiment– Nesselrode Pie

Erica ofRetro Recipe Attempts– Curried Egg Pie

Jenny ofSilver Screen Suppers—Mile-High Lemon Chiffon Pie

S.S. ofA Book of Cookrye— Upside Down Chicken Pie

Sarah ofDirectionally Challenged Cooking—Simone’s Pet Strawberry Pie

Ashley ofA Pinch of Vintage—Schoolteacher Pie

Poppy ofGranny Pantries—Black Bottom Pie

Carrie ofGinger Lemon Girl—Chocolate “Pie”

Emily ofDinner is Served 1972—Seafoam Cantaloupe Pie

I was given the Butterscotch Pie recipe from Carrie at Ginger Lemon Girl while I submitted the Nesselrode Pie recipe that Mimi from The Retro WW Experiment received. I was thrilled to receive the recipe because it was Carrie’s Great-Grandma P’s original recipe written in her own hand! This is Granny P with Carrie.

Because of my love for my own Nana’s recipes, I asked Carrie some questions about her grandma that I could include with the recipe. This is what she told me:

Great-Grandma P was born in 1910 in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina where there were as many moonshine stills as there were Baptist Churches. Always a bit of a rebel, Great-Grandma P and Great-Grandpa P traveled with two friends to South Carolina where they wed when she was a mere 18 years old. They had to travel south because the age of consent there was 18 and she did not have her parent’s consent to marry.

She and GGP had two children (sadly, a third baby was lost to miscarriage) on a 100+ acre ranch where they harvested honey and raised hogs, cows, and chickens. There was also hunting, skinning and tanning bear and fox hides which were bringing top dollar in those days (that would be around 1930). In between she cooked, cleaned and ran the household. Even though she had all those daily chores, she also wanted a job to bring in more money. Now, this caused a rift between her and GGP, but her twinkling eyes and flirty smile won him over and after the kids started school she learned to drive and became a switchboard operator (bet there aren’t any of THOSE jobs left) and sold AVON around the county. When GGP passed away, she was distraught because she loved him very much but, she was also relieved to finally be her own person. **Note: my Nana said the exact same thing when my Jim-Pa passed away!**

Carrie was as close to her Great-Grandmother as I was to my Nana. She remembers going shopping in her big ‘ol Chevy Caprice that just MAY have been owned by Jimmy Johnson, a local stock car driver, celebrity, and reputed moonshine runner in Western North Carolina. Don’t you know that made her smile each time she got in and revved the engine? Carrie and Great-Grandma P cooked country-fried steak with a handful of potato salad and for dessert, her favorite German Chocolate Cake unless they got Chicken Q from a local church (Bar-B-Que chicken). During her visits, Great-Grandma P regaled her with old stories punctuated with infectious and beautiful laughter that Carrie carries in her heart to this day.

Great Grandma P passed away sometime before her birthday in 2008 at the ripe old age of 97 but her legacy lives on in her letters and hand-written recipes, one of which I was honored to make for this post. For those of you not familiar with old fashioned butterscotch, it is not enhanced with preservatives, flavorings, or colors so it is not going to look as “brown” or taste as strongly as what many of you are used to. I had forgotten the subtle delicate flavor of the old fashioned kind that used to grace my milkshakes (my favorite kind and oh-so-hard to find these days) and pudding that Nana made for me. Once I was finished Wonder Boy, Top Girl and Son-in-law noticed the taste difference right away – so did Mr. Picky Eater and he was as happy as I was about it! Rocket ate it like there was no tomorrow with the entire pie as well as six tarts being devoured within 12 hours! Wonder Boy, Son-in-law and Rocket ate the most and the fastest. I will be making this again and again…..at Mr. Picky Eater’s request!

The pie requires no baking to help you through those hot summer months and because I used purchased graham cracker crusts, came together quickly! This filling makes enough for one pie and six tarts of the purchased graham cracker variety but I suspect there is enough for one deep dish pie with some leftover for “sampling” by all the bystanders! I am sure a regular crust would taste great with it; I just chose to go the fast route. Also, if you want an even faster pie, you could put Cool Whip on top but I wanted homemade whipped cream to match the homemade flavor of the filling. You could also make it completely without topping however, I do highly recommend the chocolate covered toffee bits I threw on at that last minute……..YUM!!

Great-Grandma P’s Butterscotch Pie

Ingredients for filling:

3 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

3 Cups Scalded Milk (I will tell you how in the Directions)

½ Cup Sifted Flour

1 Egg Yolks beaten

½ Cup Cold Milk

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Baked Pie Shell or graham cracker crust

Directions:

First, scald the 3 Cups milk by pouring the 3 cups into a pan and place on the stove at Medium – Low heat. You will need to whisk this the entire time so it does not scorch. You are looking for those tiny bubbles that form just before it boils. Do not let it boil because it will ruin the consistency. When those million tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan (while you are still whisking) take off the burner immediately and set it down to cool. It must cool about 10 minutes before you start the rest.

Melt the butter in a different saucepan. Once it is melted, add in the brown sugar and whisk and whisk until the sugar has melted and is liquid like.

Add the scalded milk and incorporate well leaving the heat at medium low.

Meantime, in a small bowl mix flour, egg yolks, and the cold milk together into a smooth paste – get all those little lumps out or the pudding will be lumpy!

Gradually add the mixture to the saucepan stirring constantly. Once the pudding has thickened, cook for a few minutes more and then take off the stove to cool and add the vanilla.

Now, if you have lumps, don’t worry – mine did and really often does because I can never get my thickener completely smooth! Just use a fine mesh strainer on top of a clean bowl and strain the pudding through! Works every time.

After it has cooled some, pour the pudding into pie crusts and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Take it back out and lay plastic wrap directly over the pudding so it does not form a “skin” on top.

Let it cool for about four hours and then you can either eat it plain, grab a tub of Cool Whip and spread it around or, you can make some homemade whipped cream to put on top – I highly recommend this one!

Ingredients:

3 Cups Heavy Cream

6 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Note: you can cut this as small or large as you want – 2 Tablespoons sugar with each cup cream.

Directions:

Put the mixing bowl and beaters (I use the whisk attachment) in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before you make the cream. I usually do it when I start making the pie and do not take it out until hours later.

Put the sugar and cream in the bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Don’t let it keep beating or you will have sweet butter!

Spoon on top of pie and serve!

I hope you will go over to each of the blogs and check out all those old fashioned pie recipes – you are going to love them!

I am linked up at Weekend Potluck today – come over and check it out!