Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie

Sometimes I come across a recipe that makes me wonder why I haven’t been making it for years. This buttermilk pie is one of those recipes. My favorite southern/ soulfood restaurant, "Les Sisters," used to make it, and I loved it. I found this recipe on Allrecipes, where it was submitted by Tracy Mulder, and what caught my attention was how simple it is. Eggs, sugar, butter, flour, buttermilk, a little lemon and vanilla, and nutmeg. That’s about it.

If you’ve never had buttermilk pie, don’t let the name throw you. It doesn’t taste like you poured a carton of buttermilk into a pie shell. The buttermilk gives the filling a slight tang that balances all that sugar and keeps the pie from being one-dimensional.

The texture is somewhere between a custard pie and a chess pie: soft, creamy, and rich inside with a lightly browned top.

And this is a very easy pie.

You don’t have to cook a custard on the stove. You don’t have to make a complicated filling. Everything gets mixed together, poured into the crust, and baked.

Those are exactly the kinds of desserts I like.

Annotated Cooking Notes:Your butter really does need to be soft. You’re beating the butter directly into the eggs and sugar, so room-temperature butter will incorporate much more easily. If the butter is still cold, you may end up chasing little chunks of it around the mixing bowl. Buttermilk is the point.I wouldn’t replace it with regular milk. That slight acidity is part of what gives this pie its distinctive flavor.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs

• 1½ cups granulated sugar

• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie crust

  
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer until they are light and frothy.

Add the sugar, softened butter, and flour. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Stir in the buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla, and nutmeg.

Pour the filling into the unbaked deep-dish pie crust.

Bake for approximately 40 to 60 minutes, checking it toward the earlier end of that range. The top should be lightly golden and the center should be set.

Remove the pie from the oven and place it on a wire rack.

Let it cool for about 1 hour before slicing.

Serve it as is, or add a little whipped cream and another light grating of nutmeg over the top.

That’s it.

No elaborate technique. No long list of ingredients. Just a very old-fashioned pie that somehow manages to turn a handful of ordinary pantry staples into something pretty special.

And I have a feeling this is going to be one of those recipes that disappears much faster than it took to make.