Today, I decided to make a cinnamon bun pie. When I was growing up, around Easter my family would make cinnamon buns. They were from the freezer section, but they were still good. So I thought it would be a fun idea to try to incorporate cinnamon bun taste into a pie. Since I have already shared my grandma’s pie crust recipe, I will just go over the filling and icing. This pie requires one nine-inch, pre-baked shell.
My Cinnamon Bun Pie Recipe
1 C. Sugar
1/3 C. + 1 Tbsp. Flour
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
Dash Salt
2 1/4 C. Milk
3 egg yolks
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/2 Tbsp. Butter
One Pre-Baked, Nine-inch Pie Shell
It’s important to have all ingredients needed already out before beginning. When making the filling, start heating the milk first over medium heat. After the milk is steaming but not scalding, add some of it to the two eggs. This allows the eggs to acclimate to the hot temperature of the milk so that they don’t cook immediately when added. Make sure to add enough milk to change the temperature and stir before adding the mixture to the rest of the milk. Now, add the dry ingredients: sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt. The vanilla and butter should be added at the very end after the mixture has thickened. The mixture must be constantly stirred at medium heat until thickened in order to keep it from sticking to the pan or scalding. When the filling is ready, just pour it into a pre-baked pie crust. There is no extra baking needed. All that’s left is the icing.
Icing Recipe
1 1/2 C, Confectioner’s Sugar
4 Tbsp. Butter (melted)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. milk (or to desired consistency)
This icing recipe is simple and good tasting. If you prefer the taste of cream cheese, you may use that in your icing, too. These are just the ingredients I had on hand.
Postscript
This recipe was a test, and it almost passed with flying colors. To make it better in the future, I will use three egg yolks for the filling. The egg whites can be used as meringue topping, but the pie won’t taste very much like a cinnamon bun then. Adding only the egg yolks and an additional egg makes the pie thicker. Although the first recipe was good, the consistency wasn’t thick enough. Also there was not enough icing for the pie, so I have altered the measurements accordingly. Recipes always take trial and error before finding the right balance. I will try this new method in the future to see how it goes.