Blueberry Corn Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust
The first in a trio of corn recipes
There’s no better time than right now to be struck with corn-spiration. Knee high by the Fourth of July, as they say! I can have a one-track mind when it comes to recipe ideating and creation. A few months ago it was black sesame, before that it was peanut butter, then matcha, then strawberry. It can be freeing to not feel the pressure to chase down a bunch of rabbit holes of different flavor combinations or new twists on classics (what I usually like to do) and just zero in on one ingredient and see how many recipes I can make from it. Creativity actually loves rules!
Thanks to my corn cream trifles, Bon Appétit interviewed me last year (among a few of my awesome colleagues) about the corn dessert sensation sweeping the nation. Of course, as with many trends, what’s old is new — corn sweets have been around forever — and they certainly took off in other countries, especially in Asia, long before we caught on.
But I don’t think this trend is going anywhere for a while, so coming up on easygayoven are three very corny recipes. (Follow along for ice cream and madeleines.)
More corn recipes….
When I hacked into the mainframe of easygayoven and combed through the data, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that pies were solidly in the top four (out of about 17) categories of most popular recipes. You people love pie! And whether you’re a cream pie or a fruit pie lover, this will satisfy you.
In this recipe, blueberry filling is cooked in a press-in corn cookie crust (way easier than regular pie dough, just saying) then it’s topped with a corn milk pastry cream to set in the fridge before, optionally, being loaded up with a mountain of whipped cream. It really is a summer produce fever dream, even if I used frozen blueberries; they’re good and cheap — sorry! The oven gets cranked up to only 350°F and the pie is only in there for 25 minutes (I made this on a 97°F day, which is why I’m telling you this) and the rest happens on the stovetop and the fridge.
So, yes, is a hybrid of a baked and cold-set pie. However, initially I attempted to bake it all in stages like my rhubarb custard pie: crust, then crust with rhubarb, then all together with the custard poured on top. This had some disapointing results as the blueberry filling started lifting up and floating to the top in some places and the corn custard never really set. Then I tried cooking the custard on the stove and spreading it onto the baked blueberry filling before slotting it into the fridge. This turned out to be easier, faster and less messy.
Don’t be hesitant to cook your pastry cream until very thick! I know it’s tempting to pull it early once it begins to thicken up, but you need to let it bubble to activate the cornstarch and then cook it for about three more minutes. This makes sure it will hold its shape in a clean slice after chilled. I pulled this batch a little early (and it had slightly less cornstarch than the final) which is why the whipped cream looks like it’s weighing the custard down. It eventually set up fine — and tasted amazing anyway!
Makes one 9-inch pie, about 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
