Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like a golden sweet caramelized nectar of goodness.
Texture: The crust is buttery yet crunchy, the butterscotch filling is thick and rich, while the whipped cream is light and creamy.
Ease: The butterscotch pudding filling does take a few steps, but there’s no pie crust involved and it can be made ahead of time.
Pros: Delightful fall pie.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
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This Butterscotch Pie packs so much fall flavor into one delicious pie.
In a world full of salted caramel, butterscotch is often overlooked and forgotten. Poor butterscotch.
That’s why I’m excited to shine the spotlight on butterscotch with this pie recipe. It’ll make you remember just how wonderfully sweet and complex the stuff is. Liquid gold! Well, in this case, pudding gold.
I particularly love this recipe for holidays like Thanksgiving. Why? Well, there’s no pie crust involved. Just a simple ground cookie crust, which comes together in no time.
Also, this recipe has to be made ahead of time. It doesn’t take up more than 10 minutes in the oven, since the filling is made on the stovetop.
Every bite just tastes like fall goodness.
I hope you will give this pie a try this Thanksgiving!
How to Make Butterscotch Pie
The Crust
One of my favorite parts of this recipe is the sweet yet spiced Biscoff cookie crust! They’re like a combination of gingerbread and graham crackers and they complement the butterscotch flavor oh so well.
You can find them at most grocery stores. I’ve seen them at Walmart, Target, and Kroger stores and you can find them under the name Speculoos at Trader Joe’s. You can also buy them from Amazon here.
Crust Alternatives for Butterscotch Pie
If you can’t find or don’t want to use Biscoff, you can easily replace it with 250 grams of any other crispy cookie. That’s 17 graham crackers (when I say graham cracker, I mean the full rectangle). Vanilla wafers or gingersnaps would also be fun options!
Butterscotch Pie Filling (read this!)
I highly recommend reading the recipe through once or twice before you actually get started making the filling. It’s not hard, I promise, but there are a few different components involved. You make a caramel / butterscotch sauce, then make pudding which involves tempering eggs.
Tempering sounds really fancy but it’s basically just how we gently bring the eggs up to temperature without scrambling them. I talk more about tempering in this video post for how to make homemade custard ice cream.
Whole milk really does work best here. You may be able to get away with 2% milk, but anything lower will lead to a watery filling that won’t set quite as well. I have not tried this recipe with any non-dairy subs.
Which Pie Pan Should I Use for Butterscotch Pie?
This recipe was written to use a 9-inch pie pan. Be sure your pie dish isn’t too shallow. This recipe basically fills the pie pan all the way to the top with butterscotch goodness.
How to Make Butterscotch Pie Ahead
- This pie must chill for at least 6 hours in the fridge.
- I almost always just make it the day before I plan to serve it so it can firm up completely overnight.
- It’ll stay good in the fridge for a few days, but the crust will get soggy the longer it sits.
- The whipped cream topping is best made the day it’s served.
- Serve chilled.
More Pie Recipes:
- French Silk Pie
- Peanut Butter Pie
- Caramel Apple Streusel Pie
- Pumpkin Hand Pies (for Halloween)
- Blueberry Pie
Butterscotch Pie
Ingredients
For the cookie crust:
- 32 Speculoos / Biscoff cookies (250 gram package)
- 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
- 6 large egg yolks, beaten
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (43 grams) cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter
For topping:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
- 3 tablespoons (23 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Crushed Speculoos / Biscoff cookies, for garnish, if desired
Instructions
Make the crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the Speculoos cookies until finely ground. Add the butter and pulse until moistened. Use the bottom of a measuring cup or glass to press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a fairly deep 9-inch pie plate. Bake until fragrant, about 12 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the filling:
- Read the filling instructions completely before beginning.
- Whisk the egg yolks together in a large heatproof bowl until smooth. Set aside.
- In a small stainless saucepan, combine the granulated sugar with 1/4 cup water. Gently stir with a silicone spatula. Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium-high and continue to cook, swirling the pan occasionally without stirring, until the mixture turns a dark amber color, about 10 minutes total. Be careful not to burn. You can always return to heat and cook more, but you can't undo a burnt butterscotch!
- Remove from heat. Gradually stir in the heavy cream. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add half of the milk, whisking to combine. Whisk in the remaining milk. Set over medium-high heat, whisking often, until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add in the butterscotch mixture.
- Gradually ladle about a quarter of the hot liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the eggs. Add another quarter of the hot mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly. Slowly transfer the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Whisking constantly, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until thickened like pudding.
- Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Whisk vigorously for 1 minute to encourage the mixture to cool. Pour through a mesh sieve into the prepared crust to remove any lumps.
- Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight to set. At this point, the pie can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Make the topping:
- In a medium mixing bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment to beat the cream on medium-high speed until it begins to thicken. Add in the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
- Spread over the chilled pie. Garnish with Speculoos crumbs, if desired. Serve chilled.
This post was published in 2018 and has since been updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
October 2020 Baking Challenge
This recipe was the October 2020 selection for our monthly baking challenge. Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s pies:
Hi,
The pie looks amazing. The list of ingredients for the filling has unsalted butter but I don’t see it anywhere in the steps. At what stage do I add the butter?
Ankit – You add the butter right after you take the pudding off the heat. You whisk it in right before you put the mixture through the mesh sieve..second to last paragraph in the filling directions 🙂
I intend to make this but I live in Ontario and haven’t found Biscoff, is there something else I could use such as graham cracker crumbs or just a baked regular pie crust? Thank you for your response.
You can use any crushed up biscuit. Biscoff is the one Tessa uses, because it complements the butterscotch perfectly.
Is this recipe for 2 pies?
Delicious. I made for Easter lunch and everyone liked it. Probably didn’t let the pie crust cool long enough before putting in filling as it was a bit soft in some spots but crunchy in others. Great butterscotch flavour. Thank you for sharing.
Hi; I think that I have just ruined this pie by using 6 Australian sized tablespoons of butter which equates to 120gms butter.
I would love it if you could put the weight of the ingredients if necessary and not just ‘tablespoon or cup’ as I think these differ in many countries?
Julie
Oh no! The other volume measurements have grams, so I went ahead and added in the butter as well. Thanks for the feedback!
I made this pie for Christmas as other family members had the traditional pies covered. This pie was amazing. I loved this pie. Everyone loved this pie. I was nervous making it, but the instructions were great. It’s a rich, creamy, sweet piece of perfection. I will definitely be making this again!!!! Thank you!
Tessa- when you say cover the pudding for 6 hours, is that already in the pie crust, or chilled seperatly (prior to putting it into the crust)? Thanks, really looking forward to trying this!
“Pour through a mesh sieve, into the prepared crust…”
This looks amazing and perfect for the fall weather! Can’t wait to have a go at this recipe. Thanks X
Oh my goodness! I remember having butterscotch pudding pie when I was a kid. Thank you so much for the recipe! I never see butterscotch recipes anymore and it has always been one of my favorites. I think I’m going to make one today AND for Thanksgiving when my mom visits, as she’ll love it too! Oh, and i know Costco where I live sells Biscoff cookies too.
Yes! I’ll be making this pie. I was trying to think of a fresh dessert for Thanksgiving. And then I see this. Thanks Tessa! Greetings from hot Paraguay
Yay 🙂
this looks amazing! are you supposed to add sugar to the crust? how much? thanks!
Thank you! Just corrected the recipe – there’s no sugar in the crust. I realized the Biscoff cookies were plenty sweet on their own 🙂
Ok so a Biscoff crust is GENIUS – this looks delicious!
Thank you!!