Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Sweet caramelized heaven.
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 smooth, creamy, delectable 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 tastes like fall goodness. I hope you will give this pie a try this Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving!
Sprinkle of Science
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 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
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, like vanilla wafers, gingersnaps, or shortbread. That’s 17 graham crackers (when I say graham cracker, I mean the full rectangle).
Butterscotch Pie Filling (read this!)
I highly recommend reading the recipe through once or twice before 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 – just like making homemade ice cream.
Do I Have to Use Whole Milk?
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 milks.
The Best Pie Pan 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.
Learn more about different pie pans in my Best Pie Pan article here.
How to Make Butterscotch Pie Ahead of Time
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 continue to soften the longer it sits.
How to Serve Butterscotch Pie
Top the pie with whipped cream as close to serving as possible. The cream will deflate and weep the longer it sits on the pie.
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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 (59 grams) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (43 grams) cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 cups (711 grams) whole milk
- 1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter
For topping:
- 1 cup (237 grams) heavy whipping cream, cold
- 3 tablespoons (23 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 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.
Notes
This post was published in 2018 and has since been updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
This pie was a little bit of a challenge for me but it turned out nicely. I substituted graham crackers for the crust as I couldn’t find the cookies.
Love this was actually real easy to make…
This is one delicious pie! The butterscotch flavor is deeper than regular caramel and the biscoff cookie crust enhances the butterscotch flavor. This pie is semi-challenging to make but well worth the effort!
This pie was so much fun to make! This was my first time making homemade caramel and homemade pudding and it was so simple!! The butterscotch flavor plays SO NICELY with the spiced cookie crust. Family loved this one!
Loved the recipe. The butterscotch filling was smooth yet firm. I made biscoff cookies for the base at home.
Delicious! The Biscoff cookie crust is genius, the flavor of the crust with the butterscotch is incredible. To make the filling you must pay attention to detail (I burned the butterscotch mixture the first time) but the finished pie is so good.
I followed this recipe exactly and it was delicious! A bit time consuming, but worth the effort. I never made pudding from scratch, so I read the instructions several times before starting. Very impressive dessert to serve to your family and guests!
SO good!! I almost forgot to take a picture for the challenge before I inhaled the pie. Easy, light, but delicious!
L’ho preparato ieri sera….è fantastica
Questa ricetta è uno spettacolo, golosissima e dal sapore inconfondibile
This was sooooooo good!!!!! Worth the time and effort. The butterscotch was insane!
Wowzers!!! Just put in the fridge for 6hr chill and I already can’t wait! Next time I’ll reserve some filling for my coffee the next morning!