I dusted off the good ol' Four & Twenty Blackbirds pie book recently, and redeclared myself a pie master with the successful completion of a famed Salty Honey pie.
The salty honey pie is perhaps my husband's favorite of the Brooklyn pie shop, and I was amazed that I could make a pretty good version of it during a Saturday.
I featured the pie during a dinner party, and was able to perfectly time the crust creation, freezing, preparation of the custard, baking, and cooling during the preparation of the appetizer and main course parts of the meal. I actually had forgotten how great it is to make pies for dinner parties because of this ability to work on the pieces through a day, while doing other activities in the kitchen.
I started of course with the crust, which I put together, chilled, and then rolled out before freezing in a pie pan.
I then mixed together the custard, and strained it (the longest portion of the preparation) through a fine mesh sieve into the frozen crust. (Note that the book recipe calls for an unbaked crust whereas the recipe linked above calls for a pre-baked shell. Given the 45 minute baking time, I recommended an unbaked crust).
Custard pies are always tricky to figure out when to take out of the oven, and I baked the pie for slightly longer than the minimum baking time called for in the recipe for the sides to seem to truly set.
I then let the pie cool for approx. 4 – 5 hours and served it with regular sea salt instead of flaked (which I didn't have in the kitchen). The result was a creamy, delicious and simple filling – I look forward to making it again!
The only change I may make in the future is to make it a day ahead of time to let the filling chill in the fridge overnight. But it's definitely not necessary, just a thought for personal preference.
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