Tyler Pudding Pie: Favorite Pie of the 10th President

On this Election Day let’s give ourselves a reward for making it through and take a look back (way back) and reflect on the election of 1840. In case you’re counting backwards that would be the election of the 10th President of the United States – John Tyler. Even as a avid history buff and political science major I can’t tell you anything of note that President Tyler did.

But he did love this pie and have it served at the White House regularly (supposedly).

Regardless he had good reason to.

As a big caramel or butterscotch cream pie fan myself (especially my grandmother’s recipe) this pie is reminiscent of that.

Unlike campaign season this pie is quite quick to make and relatively painless.

Pull out some pie dough – of course I like to make mine but if you go premade I won’t vote against you.

Pop a bunch of those ingredients in a pot, melt and cook them together.

Add it to some eggs – SLOWLY! Don’t curdle those suckers. No presidential pardon for scrambled egg pies!

I’ll give you my policy recommendations. If the eggs are room temperature to start there is less of a chance of shock with the temperature change. I also put a bit of the hot mixture in the eggs, stir, and then slowly add the rest.

Stir in the last few ingredients and then pop it in the oven.

Take a peak while its cooking and check out how much it puffs up. It’s kinda cool.  Also – if you want to add any sort of decorative elements like I did with the stars, its a perfect time to gently put them on top about 10 minutes in.

Print Recipe

Tyler Pudding Pie

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 pie crust (see notes)
• 1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Instructions

• Prepare pie crust. (See notes)
• In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, butter, cream, and salt stirring constantly until combined and sugar is melted. Set aside.
• Beat eggs well and slowly add to hot mixture making sure to stir constantly. I like to add a little bit of the hot mixture to the eggs first then combine with the rest of the sugar mixture.
• Stir in vanilla and nutmeg then add to the pie crust and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
• The filling will puff up as it bakes but recede once you pull it out of the over. The pie is finished when the filling will is set but it will not be completely firm.

Notes

You have several options for a pie crust for this recipe. You can make your own (my recommendation) or use a refrigerated or frozen pie crust. 

If using non-frozen pie crust to prepare the crust you will need to blind bake it. Roll out your dough and place it in the pie plate. Poke holes all over with fork. For this recipe I placed a shred of aluminum foil pressed into my crust, baked for 5 minutes, removed the foil, and baked another 3-4 until the crust was just beginning to color. 

For frozen crust you can follow package instructions and pour filling directly into the crust and bake as directed. 

*Slightly adapted from The Frannie Farmer Baking Book