A classic Filipino party dessert! Filipino egg pie is luscious custard slowly baked in a flakey all-butter pie crust.
Growing up, my family would purchase egg pie at our local Filipino bakeries. In a pinch, we would hurry over to Marie Callender for their custard pie. It is nearly identical in flavor to Filipino egg pie expect for one ingredient.
American custard pie (better known as Southern custard pie) has a touch of grated nutmeg in the filling. If that’s more to your taste preferences, you will love this cinnamon buttermilk pie!
While egg translates to itlog, you will hardly find any Filipino that calls this “itlog pie.” The United States and Philippines have a long intertwined history together. As a result, this Filipino dish is only known by its English name.
Also because, this egg custard pie probably didn’t exist until the Americans brought over canned milks to the Philippine islands. Cow’s milk was not a common ingredient in traditional Filipino cuisine until the introduction of evaporated milk and condensed milk.
Ingredients
Filipino egg pie is traditionally made with milk, sugar, eggs, and sometimes with a touch of calamansi juice or zest to brighten up this otherwise very sweet pie. In keeping with traditional, this pie is made with canned milks.
Sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk are two canned products that became very popular in the Philippines and throughout most of Asia. Since refrigerators were uncommon, canned milk products were excellent for cooking and baking.
For best results, use weight measurements when preparing ingredients. Kitchen scales are practical and inexpensive. Here are some recommended scales.Otherwise, use the scoop and level method to properly measure flour by volume (such as cups).
There are two components for this egg custard pie: 1) all-butter pie dough and 2) custard pie. Use this comprehensive guide to brush up on how to make pie dough from scratch. The link post includes detailed instructions and step-by-step photos for making pie dough.
The custard filling uses a handful of simple ingredients You will need egg yolks, egg whites, kosher salt, and pure vanilla extract. In addition, you need:
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Canned or bottled product made with just two ingredients- milk and sugar! Milk is cooked down to evaporate most of its water content. Then, it is sweetened with sugar. Resulting mixture is sweet, creamy, and thick.
- Evaporated Milk: This is milk that has been cooked down and reduced. Evaporated milk is sweeter and lightly thicker than fresh cow’s milk.
- Optional Calamansi Juice A touch of fresh squeezed calamansi juice helps to cut through the sweetness of the custard filling. Simply omit if you don’t have fresh calamansi.
Step-by-Step Instructions
The distinguishing feature of Filipino egg pie is the toasty brown surface. To achieve that toasty surface, whipped egg whites are folded into the custard batter just before baking.
Recommended Pie Pans
This custard pie recipe has been tested using both aluminized steel pie plates and glass pie plates. I highly recommend this metal 9-inch pie pan.
The metal pie pan conducts heat well and evenly distributes heat. This results in an evenly cooked and evenly browned pie crust.
Glass pie plates take a bit longer to heat up. Compared to metal, glass is not a great conductor of heat. As such, the bottom of the pie crust may not brown during baking.
Expert Baking Tips
- Why par-bake the crust? Par-bake or pre-bake the pie dough in order to achieve a well-cooked flakey pie shell. Par-baking ensures that the bottom of the pie crust will not be soggy.
- How to par-bake? Line the pie dough with pie weight (like dried beans or rice) to prevent it from forming air bubbles or air pockets in the oven. Pre-bake the pie for about 15-18 minutes. Remove weight and bake for another 3-5 minutes. The pie crust will be not fully cooked at this point. It will finish cooking with the custard filling.
- Tips for whipping egg whites: It is important to use a clean bowl, free from any debris or traces of fat. Traces of butter, oil, or yolk will prevent the egg whites from whipping efficiently. Room temperature egg whites will whip faster than cold egg whites.
- How to ensure silky custard filling? If you notice that the egg yolks are lumpy or stringy, strain egg yolk mixture before folding in the whipped egg whites.
- What to do with extra egg whites? The recipe will leave you with 4 large egg whites. Use those whites to make Swiss meringue buttercream, lemon meringue cake, or sans rival cake.
- Why did my pie crust bubble? Be sure to add enough pie weights (ceramic pie weights, beans, or rice) to fill the entire crust during par-baking.
- Why did my pie crust shrink? Chill the pie dough in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes before baking. This allow the gluten to relax and helps prevent “shrinking” during bake. Also, make sure the pie weights go all the way up sides of the pie to support the crust.
More Filipino Dessert Recipes
Filipino Egg Pie
Equipment
- 9-inch pie pan (recommend using metal pan versus glass)
Ingredients
Pie Dough:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, (200 g)
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, (4 g)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, (113 g), cold, cut into tablespoons
- 3 Tablespoons ice water, (45 g)
Filling:
- 6 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk, (235 g)
- 1 cup evaporated milk, (227 g)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, or fine sea salt
- 2 large egg whites
- optional: ½ teaspoon calamansi juice, or ½ teaspoon calamansi zest
Instructions
Pie Dough:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Cover and let chill in the fridge or freezer until bowl is cold, about 5 minutes.
- Using a pastry blender (or two forks), cut cold butter into cold flour until mixture resembles coarse, pebbled sand. Add ice water and fold to combine. Dough will be shaggy.
- Dump dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until mixture comes together. Pat dough to a thickness of about 1/2-inch. Wrap in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour (overnight is best).
- Allow chilled dough to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before rolling. Roll dough on a lightly floured work surface to about 11-inch in diameter and about 1/8-inch in thickness. Place pie plate upside down over the rolled dough to ensure it is the correct size.
- Transfer dough to pie plate and firmly press into the bottom and sides of plate. Trim excess dough leaving about 1/2-inch overhang all around. Fold overhang into the pie and decorate the edges as desired. Let chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400oF. Line pie with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (i.e. dried beans). Bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake for another 3 minutes. Allow pie crust to cool while you prepare filling.
Filling:
- Lower oven temperature to 325oF. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk, salt, and vanilla (and optional calamansi) until smooth*. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks. Gently fold egg whites into batter.
- Pour batter into par-baked pie crust. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the surface is golden brown in color and the custard just slightly jiggles in the center. Allow pie to cool to room temperature before slicing. Once pie has cooled, you can also store it in the fridge to chill of easier and cleaner slicing.
Notes
- If you notice that the egg yolks are lumpy or stringy, strain egg yolk mixture before folding in egg whites.
- Calamansi is optional. Do not substitute lemon or lime.
- Cool pie to room temperature or chill before slicing.
- Pie may left in a covered container at room temperature for 24 hours. Store in the fridge beyond that time. Will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Enjoy cold or bring to room temperature.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Why dies my eggpie firm a dome dyring baking? This dome will keave a low volune on themiddle part of the pue once cooled.
Hi! Thank you for this recipe. I tried a recipe that calls for use of 4 eggs with 1 egg, yolk and white separated. I even strained the egg & milk mixture before incorporating the whipped egg white and it looked so perfect so I was confident it will turn out good. I used a store-bought pie crust and no blind baking done. Egg pie was baked at middle rack at 350F for 15 mins then lowered to 325F and continued to bake for 45 mins. I wanted a more brown top so I baked the pie for few mins more and checked that filling was still little jiggly. Then let it stayed inside with the oven half ajar to prevent deflation. During the taste test, I did not achieve the creamy texture of pie, rather noticed it has created pockets in the whole filling! But the sweetness was perfect to my taste it complemented with the excellent crunch of the pie crust. Did I overbake it thus the bubbles in the filling? Should I add more eggs and separate yolk from whites? I added a little cream and used 3/4 evap & 3/4 condensed milk. Should I thoroughly omit the cream? Should I adjust the oven temp and remove the pie immediately after the baking time? And which oven rack to be used? I appreciate enlightening me on this matter. I plan to use your recipe and aspire to achieve the perfect consistency without the overpowering sweetness.
Love your recipe. Just tried it today and it’s a hit!
Yay! That’s wonderful to hear! Glad you enjoyed it!
Is it okay to use a 10-inch cast iron skillet for this recipe? Do I need to make any adjustments? Thanks.
You can use 10-inch skillet, but the crust will be a bit thinner. Also, cast iron skillet retain heat more so than standard pie tins. I would reduce the temperature to prevent the crust and filling from being overcooked.
Can you substitute powdered milk?
If so, what brand and how much to use?
What is the difference using it?
No, I don’t suggest using powdered milk. This recipe tastes best with canned evaporated milk.
This pie looks a pie we are as children it was called an Egg Custard it has the same ingredients and I’m from the South (Memphis Tennessee ) family made the pie all the time and I have a hand written recipe for my pie but I will try your pie cause I like sweet stuff
Thank you for posting the recipe for Egg pie! I enjoyed eating this pie as a young girl growing up in Manila. It brings so much memories ?
I’m going to make this weekend, what is other alternative for Kalamansi juice, sometimes it’s hard to find it in our Asian store here in VA.
I would try searching for frozen calamansi juice packets at any nearby Asian or Latin supermarkets. If not, I would suggest adding a mixture of lemon and lime juice in place.
wondrful pie!
Hello
Thank you for the sweet reminder ….definitely will try to make egg pie this Christmas .
Best,
Elizabeth
I have fond memories of eating egg pie as a child in Manila. I looked over several recipes that came up when i googled “egg pie”, but yours sounded the best! I just tried your recipe for the first time today, and it came out perfectly! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!