Filipino Egg Pie

 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

• Halo-Halo
• Turon
• Biko