Recipe: Sweet Tea Pie

Sweet Tea Pie

(From Taff Mayberry, pastry chef at Austin’s Olivia and chef consultant at Lucy’s Fried Chicken)

Crust

5 oz. (about 10 Tbsp) unsalted butter

8 oz. (about 1 3/4 cups) unbleached, untreated all purpose flour

1/4 oz. (about 1 1/4 tsp.) kosher salt

1 tsp. granulated sugar

1/3 cup ice water

Dice butter into 1/2 inch cubes and combine with flour, salt, and sugar in bowl of stand mixer and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Using paddle attachment, cut butter into flour mixture on low speed until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

With mixer on, stream in ice water just until a dough forms. Form into rough circle and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Let dough rest at room temperature for another 20 minutes until ready to form.

Roll into circle and place in 10 inch pie pan with about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of dough hanging over the edge. Fold the dough over the edge and crimp, forming about a half-inch barrier above the pie pan. Refrigerate until ready to fill and bake.

Filling

11 egg yolks

1 1/4 lbs. (about 2 3/4 cups) granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup insanely strong orange pekoe tea

1 oz. (about 1/4 cup) unbleached, untreated all purpose flour

2 tsp. medium grind cornmeal

2/3 tsp. kosher salt

10 2/3 oz. (about 2 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter

Place yolks in a mixing bowl. Slowly stream in sugar while constantly whisking until thoroughly combined. Combine lemon juice and tea and whisk into mixture. Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt and whisk in.

Place bowl over a barely simmering saucepan of water. Dice butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Add butter in 4 batches, whisking until each batch is melted. When the last batch has melted, pour filling into cold pie shell and place in a 450-degree conventional oven (400 degrees convection) on the center rack. Turn oven down to 350 degrees (275 degrees convection).

Start to check pie after 30 minutes. Pie should jiggle but not ripple when done, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on oven and usage. Pie top should take on some color, anywhere from light brown to deep brown.

Let rest at room temperature till cool, then refrigerate for easy slicing. Enjoy cool or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream.

A note from Taff Mayberry: I use a convection oven here at the restaurant, and the temperatures when transferring to conventional heat are always tricky at best.  Plus, I never bake just one pie at a time — always in batches of 8 to 12— so that’ll have a bearing on cooking time and temp as well.  So many variables! The pie may need to be moved into the lower third of the oven and the cooking time increased. That being said, the filling will really jiggle when done and won’t look set. It just won’t ripple. When done, it’ll shake like a bowl of Jell-O and not look like a small pond with a stone cast in. ‘Bout as good an analogy as I can make.