Eggnog Pie

Years ago, my parents used to own a cabin in the local mountains. We would go up to spend the weekend and on the way home stop for dinner at Tom's Chicken Shack. If you are a native San Diegan, this restaurant should ring a few bells. They used to have the best fried chicken! A popular dessert was the Eggnog Pie. This was my mom's favorite but the restaurant's owners would never give up the recipe. So a few years ago, I set out to find a recipe. A quick Google search netted me a few promising candidates. Apparently, this pie originated in Texas(who knew???0). So with recipes in hand, I set out to recreate this very different dessert and my mom was in hog heaven.

Cook's Notes- Blind baking a pie crust is required for all no bake pie fillings, like this one. Putting dried beans on the bottom of the crust will keep it from bubbling up during the baking process. You can either store the beans to use for this purpose again or toss. You will not be able to cook them after this. You can also buy pie weights from a cooking store to use instead of the beans. Not shown in the above picture, I had forgotten to place a piece of parchment paper inside the crust before placing the beans on the bottom. This will make it much easier to remove the beans after the shell has baked. Otherwise you will have to carefully pick the beans out, like I did.

This will make one deep-dish 9 inch pie
1 pre-baked pie shell.
1 quart good quality eggnog
2 pkgs of Knox unflavored gelatin
2 tbsp cold water
4 beaten egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cups sugar

Roll out your pie dough and place into the pie plate. Using the tines of a fork, gently pierce the pie shell on the bottom and sides. Pour a bag of dried beans into the bottom of the pie shell and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. If you are using a pre-made pie dough or frozen pie crust. You must blind bake it, as this method is called, before pouring the filling in.
Pour the gelatin into the 2 tablespoons of water, stir and set aside to let the gelatin bloom. Over medium/low heat, heat the eggnog and the sugar together until it just comes to a simmer. Don't leave the eggnog unattended while doing this or it will boil over. Remove from the heat and add a cup of the hot liquid to the beaten egg yolks. Whisk to combine. Pour the egg mixture immediately back into the hot eggnog. Add the gelatin(it will have congealed)and whisk it into the hot mixture followed by the vanilla. Pour it into a clean bowl and place in the frig until it begins to firm up. It should be the consistency of pudding. Using an electric mixer, beat the chilled pudding until smooth(no lumps) and the consistency of soft pudding. In another bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff and fold it into the chilled eggnog pudding. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust, spread out with a spatula and sprinkle ground nutmeg over the top if desired. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the frig before serving. You can pipe on whipped cream along the edge of the pie before serving if so inclined.