Filipino Classic Egg Pie

As promised last weekend, here's the other dessert that I made for Ryan's birthday. We Filipinos call it Egg Pie. It is available in almost all bakeries in the Philippines and is enjoyed by Filipinos either as dessert or snack. It looks like a giant Egg Custard Tart usually found in Chinese restaurants, and is basically the same as the Classic Egg Custard Pie. The difference is just in the type of milk and flavoring used as well as in the appearance. We, Filipinos, use evaporated milk in our Egg Pie, and instead of nutmeg, we simply used kalamansi juice or rinds for flavoring (Kalamansi is a small round citrus like lime, common in the Philippines whose peel is sweet and whose fruit is sour). And unlike the Egg Custard Tart and the Classic Egg Custard Pie, our Egg Pie is dark brown on top.

There is this bakery in Calapan City (where Ryan & I grew up) named Halina Bakery which sells the best tasting egg pie! It is owned by our elementary classmate's family...and it is where both Ryan & I had our first taste of this very delightful dessert! I grew up loving it...same with Ryan! Now that we are far away from home, learning to make it on my own is a must. Glad that a friend of mine was nice enough to share this recipe with me. Not only can we enjoy it anytime we want, Ryan and I can also share one of our childhood favorite with our daughters! Though it's not Halina Bakery's recipe, it's close enough and definitely tastes like it!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes and softened
• ¼ cup cold water

Filling:

• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 4 large eggs and another 1 large egg with white and yolk separated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp fresh kalamansi or lemon juice
• 1 can condensed milk (14oz)

Procedure:

For the crust:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add butter and mix thoroughly with other ingredients using a pastry mixer.

2. Gradually add the cold water to the mixture. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are well combined.

3. Gather and shape the dough into a large ball. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

4. On a clean flat surface sprinkled with flour, flatten the dough using a rolling pin into about ½ centimeter thick and wide enough to cover a 9" pie pan/dish (I broke my pie dish so I just use a regular round baking pan).

5. Arrange and press the flattened dough on the baking pan or pie dish. Use kitchen shears to trim the dough to about a half-inch overhang. Save the scraps. You can use those to bulk up thin areas of the crust when you're fluting the edges.

6. Crimp the edges either with a fork or by pinching around the edge with your fingers. I did the latter. Keep the dough in the refrigerator while making the filling.

For the filling:

1. Heat the evaporated milk in the microwave oven for 1 minute.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine and whisk the 4 eggs and the separated egg yolk. Gradually add the condensed while whisking. Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice, and  continue whisking until all ingredients are well combined.

3. Add the evaporated milk and mix well with other ingredients.

4. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg white until it forms soft peaks.

5. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture. (The beaten egg white will give the top of the egg pie a brown color after baking.) 

Baking the Pie:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour the filling on the refrigerated pie crust.

2. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F then lower the heat to 325 degrees F and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the filling comes out clean.

3. Remove the egg pie from oven and allow to cool down. Serve with your favorite drink either for dessert or snack.