Miraculous Canadian Sugar Pie

I cannot believe it is Canada Day again.  It seems like a couple of months ago I was hunting around for a recipe to put up on the blog, and zap! a whole year has flown by.  Canada Day is 1 July, celebrating the Constitution Act of 1867 which melded 3 colonies into one country - Canada.  And before you ask, I am not Canadian, but I have always felt some kind of link to that country.  I think it is because I love Anne of Green Gables, and other books by L. M. Montgomery.  One of my faves of hers is Kilmeny of the Orchard, a romantic tale about a mute girl, saving her fella from being murdered by a crazy rival with an axe - yep you will have to read it yourself.

Green Gables Farmhouse on Prince Edward Island (author Chensiyuan on Wikimedia)    

Prince Edward Island is on my bucket list of places to visit so I will have to save up my pennies!  So anyway, I found this recipe for Miraculous Pie, which is apparently a well-known Canadian pie, made very simply with only a few ingredients.  The method is similar to Impossible Pie, where you blend up half a dozen ingredients in the blender and bake it; and it forms its own crust, just like this one.  What could be easier?  

ingredients:

2 cups of brown sugar 

1/4 cup butter, softened (for we Metric users, make it 60g.)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup plain flour

1+1/2 cups milk - i.e. 375 mls

Method:

Beat the brown sugar and butter together in a medium bowl till well mixed - at least 5 mins.

Beat in the eggs one by one - this is when the batter will start to look smooth and creamy

Throw in the vanilla and salt and mix in briefly

Add the flour a third at a time

Pour in the milk in 2 lots - I added half after the first lot of flour and half after the last lot of flour
Mix in very well

Pour the batter into a greased 23cm pie dish

Bake for 35 mins at 180C

Take the pie out and cover the rim with aluminium foil so it doesn't burn

Put it back in the oven for about 15 mins till the middle is set and you have a crusty layer on top

Let it cool to room temp. then refrigerate for at least an hour

Serve with whipped cream if desired - I don't think it needs it really:) 

Okay, here are my warnings/provisos to the original recipe:

I used an electric hand beater as I don't have a big mixer; the butter and sugar mix didn't look smooth and creamy till I added the eggs
My batter looked curdled when I added the milk - no probs, it still works
It took longer than the total 50 mins. mentioned in the recipe - about an hour, maybe an hour and 5
I didn't use alfoil on the rim; it didn't seem to need it and I didn't mind if the crust got a bit brown.
Next time I will try making it in a processor, where you just chuck all the ingredients in at once and blitz till smooth, like Impossible Pie.

ingredients  

adding the softened butter   

after 5 minutes of beating  

first egg in  

2nd egg in-you can see how creamy the batter has become after no. 1 egg:)  

both eggs in - very creamy now  

adding vanilla and salt 

in goes the flour bit by bit    

flour mixed in with half of the milk  

ready for the oven (looking slightly curdled but no worries, it ends up fine!

out of the oven after 35 mins.-add alfoil to rim if needed 

baked and now to cool right down

Mr P. couldn't wait so I had to cut him a slice!

This is a really easy and delicious pie.  It has a beautiful brown sugar taste, tending a bit towards toffee on the edges. You could even throw a few chopped pecans into the batter, but it doesn't need it. It is fine just how it is - a lovely celebratory pie for Canada Day.

Nova Scotian sugarhouses for harvesting maple syrup

(just to keep us in the Canadian mood)