Soon enough, just as Kaiji had said, the melted butter began to surge through the individual grains of rice.
It was a taste that could only be described as golden.
A shining golden wave, with an astounding depth of flavor and a faint yet full and rounded aroma, wrapped itself around the rice and washed Rika’s body far away.
It was, indeed, a lot like falling.
— Asako Yuzuki, Butter
I have long been fascinated with corn-as-dessert. When I found myself halfway through another mindless bag of cornbread crisps (damn you, Trader Joe’s), I realized that they would be delicious in pie form. Along with all of the adorable bruleed corn kernels I’ve been seeing on instagram, the inspiration for this pie was born.
A salty sweet cornbread cracker crust is filled with a wobbly, eggy, corn custard with a hefty dose of vanilla and a hint of nutmeg.
On top is a fluffy, stabilized blueberry honey whipped cream, which adds a light fruitiness to cut through the creamy corn.
Those little caramelized nuggets of corn finish what is a quintessentially and impressively summer dessert.
Corn-as-dessert, previously:
Corn, Elderflower, Peach and Apricot Tart
Caramel Corn Entremet
Sweet Corn and Blueberry Cream Puffs
Stills from my recent escape to Portugal (to Melides and then to Ericeira). Slice of heaven.
Corn Custard Pie
for the honey graham-cornbread crust:
70 grams (18 full) TJ’s cornbread crisps (or sub additional graham crackers)
70 grams (5 full rectangular) graham crackers
40 grams (3 tablespoons) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
57 grams (1/2 stick) melted butter
for the corn custard:
150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
360 grams (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
360 grams (1 1/2 cups) whole milk
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
3 cobs fresh corn
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
for the blueberry honey whipped cream:
240 grams (1 cup) heavy cream
60 grams (3 tablespoons) honey
1 handful freeze-dried blueberries
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
to assemble:
corn kernels
1 teaspoon sugar
directions:
Steep the corn: strip the corn cobs and place all the kernels and the cobs into a small pot with the cream, milk, and salt.
Bring to a gentle simmer over low heat, then cover (to prevent moisture loss) and leave for at least 1 hour.
Make the crust: preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pulse graham crackers and cornbread crisps together in a food processor until they are fine crumbs.
Add the sugar, salt, and pulse to combine.
Add the butter and pulse only a few times until combined and mixture looks like wet sand.
Press into a 9-inch pie pan.
Place in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, then remove and allow to rest at room temp while you finish the filling.
Decrease oven heat to 300 degrees F.
For the filling, scrape the cobs with the side of a spoon to ensure you extract all of the dairy.
Strain the kernels and corn silk out of the mixture and return to the heat.
Bring cream back to a simmer.
Meanwhile, whisk eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla paste, and nutmeg together in a large bowl.
Carefully temper the eggs by adding a small ladle of hot cream into the eggs while whisking constantly.
Once the egg mixture is hot, add it to the hot cream while whisking constantly.
Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until just thickened but still runny.
Pass through a fine mesh sieve directly into the prepared pie crust.
Bake (at 300 degrees F) for about 40-50 minutes, or until the center slightly jiggles (By temp, it should be about 175 degrees F).
Allow to cool completely at room temperature, and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the cream: pulverize freeze-dried blueberries and then pass through a sieve to collect only the fine powder; mix with the powdered sugar.
Whip the honey vigorously in a small bowl until lightened in color, about 3 minutes.
Whip the cream to soft peaks, then add the blueberry powdered sugar and whip only until incorporated.
Gently fold in the whipped honey.
Refrigerate cream for at least 30 minutes.
Pipe onto completely chilled pie.
To serve, brûlée the corn with a tiny amount of granulated sugar, then garnish.