Maria's Boston Cream Pie

[Raine]

MARIA'S BOSTON CREAM PIE

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup extra light olive oil
2 egg yolks
1 scant cup whole milk
1 tablespoon Amaretto
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Prepare two 9-inch round pans, lined with parchment paper or greased and lightly floured.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup of sugar, beating until very stiff peaks form.

Sift together remaining dry ingredients into another bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the oil, egg yolks, milk, Amaretto and vanilla. Beat just until smooth. Pour yolk mixture gradually over beaten egg whites, gently folding in with a spatula, just until blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until top springs back.

CUSTARD FILLING

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk
2 jumbo eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 scant teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon Amaretto

Directions:

Combine milk, eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour mixture into saucepan over medium heat. Stir until thick. When mixture thickens, allow it to boil gently for a minute. Add Amaretto.

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet mini morsels
3/8 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon Amaretto

Directions:

Place the chocolate in a bowl. In a small saucepan, combine the cream and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and let the mixture stand for 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Gently whisk until smooth. Stir in the Amaretto.

Assembly: Fill cooled cake with cooled custard. Spread a thin layer of custard on the sides of the cake to use as a glue. Stick on lightly toasted, blanched, sliced (not slivered) almonds all around. Spread chocolate glaze on top.

Refrigerate to set glaze, then shave a bit of white chocolate on top.

Put a Maraschino cherry in the middle.

 

[Konditor]

Boston Cream Pie Forever

Raine, I salute you for presenting this recipe & photo! I’ve served Boston Cream Pie for the past 10 years at my youngest nephew’s birthday party. I usually chose the version printed in Gourmet’s Best Desserts (an indispensable volume published in 1991); but, also, several other renditions, including Richard Sax’s hot-water spongecake B.C.P. (Classic Home Desserts, p. 441) and Carole Walter’s hot-milk spongecake (Great Cakes, pp.337f.). Interesting to observe that Maria’s recipe calls for olive oil (it seized my attention because I recently posted an entry re the use of olive oil in baking on another culinary forum); likewise, Flo Braker lists unflavored vegetable oil in the milk sponge for her B.C.P. – and opts for a chocolate sauce rather than a ganache glaze.


In a prefatory note supplied in Diner Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2000), Tish Boyle encapsulated this classic dessert’s origin "…In the early nineteenth century, Boston Pie, as it was then called, was a plain two layer sponge cake filled with a vanilla custard. In 1855, a German-born pastry chef at Boston’s Parker House Hotel spruced up the cake by adding a luscious chocolate glaze topping and the dessert has remained popular to this day."


During the past year-and-a-half, I have undertaken a huge project to organize & index my files, yet I haven't located the recipe for B.C.P. from Boston's venerable Locke-Ober restaurant (on Winter Place.) I would genuinely appreciate receiving a copy. Anyone in this readership have it?


Boston Cream Pie is a dessert that can statisfy nearly everyone – whether they’re part of the hoi poloi or the glitterati set. Possibly the latter would fancy eating a dressed-up interpretation, such as offered by Omni Hotels:

http://www.omnihotels.com/omniinfo/selectguest/bostoncreampie.asp

[Edited to reduce point size of text.]

 

[jkath]

Konditor! It is so good to see you again - you were sorely missed!
My son has had Boston Creme Pie for his birthday every year since he turned 5, and we're gearing up for his 13th next month. Thank you so much, Raine for this recipe! It sounds wonderful.

(PS - Konditor: I've made your sweet potatoes in orange cups so many times and consistantly get rave reviews. Thank you again.)

 

[Konditor]

JKATH: Thank you for your kind words of re-welcoming. I am gladdened to know that I had remained worthy of your bon souvenir.

Would you now, perhaps, be outfitting a Fall menu that includes both the sweet-potato-stuffed navel oranges AND Boston Cream Pie. Gee, that could qualify most satisfyingly as the entire meal!

Best regards,
Lawrence

 

[Piccolina]

Raine, that rocks...I swear I've been thinking of making one of these for my chocolate luving hubby to try, and now you're saved me tracking down a recipe in one of my cookbooks! Thanks...mmmmmm, I want to eat that picture