Jean’s Butterscotch Pie

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the prepared pie crust into a pie plate and prick it with a fork. Bake the pie crust until tender and light brown (about 15 minutes or according to package instructions). Remove it from the oven and set aside. Keep the oven on.

2. In a medium saucepan add your brown sugar, flour, salt and milk over medium heat. Whisk together and cook until thick, about 10 minutes.

3. Put your egg yolks in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in a small amount of the hot thickened brown sugar mixture to gradually raise the temperature and prevent scrambling the eggs. Pour the eggs slowly into the remaining brown sugar mixture in the saucepan, whisking continuously. Cook over medium high heat for another 5 minutes, whisking often.

4. Stir in the butter and vanilla and remove from the heat.

5. Pour butterscotch filling into cooked pie crust and set aside.

6. Make the meringue: In a very clean and dry bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add in the cream of tartar and vanilla. Continue beating and gradually add in the sugar a teaspoon at a time until stiff peaks form. Spoon the meringue on top of the pie, making sure to create little peaks of meringue here and there. Bake at 350 F for 5-8 minutes until just starting to brown. Remove from oven.

7. Chill before serving to let the filling set a bit.