Ingredients - Cookie Crust
1 box (7 oz) speculoos or similar
3 T dark brown sugar
5 T unsalted butter, melted
Ingredients - Brown Butter Butterscotch pudding
2 ½ c whole milk
¼ c cornstarch (or ⅓ c tapioca starch)
½ t salt
4 large egg yolks
4 T (¼ c) unsalted butter
¾ c tightly packed dark brown sugar
1 c heavy whipping cream
2 t vanilla
Whipped cream for garnish
Instructions - Crust
NOTE: Substitute shortbread cookies, chocolate wafer or about 2 cups of graham cracker or gingersnap crumbs for the spiced cookies, if desired.
For the crust, heat oven to 350 degrees. Have a shallow pie pan ready.
Break the cookies into the food processor. Pulse to crush into fine crumbs. (For crush with a rolling pin in a plastic bag). Transfer the crumbs to a bowl. Set aside 1 or 2 T crumbs for garnish.
Stir in sugar and melted butter until mixture resembles wet sand.
Press mixture over bottom and up side of the pie pan.
Bake until crust is set and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.
Instructions - Pudding
Put milk, cornstarch, and salt into food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Add egg yolks and process to blend. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large, deep sauce pan set over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often until butter bubbles and looks and smells toasted (but not burned).
Whisk in sugar and keep whisking until mixture is smooth and homogenous. (You will see the melted butter pool around the sugar — just keep whisking) Remove the pan from heat (The sugar will be very hot)
Slowly and carefully wish in the cream until smooth. (It is normal for the sugar to seize into small, hard bits as the cream is added. If necessary, return the pan to low heat and continue whisking until the sugar has melted.)
Add about a cup of this hot butterscotch cream to the egg mixture and whisk to blend (tempering the eggs)
Add the egg yolk mixture to the remaining butterscotch cream in the pan. Set the pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil about 2 minutes. Continue cooking and whisking until smooth and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla
For smoother results, strain the pudding through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Them pour the strained pudding unto the cooled and baked pie pan.
Cover the surface with plastic wrap or wax paper to prevent a skin forming. Refridgerate overnight
Garnish with whipped cream around the edge and the reserved cookie crumbs. Cut into wedges with a knife dipped in warm water.