Butterscotch Cream Pie

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade), fully baked and cooled
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbsp sugar (for topping)

Method

1. If not using a pre-baked crust, blind-bake the crust at 400°F (205°C) with pie weights for 15 minutes, remove the weights, and bake 5 more minutes until golden. Cool completely.
2. Melt the butter and brown sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbling, about 2 minutes.
3. Whisk in the milk, cornstarch, and egg yolks.
4. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbling, about 8 minutes, then stir in the vanilla and salt.
5. Pour the warm filling into the cooled crust and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
6. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or until fully chilled and set.
7. Top with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

The Tale of Butterscotch Cream Pie

Story updated September 15, 2026

Butterscotch cream pie's flavor traces back to England, where confectioner Samuel Parkinson is often credited with creating the first butterscotch candy in Doncaster in 1817; the treat became famous after Queen Victoria was presented with a tin during an 1851 visit. How that English candy became an American cream pie is murkier, but a well-repeated story places its invention in 1904 at a creamery in Connersville, Indiana, where a cook named Sarah Wheeler is said to have accidentally scorched a batch of custard into a butterscotch flavor and, rather than waste it, baked it into a pie for her sons. Whether or not that specific tale is accurate, the pie followed the same trajectory as America's other cream pies, built on a cooked custard base, thickened and chilled, becoming a fixture of Midwestern and Southern diners and home kitchens through the twentieth century.