This delicious sweet carrot pie is a different take on the classic pumpkin pie. Carrots are a lovely sweet vegetable that is used quite frequently in baking. They are a lovely sweet diverse root vegetable that is often readily available and cheap to buy.
With pumpkins being a seasonal vegetable and the tinned pumpkin puree being so expensive this carrot pie is a really nice alternative. In fact I would go as far as to say it is better than pumpkin pie.
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The Pastry case
For this recipe I will be making my own sweet pastry case but you can always use a pre made pastry case. I know, however, that pastry isn’t something everyone enjoys making.
The recipe that I love to use comes from Julie Jones, who is a baker from the UK. In fact, she is actually from my own hometown area of Carlisle, which is pretty cool. Moreover, her pastry school cookbook is amazing. It provides step-by-step instructions, along with all the tips and tricks for making various kinds of pastry. Additionally, it includes some truly amazing recipes. You can find her over at www.juliejones.online. You can find her pastry school book here, I highly recommend getting it.
I am fortunate to have a stand mixer because making pastry in it is a game changer. No longer do I need to worry if my hands are cold enough or am I overworking the pastry. It is wonderful.
I will for this recipe blind bake my pastry case before hand. This can be done a day or two in advance if your timings don’t work for making it all in one day.
Ingredients for a carrot pie
- Pastry case either homemade or a store bought pre made case. As I said above I made the Julie Jones sweet pastry and blind baked it in a 9 inch loose bottomed tart tin like this one, you could also use a 10 inch tin.
- Carrots. Any variety of carrot will work, I used jumbo Chinese carrots but I know not everyone can get these so just use what you have available to you.
- Sweetened condensed milk. This is the sweetener for the pie.
- Milk. Any cows milk
- Eggs large, size 2 free range eggs
- Spices
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Allspice, if you can’t find this spice or would prefer you can substitute it for ground ginger.
How to make a carrot pie
I highly recommend reading through all of the instructions before proceeding with the recipe. There are a few of the steps that do overlap. I have also added a few of my own tips and tricks too.
If you are making your own pastry then begin by making the pie shell.
Prepare the carrots
Peel, wash and roughly chop your carrots. Place them along with the milk into a medium saucepan.
Slowly bring to the boil over a medium high heat, reduce the temperature and simmer the carrots until they are full cooked. This should be around 15-20 minutes. Use a fork to test that they are done.
Halfway through cooking the carrots I would preheat your oven to 375F, 190C
When the carrots are ready take a slotted spoon or something similar and place into a blender, along with a cup of the hot milk, blend into a puree. If you don’t have access to a blender you could do this by hand with a masher or you could also use an immersion blender. Leave it for five minute to cool slightly.
Make the filling
While the carrots cool take a medium mixing bowl and add in the eggs, condensed milk and spices along with a small pinch of salt. Whisk the ingredients together until they are all full combined together. Set to one side until needed.
Gradually add the cooled carrot puree to the sweet spiced egg mixture. Once all of the carrot puree has been added give it one last good mix and pour it into the prepared pie shell. Fill the pie shell close to full, you may have some filling left depending on the size of your pie shell.
Bake and serve
Carefully place the tin into the preheated oven. If you are using a loose bottom tin do not hold it in the middle it will be loose, I would recommend putting it onto a baking sheet before filling it. I learnt this through experience one where I burnt myself and nearly lost my perfect pie shell.
Bake the pie for around 50 minutes. Do the jiggle test to make sure it is done. Take the tin give it a good wiggle if it moves a lot it needs more time. We just want a little of a wiggle.
Remove the pie from the oven and leave it to cool completely. Don’t worry if the top looks a little dark, it tends to caramelize because of the condensed milk. Although being darkish is ok make sure it doesn’t burn.
Once the pie has cooled if you used the loose bottom tin or a disposable tin carefully remove it. Place the carrot custard pie onto a serving plate or board.
Serve this delicious carrot pie with some freshly whipped cream.
Carrot Custard Pie
This delicious carrot custard pie is a different take on the classic pumpkin pie. Carrots are a lovely sweet diverse root vegetable that is often readily available and cheap to buy.
Ingredients
- 9-10 inch Pie shell homemade or store bought.
- 600-650g Carrots (weighed whole)
- 300ml Condensed milk
- 1 1/4 cup (310mls) Milk
- 3 Large eggs
- 1 tbsp Cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Allspice (can substitute this for ground ginger)
- Small pinch of salt.
Instructions
I highly recommend reading through all of the instructions before proceeding with the recipe. There are a few of the steps that do overlap. I have also added a few of my own tips and tricks too.
If you are making your own pastry then begin by making the pie shell.
- Peel, wash and roughly chop your carrots. Place them along with the milk into a medium saucepan.
- Slowly bring to the boil over a medium high heat, reduce the temperature and simmer the carrots until they are full cooked. This should be around 15-20 minutes. Use a fork to test that they are done.
- Halfway through cooking the carrots I would preheat your oven to 375F, 190C
- When the carrots are ready take a slotted spoon or something similar and place into a blender, along with a cup of the hot milk, blend into a puree. If you don't have access to a blender you could do this by hand with a masher or you could also use an immersion blender. Leave it for five to ten minutes to cool slightly.
- While the carrots cool take a medium mixing bowl and add in the eggs, condensed milk and spices along with a small pinch of salt. Whisk the ingredients together until they are all full combined together. Set to one side until needed.
- Gradually add the cooled carrot puree to the sweet spiced egg mixture. Once all of the carrot puree has been added give it one last good mix and pour it into the prepared pie shell. Fill the pie shell close to full, you may have some filling left over depending on the size of your pie shell.
- Carefully place the tin into the preheated oven. If you are using a loose bottom tin do not hold it in the middle it will be loose, I would recommend putting it onto a baking sheet before filling it. I learnt this through experience one where I burnt myself and nearly lost my perfect pie shell.
- Bake the pie for around 50 minutes. Do the jiggle test to make sure it is done. Take the tin give it a good wiggle if the filling moves a lot then it needs more time. We just want a tiny bit of a wiggle. The top may get a little dark it tends to caramelize quite a bit.
- Remove the pie from the oven and leave it to cool completely.
- Once the pie has cooled if you used the loose bottom tin or a disposable tin carefully remove it. Place the carrot custard pie onto a serving plate or board.
Serve this delicious carrot custard pie with some freshly whipped cream.
Notes
- My favourite pastry recipe if from Julie Jones I have linked her website and book in the post above. I highly recommend it.
- I used jumbo Chinese carrots but any will work just fine.
- If you choose to use a cow's milk alternative then be aware it may alter the end result. I haven't tried using alternative so I can't say what difference to texture and flavour it will make.
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