Mediterranean Sesame Tahini Custard Pie
Made with a creamy sesame tahini custard and cookie-like sesame seed pie crust.
Servings 8 servings
Equipment
- Pie Dish
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie cutter optional
Ingredients
- Tahini Pie Crust
- 8 tbsp Unsalted butter cold
- 1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Sesame flour *see notes
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Egg white save the yolk for the custard
- 1/4 cup Milk, cold reserve 1 tbsp
- 1 tbsp Sesame seeds
- Tahini Custard Filling
- 2 Whole Eggs plus 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1/4 cup Tahini
- 1 cup Half and half
- 1/3 cup Farina also known as cream of wheat
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Tahini Pie Crust
- In a food processor, place the dry ingredients (except seeds), with butter and pulse until it crumbles together.
- Mix the milk and egg-white together, reserving 1 tablespoon milk. While the machine is running, pour in the wet mixture. It should come together quickly into a ball. Take the 'pie-pastry test' pressing the dough between two fingers; you want it to be able to leave your fingerprint in the dough. If it crumbles apart it needs a splash more liquid, if it sticks to your fingers it needs a sprinkle more flour.
- On a floured surface, with a rolling pin, roll the dough out and place in the pie dish. With a small pastry roller, roll the bottom of the crust as thin as you can get it without it breaking. This can be done also by pressing the dough from center towards the edges. Shape and crimp the edges, and brush with reserved milk, followed by a sprinkle of the sesame seeds around the edges.
- *see notes for optional crust cutouts.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Tahini Custard Filling
- Place all of the custard ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until light and frothy. Pour into the pie crust, and place in the preheated oven to bake for 10-minutes.
- Lower the temperature of the oven to 325, and bake until the custard is firm and the crust is golden brown, about another 45-minutes. Cool to room temperature and serve.
Video
Notes
- Step-by-step pics are in my video.
- Specialty stores and health food stores have sesame flour, however the sesame flour can be made using a coffee grinder set on finest grind setting.
- For an added measure of wow factor in this open-faced custard pie, cutouts can be made with crust scraps and halfway through the baking time, set them on top of the pie and continue baking. I used a Genie lamp cookie cutter for the whimsy of it.