Maple buttermilk pie

After the blackberry bars, I had extra egg yolks.  I don't like wasting food, so I needed to find something to do with them.  I also had some extra buttermilk, because Ali had left it here after making buttermilk strawberry cake (if she sends me a recipe for that, I'll put it up, because it was delicious), a few weekends ago.  So the buttermilk also had to get used up.  A google search for "what can I do with egg yolks and buttermilk" turned up this, and the decision was basically made for me.

Of course, with only two egg yolks, and one other egg, I had to cut the recipe in half.  I figured I could use my third egg yolk and just turn that white into a meringue, which was a successful endeavor.  But that meant that I wouldn't have enough filling for a full pie's worth of maple and buttermilk.  So, I made the pie into bars, with a shortbread crust.  This was a good decision.

I have no Ed-rating on these, since I know better than to try and feed him custardy things.  Maybe I should try it anyway, if only because these squares have been living in my fridge and I'm the only one I can blame for their disappearance.  The Alex-rating puts these squarely into the "make again" category, though I did think they were a little too sweet.  Tough not to have a maple pie be too sweet, I think, though maybe I'll forego the brown sugar next time.   I didn't have any lemon zest, but the original recipe called for some of that - I think that would have helped with the sweetness.


Doesn't this look like melted coffee ice cream?  That alone made me want to like these bars.

Maple buttermilk squares

Made 1 5x8" pan's worth

Crust:
1 stick of butter, more or less room temperature
1/4C sugar
1C flour
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
1C buttermilk, shaken
1/3C maple syrup (C or B would be best, as that's most mapley-flavored)
1 tbs brown sugar
3 egg yolks
2 tbs flour
1/2tsp vanilla
1/4tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Grease and flour a 5x8" pan.

Make the crust first.  Cream butter with sugar, add vanilla, then add in salt and flour.  Press into pan.  Dock with a fork generously.  Bake for 15-20min, until barely golden brown.

Turn oven down to 325F.

For the filling, whisk the yolks with the brown sugar.  Add everything else, whisk to combine; no lumps.  Pour into pan on top of hot crust, and bake for 30-50min.  Check after 30min, if it's still jiggly, give it another 10, check again, bake another 10min, etc.  Cool completely before slicing, or you'll get less-clean-looking slices, sort of like mine.  Store in the fridge, and enjoy!