Date Cream Pie
1 1/2 cups milk 3/4 cup stoned dates 1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla A few grains salt Stew the dates in a small amount of water till well softened and stewed down dry; rub them through a colander; add the egg (beaten), the salt, vanilla, and milk (heated). Pour into a pie tin lined with a crust having a built-up edge, and bake till set.
A thin custard pie sweetened only by the dates themselves. The recipe assumes you know how a custard behaves in the oven, and gives no temperature or time.
- Oven temperatureBake at 425F for the first 10 minutes to set the pastry, then drop to 325-350F until the centre is just barely wobbly, roughly 30-40 minutes. A custard held above about 350F throughout will curdle and weep.
- The date puree is the hingeStew the dates until genuinely dry, not merely soft. Any residual cooking water thins the custard, and one egg to a cup and a half of milk is already at the lower limit of what will set.
- Rubbing through a colanderProbably a colander with fairly fine perforations; a modern coarse colander may not manage it. Use a food mill, a fine sieve, or simply puree in a blender or processor for a smoother result.
- Temper the milkThe milk is heated and the egg beaten separately. Pour the hot milk into the egg and date puree slowly while whisking, or the egg will scramble in threads through the filling.
- Blind-bake the shellA wet custard poured into raw pastry gives a soggy base. Line the tin, chill it, blind-bake at 425F for about 15 minutes and cool slightly before filling. The "built-up edge" matters: the filling is loose and fills the shell nearly to the rim.
- Sweetness and datesThere is no added sugar. Modern Medjool dates are sweeter and moister than the pressed dates common when this was written, so the pie will taste sweeter than intended; Deglet Noor are closer.
- YieldOne 8- or 9-inch pie, six modest slices. Cool completely before cutting or the custard will slump, and refrigerate any that is kept.