i need more

Last night, we went out for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes. Out. As in, I didn't cook. As in I nearly had an anxiety attack while watching football - absolutely twitching with inactivity. There was no turkey in the smoker, no sneaking slices of andouille away from the stuffing, no parade of pies going in and out of the oven. In other words, I was absolutely miserable.

It didn't take me too long to get over it once we arrived at Jose Andres' Tres for their Thanksgiving buffet (hello, caviar!), but the second I couldn't track down the pumpkin pie in their mini dessert spread, I started planning next year's Thanksgiving dinner. Starting with, of course, dessert.

This Apple Butter Pie was an experiment in finding an apple pie I'd like. I don't mind apple flavor - I'm just not a cooked apple person. Unfortunately, this didn't quite do the trick - it was barely identifiable as apple. I'm sure there are varying degrees of potency among different apple butter brands, but truly, there was no distinctive apple flavor.

But you truly can't complain about a pie that takes literally two minutes to whip together and stick in the oven. And I'm always a sucker for a baked custard pie, so I'm not really complaining. Perhaps next time, I'll put just slightly more effort in and boil down about twice as much of the apple butter as is called for to really dial up the flavor.

Apple Butter Pie
from Baking Bite

1 9-inch shortbread pie crust
1 16-oz. jar apple butter
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1/2 t. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until very smooth. Pour into pie crust.

3. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until center is mostly set (jiggles slightly when nudged) and a sharp knife inserted near the center comes out mostly clean.

4. Cool to room temperature before slicing and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight, before serving.