Egg Pie

A slice of my childhood memories :-)

Back when I was in grade school, egg pies are 5 pesos per slice. That was a big slice! Best with a bottle of 8oz Coke :-)

Nora Daza's cookbook, "A Culinary Life", mentioned that egg pie was the trendy desert back in the forties and fifties. Sweet, melt-in-your mouth, milky custard enveloped in a crisp crust - who wouldn't fall for this lovely desert? Well, believe it or not, I have a friend, a kumare, who hates, well more like absolutely loathes, egg pie. She said she has tasted it before but never liked it. Why?????

A thread in FemaleNetwork's Girltalk has most of the ladies talk about pies. Well, I've never made pie before. Frankly, it's too scary - do I need to knead the dough to make the pie crust? Do I bake the pie crust first? But these ladies seem to talk about it like it's so easy! I got inspired :-)

Off to google I went to look for a good egg pie recipe. First search result that popped was from Panlasang Pinoy. Wow, I should say this website is awesome! It has all sorts of pinoy recipes! And there's almost always an instructional video that shows how to cook the recipe from start to finish, even going through each ingredient. The instructor even gives tips on what some cooking terms mean, like what is soft peak, what do you mean by folding, etc etc. Amazeballs! I'm starting to love this website (in fact, I followed his recipe for Pinoy Chicken Curry and it was a success!). I'm set to make brazo de mercedes this Sunday! Yipee!!!

Hooray for internet! I can't imagine myself asking our local baker on how to make egg pie :-) So here we go - this is the exact recipe from the Panlasang Pinoy website.

Egg Pie
Recipe from Panlasang Pinoy

For the pie crust

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 tablespoon granulated sugar

For the filling

• 1 3/4 cups evaporated milk
• 3 pieces raw eggs
• 1 piece egg, white separated from the yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar

Make the pie crust

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt then mix well.

Add the butter in the middle and mix using a pastry mixer.

Slice the butter in squares or small rectangles so it's easier to mix into the flour mixture.
I don't have a pastry mixer/blender so I used good ol' fashioned fork.

Gradually pour the cold water while mixing the ingredients. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Gather the dough and mold it into a ball-shaped figure.


Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes to harden the butter.

Sprinkle flour on a clean flat surface and flatten the refrigerated dough using a rolling pin. The flattened dough should be wide enough to cover a 9 inch circular baking pan. - At this point my camera's battery died...Note to self: make sure camera is always fully-charged before I start cooking anything.

Arrange the flattened dough on top of the baking pan and cut the extra edge using a pair of scissors. - I used my 8X8 Pyrex baking dish because I don't have a 9" baking pan :-(

Refrigerate while doing the filling.

Make the filling

Scald the evaporated milk by heating it in the microwave oven for 2 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the 3 raw eggs and the separated egg yolk then whisk.

Gradually add the granulated sugar while whisking.

Put-in the vanilla extract then whisk until every ingredient is properly distributed.

Pour-in the scalded milk then mix thoroughly.


Beat the separated egg white using an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks. - Now, I don't have an excuse. Sorry, no pictures :-(

Fold the processed egg white in the milk-eggs-sugar mixture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pour the filling mixture on the refrigerated pie crust.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit then lower the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking for 30 to 40 minutes. - My oven has always been erratic. This time, instead of just 40 minutes, I had to bake mine in a full hour. Grrr...have to check what's wrong with this oven.
Remove the egg pie from the oven and let cool.

My square egg-pie :-)

Close-up

Heavenly custard :-)

Pawis rating 2 of 5 very easy! I was surprised at how easy this recipe was.

Remember that the egg white should stay on top even after you've folded it in. By the nature of whipped egg white and rules of science, since the yolks and milk are more dense than the white, this mixture should settle in the bottom and the white should float on top. The egg white actually gives the egg pie it's brown color on top.