Chai Tea Latte Pie or How to Make a Dessert with a Little Caffeine Buzz

Once again, I left my brain to think on its own too long.

My mind has a tendency to wander and when it has nothing to keep it occupied, it comes up with very weird combinations.  And sometimes, sometimes, it actually creates a great idea.

New pie recipes were rolling around in my head on my drive to work .  As I flowed along with the rest of the traffic, I sipped an almost molten hot chai tea latte.  The cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and other spices blending together with the milk, supplying just the right amount of caffeine to keep me conscious after a night of putting insomniatic children back to bed.

And then it hit me.  What about a Chai Tea Latte Pie?

It's sweet, it's flavorful and it's half dairy already, why not add the rest of the ingredients and convert it into a dessert?

The conversion was incredibly easy to do by performing a few tweaks to the basic cream pie recipe.  I changed the liquid to be half tea and half whipping cream, to replace the fat lost when substituting out the milk.  I threw in a few more traditional Chai spices to increase the flavor and bumped up the vanilla slightly.

As for the tea, you can go about it any way you'd like.  Buy your favorite fresh tea blend from a specialty store, stuff your favorite tea ball and steep up a cup and a half worth of good strong chai.  If you'd rather, take a pair of the chai tea bags you use every day and soak them in 12 ounces of water or milk until the mixture is nice and strong.  If you're lazy or short on time (like me) you can always go with the prepackaged tea, like this Oregon chai tea latte concentrate.  It's already mixed, so normally you'd mix equal parts tea and milk for an instant latte.  Do the same here for instant pie filling; 12 ounces of concentrate, 12 ounces of cream.  And if you REALLY don't want to do much work, just but a strong 12 ounce chai tea straight from your local barrista.  No one will judge you.

If you can, make sure the spices you add to the mix haven't been sitting on the shelves for years.  If there's any question go get some new spices.  By all means, don't spend an arm and a leg, as mentioned in our Spice Bottle post, buying them from a bulk retailer, like Winco or any other bulk product specialist, will allow you to buy 10 times as much as you would in those miniature bottles you find in the grocery store baking aisle.

Chai Tea Latte Pie

 1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
12 ounces Chai tea, steeped in water or milk
12 ounces whipped cream
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Combine the sugar, cornstarch and spices in a small bowl.  Pour the mixture into a large saucepan and then add the tea and cream.  Use a whisk to blend all of the ingredients together.  Next, separate the 3 egg yolks into a small cup, beat them for about 20 seconds and then set them aside for later.

Place the saucepan over medium heat with a silicon or rubber spatula and constantly stir the filling until it thickens slightly, from a milky consistency to where it acts like a loose pudding.  While still stirring, add a small amount of the mixture to the egg yolks and immediately stir them. (And don't forget to keep stirring the main mixture so it doesn't burn)  This warms up the egg yolks so they don't become scrambled eggs in the pie.  Repeat this step two more times, then slowly pour the eggs into the main mixture, stirring the main mixture the whole time.

Continue to stir for another two minutes, then stir in the butter.  Once it's completely melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla.  Pour directly into a pre-prepared pie crust and allow to cool on the counter for 15-20 minutes.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.  Serve with whipped cream and dust with spices for a little accent.