Happy Pi Day - Caramel Pie

Happy Pi Day (3-14)! To celebrate, I made a caramel pi pie. I also made a pie for supper, and some tartlets for an appetizer, but I will just feature one pie for today. Fruit pies, nut pies and cream pies are always excellent standbys, but I was looking for a little something different. Chocolate pies are always good, but I settled on a caramel pie with a meringue topping. It was very good, and fairly simple to make. The filling is rich, but the light meringues offsets this. The recipe, which I found in Company's Coming "Pies", also suggests topping the pie with sweetened pie cream instead, which would also be good, but since egg yolks are used in the filling, it makes perfect sense to use up the extra whites in the topping. I used a knife to put the pi symbol into the meringue, since the pie didn't have a top crust to carve the pi symbol into. I just used a simple oil-based crust instead of the heavier traditional pastry. This worked really well. The pie only requires a light crust to hold the filling.

Caramel Meringue Pie
9-inch pie shell, baked and cooled
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
2 Tablespoons butter or hard margarine
2 Tablespoons water
1 cup water
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375◦F. In a large heavy saucepan, heat sugar, butter, and two tablespoons of the water until it boils. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking, until it thickens and turns copper-brown. Add 1 cup of water and return to a boil. 
In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks, milk, and cornstarch until smooth. Stir into boiling mixture and boil, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Pour into prepared pie shell.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until it forms a stiff froth. Beat in the sugar gradually until stiff. Spread over pie filling, right to the edges. Bake for about 10 minutes or until meringue is golden. Cool completely, then chill until serving.

Paré, Jean. "Caramel Pie." Recipe. Pies, Edmonton Alberta: Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 1992. 63.