# What causes my buttermilk pie to bulge in the center?



## minnimons (Nov 13, 2012)

I have been baking the following buttermilk pie for years and it always turned out delightful! In the past year, though, the pie center has been bulging during baking resulting in a delicious, but very ugly pie. Would someone help me remedy this? Here is the recipe:

 *Ingredients*

½ cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (cooled to lukewarm)
3 eggs (beaten)
 1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
*Directions*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together sugar, flour, and nutmeg; add buttermilk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well and pour into pie crust.
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 and bake for approximately 30-40 minutes.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Does this pie have a top crust? Are you turning it in oven? Overmixing will cause air bubbles and rising.. Its almost like a form of custard pie from what I see. After pouring contents into pie shell tap the whole pie on a table let rest then bake.


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## minnimons (Nov 13, 2012)

I probably am overmixing the filling!  Since I will be making the pie again tonight, I'll follow these suggestions and let you know how it turns out!

Thanks again!


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## laurenlulu (Sep 9, 2012)

Custard pies normally rise when baking then fall as they cool, especially if cooked quickly, because of the eggs. Is that what you mean? You may want to consider blind baking your crust until it is a light golden brown, putting in filling and then turning your oven to 275 or 300 for a slow bake.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Your buttermilk pie is a custard. Similar dishes are sometimes called chess pie, chess in relation to cheese, as the custard solidifies and reminded people of how cheese formed curds.

I think you're seeing this because the outside edges cook first and sort of push the remaining uncooked batter towards the middle. Same reason ice domes as it freezes from the outer edges first.  You can reduce this doming if you cooked your pie in a bain marie (water bath) to help even out the temps across your pie. But you'd have to pre-bake your crust first as it won't get hot enough with a bain marie to properly cook the crust.


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