This salted maple pie is everything I want in a dessert: a sweet and salty custard in a flaky, buttery crust. Served with billowy whipped cream, it’s heaven, perfect for Thanksgiving, or for any fall or winter gathering.

Sister Pie's Salted Maple Pie on a plate with whipped cream and a spoon.

A few days before last Thanksgiving, in search of one more pie to add to my dessert spread, I began paging through Sister Pie and landed on this recipe for salted maple pie, the bakery’s take on a classic chess pie, an old-fashioned Southern dessert which typically contains cornmeal, butter, sugar, and eggs.

Sister Pie’s version also contains cornmeal but is sweetened with maple syrup and is finished, once the pie cools, with a nice sprinkling of sea salt. I find it irresistible. I think you might, too.

How to Make Salted Maple Pie, Step by Step

Gather your ingredients:

Ingredients to make Salted Maple Pie.

As always, for best results, use a scale to measure:

A scale with the ingredients to make salted maple pie all around it.

Start by whisking together the melted butter and maple syrup:

A bowl with maple syrup and melted butter whisked together.

Then add the cornmeal, brown sugar, and salt:

A bowl with maple syrup and melted butter whisked together with brown sugar, cornmeal, and salt added.

Whisk until smooth:

A bowl with brown sugar, maple syrup, melted butter, cornmeal and salt whisked together.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, egg yolk, heavy cream and vanilla:

A bowl with heavy cream, vanilla, and eggs not yet whisked together.

Whisk until smooth:

A bowl with heavy cream, vanilla, and eggs whisked together.

Then add this egg-cream mixture to the maple syrup mixture and whisk until smooth.

The whisked together custard to make salted maple pie.

Parbake your pie crust. (Find video guidance on how to make and parbake your crust here.)

A parbaked pie shell on a cooling rack.

Fill the shell with the custard:

A parbaked pie shell on a sheet pan filled with salted maple pie filling, not yet baked.

Then bake for roughly 1 hour or until the custard is set:

Just-baked salted maple pie on a sheet pan.

Transfer to a cooling rack:

Just baked salted maple pie.

And let cool for at least an hour before slicing and…

Just-baked salted maple pie.

… serving with salted whipped cream:

One of my favorite Thanksgiving pies 🥧🥧🥧

An overhead shot of Sister Pie's Salted Maple Pie, just baked
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Sister Pie's Salted Maple Pie

Sister Pie’s Salted Maple Pie

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Description

This salted maple pie, to me, is everything I want in a dessert: a sweet and salty custard in a flaky, buttery crust. Heaven. It is perfect for Thanksgiving, but I think it’s nice for fall in general.

Adapted from Sister Pie, a cookbook from the eponymous bakery in Detroit. 

I love my Emile Henry pie plate — it makes the best crust. You need a 9-inch pie plate at least 2 inches deep for this recipe. 

Finally: A number of people have had issues with this recipe, and I have a few thoughts: 1. They are using cold maple syrup. 2. They might be using pie plates that are indeed 9 inches in diameter but perhaps not tall enough. If you store your maple syrup in the fridge, measure out what you need and let it sit (covered) at room temperature for several hours. Be sure to measure the depth of your pie plate. 

Ingredients

For the pie crust:

For the pie:

  • 10 tablespoons (142 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 cup (300 g) maple syrup, room temperature
  • 1⁄4 cup (32 g) fine yellow cornmeal
  • 3⁄4 cup (150 g) packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (1.5 g)
  • 1–1⁄4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
  • 3⁄4 cup (188 g) heavy cream, room temperature

For finishing:

  • Flaky sea salt
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • confectioner’s sugar
 

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
  2. Make the filling: In a large bowl, whisk together the maple syrup and melted butter. Add the cornmeal, brown sugar, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, heavy cream, and vanilla until smooth. Whisk the egg-cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and whisk again until very well combined or emulsified — this is important: several commenters have had issues with the mixture separating in the oven. 
  3. Place the parbaked pie shell on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pour the filling into the pie shell.
  4. Transfer the baking sheet with the pie on it to the oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the edges are puffed and the center jiggles only slightly when shaken. It will look slightly underbaked when you remove it but it will continue to set as it cools. This consistently takes me at least 1 hour to cook. 
  5. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the pie to a wire rack. Sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt. Let cool for 4 to 6 hours. Once fully cooled and at room temperature, slice, and serve. 
  6. To make the whipped cream, beat the heavy cream with a wire whip or in an electric mixer until soft peaks begin to form. Sprinkle in a small handful of sugar (or don’t — I actually like this whipped cream without any sugar because the pie is on the sweet side) and a big pinch of flaky sea salt and beat until peaks begin to get firmer. Taste. Add more sugar (if using) and salt to taste. Beat until peaks begin to hold their shape or until they reach a texture you like — I like billowy, not-quite-stiff peaks. Store in fridge until ready to serve.
  7. Store leftover pie, well wrapped in plastic wrap, or tucked into a jumbo ziplock bag, or under a pie dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days.
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American