Easy Boston Cream Pie Cookie Bites Recipe | Practically Homemade (2024)

FAQs

Why is it called a Boston Cream Pie and not cake? ›

Or—most probable—it derived from something called Washington pie, a layer cake filled with jelly, popular in the early 19th century. In those days, pies and cakes were baked in the same kind of pan, and baking terminology was a little more loosey-goosey.

What is Boston Cream Pie? Despite the name, it's not a pie at all. Filled with a rich and velvety pastry cream, what truly makes this two-layer golden cake so special is the rich chocolate icing. Back in the 1800s, chocolate was mainly consumed at home as a beverage or in puddings.

The Boston Cream Pie was declared the official state dessert of Massachusetts in 1996, thanks in part to a Norton High School civics class who sponsored the bill. The cream pie beat out some stiff competition in Fig Newtons, Toll House cookies, and Indian pudding.

Cooks in New England and Pennsylvania Dutch regions were known for their cakes and pies and the dividing line between them was very thin. This cake was probably called a pie because in the mid-nineteenth century, pie tins were more common than cake pans.

The Texture Is The Biggest Difference

Bavarian cream involves milk, eggs, sugar, and often vanilla extract, the same as Boston cream. But then the two ingredient lists diverge: Bavarian cream includes heavy cream and gelatin, while Boston cream involves cornstarch.

A Boston cream pie is a cake with a cream filling. The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were baked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably. In the late 19th century, this type of cake was variously called a "cream pie", a "chocolate cream pie", or a "custard cake".

The doughnut adaptation of the pie is popular not only in Massachusetts but throughout the United States and Canada. Also filled with the same cream, the Bavarian cream doughnut differs from the Boston cream doughnut in that, instead of a chocolate glaze topping, the Bavarian cream doughnut is tossed in powdered sugar.

Omni Parker House, Boston.

You should DEFINITELY refrigerate Boston Cream Pie. The pastry cream is highly perishable and will go bad if left out at room temperature for more than an hour or two and it will soften and not be able to support the heavy ganache on top especially after you've started cutting into it.

It was first invented in 1856, by an Armenian-French chef named Sanzian. At the time, chocolate frosting was a fairly new idea, so the delicious dessert took the world by storm. And to this day, it remains a popular menu selection. It's even the official dessert of Massachusetts!

What restaurant invented Boston cream pie? ›

Originally dubbed "Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie," Boston Cream Pie became an immediate and perennial hit. The original Parker House recipe for the pie (which is technically a cake) was so popular that in 1958 it became a Betty Crocker boxed mix.

The treat has been the official state dessert of Massachusetts since 1996. However, its origins are much earlier than that. Chef Augustine François Anezin and staff created the Boston Cream Pie at Boston's Parker House Hotel — known now as Omni Parker House — in the 1860s, according to the hotel.

A pie bird is a hollow ceramic tool that bakers place in the center of pies to prevent bubbling over. They can also be called pie vents, because that hollow core allows steam to escape during baking.

Pie: Boston cream pie is a cake, not a pie.

Baking blind (sometimes called pre-baking) is the process of baking a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Blind baking a pie crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling (such as with pudding or cream pies), in which case the crust must be fully baked.

A cake is typically made by combining a mixture of dry ingredients, including flour and leavening agents, with some mixture of wet ingredients including eggs, milk, oil, and butter. That batter is then baked in a pan to make a bread-like sweet. A pie, on the other hand, typically has a buttery pastry crust as the base.

Cheesecake is called "cheesecake" because does not typically contain yeast, and has a crust. Whether it's baked or not, cheesecake is really a form of pie with a crust on the bottom. Most baked cheesecakes use custard as the filling made up of eggs, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla or other flavors.

Boston cream “pie” is actually a sponge cake—thus named because it turns out as light and fluffy as a sponge. The cake includes two layers filled with a creamy vanilla-flavored custard and topped with a rich chocolate icing. When making the custard, take care to follow the directions closely.