And if THIS works, maybe I'll buy some of those flavored cream cheeses....

So, a couple of weeks ago in the grocery store, I noticed for the first time something I'd never paid much attention to before: flavored coffee creamers. It makes sense that I'd never gave them much thought, seeing as how I don't drink coffee, but dude, check out some of the flavors of these things: chocolate raspberry, southern butter pecan, cinnamon bun, chocolate eclair.... the only ones I don't get are the mocha flavors. Coffee flavored coffee? Really? If the brand of coffee you buy is so bad that you need coffee-flavored creamer, wouldn't it be easier just to, you know, buy better coffee? But the point is, I see all these delicious sounding flavors, and I keep thinking, there has got to be some sort of non-beverage culinary use for these things.

So today in the store I finally broke down and bought the bottle seen to the right, partly because it's a seasonal flavor so I'm less likely to ever see it again (at least for the next ten months) and partly because I figure this might finally be my chance to fulfill my dream of inventing Egg Nog Pie. To make this work, I'll need to start with a pie recipe that's mostly liquid, so I'm thinking custard pie. Question: if I make a custard pie, which is like 80% milk, and replace that milk with a 100% dairy free liquid, will it still bake into a custard? I mean it's creamer, so it's milk-like, right? Second question: if creamers are already sweetened, how much sugar do I cut from the original recipe? The answer to these questions and others will be answered the next time I have enough free time to bake a pie; but seeing as how I have a church dinner to (co)run tomorrow and a new quarter of school starting the day after, that might be a while......