Chocolate Midnight Pie
Are you looking for a deep, dark, dense chocolate pie, one whose filling is so moist it glistens, one which that makes its own light, crisp-crackly topping? Voilà — you've found it. The complementary coffee-flavored crust is icing on the cake... er, pie!
Chocolate Midnight Pie
Yield: 1 pie, 10 servings.
Ingredients:
Crust
Chocolate Midnight Pie
Yield: 1 pie, 10 servings.
Ingredients:
Crust
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
- 3 to 5 tablespoons milk or cream (half and half, light, heavy, or whipping)
Filling
- 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
- 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur* (e.g., Kahlua), or substitute strong brewed coffee
- 1 tablespoon cold milk or cream (half and half, light, heavy, or whipping)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional; for depth of flavor
- 2 tablespoons yellow or white cornmeal
- 2/3 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
*Frangelico (hazelnut), Amaretto (almond), Grand Marnier (orange), or Framboise (raspberry) are all wonderful, in place of the coffee liqueur.
Directions:
Directions:
- To make the crust: Stir together the flour, sugar, and salt.
- Work the butter into the dry ingredients (using your fingers, a pastry blender or fork, or a mixer) until the dough is unevenly crumbly.
- Dissolve the espresso powder in 1 tablespoon of the milk. Sprinkle up to 5 tablespoons (or more, if necessary) of the milk into the dry ingredients (beginning with the tablespoon of espresso milk), continuing to mix until the dough is cohesive. Grab a handful; if it holds together willingly, and doesn't seem at all dry or crumbly, you've added enough liquid.
- Shape the dough into a disk. Roll its edges along a floured work surface (as though the disk were a wheel), in order to smooth them out. Pat the disk until it's about 1" thick, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Allow it to warm a bit and become flexible, 15 to 30 minutes
- Flour your work surface, and roll the dough into a 12" circle. Transfer the dough to a regular (not deep-dish) 9" pie pan that's at least 1 ¼" deep. Trim and crimp the edges. Place the crust in the refrigerator to chill, while you're preparing the filling.
- Beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating slowly but thoroughly after each addition; you want to combine them with the butter and sugar, but not beat in a lot of air.
- Stir in the cocoa, liqueur, milk, and vanilla.
- Use a food processor (mini, if you have one) to grind together the espresso powder, cornmeal, and chocolate chips. Add to the batter. Pour the batter into the crust.
- Bake the pie for 45 minutes, adding a crust shield after 20 minutes. The middle may look pretty soft; so long as the temperature has reached 165°F right in the center, the pie is done.
- Remove the pie from the oven, cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate overnight before serving.
- Serve each slice topped with a layer of whipped cream and a sprinkle of chocolate curls, if desired.
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