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Katie Davis

@PopCultureCuisine

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Recipe of the Month–Sweetness

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 @ 09:09 PM

060Well I was trying to be more consistent about writing, but such is life and unfortunately my posts are still a bit sporadic, I apologize.  I would like to say that once baby Davis arrives I will have more time to devote to the blog, but that likely won’t be the case, but I’m going to try!  Speaking of baby Davis, we are more than ready to meet our little bean and I must admit I am driving myself a little nutty counting down the days until we maybe get to meet her.  I am not going to lie, I have had a relatively easy pregnancy and I don’t think I have not complained much, Adam might disagree, but in comparison I feel as if I have sort of floated through the whole experience, yes women you can hate me now.  While I am not saying it has been a cake walk, there have certainly been many a moment I wish I hadn’t been pregnant for a certain situation or right about now am growing tired of feeling like a hippo, but that being said there has been a part of me that has really relished just listening to my body and honoring it with the food that it wants.  I have tried to be consistent with my 80/20 healthy eating habits, however I will admit that desserts are one area where I have let myself live pretty freely.  Weekly and sometimes a couple times a week ice cream trips have not been out of the question and cake when at all possible has also been enjoyed.

Now one dessert that I have never really gone out of my way for or had a hard time turning down was pie, I know how un-American.  Now that isn’t to say that I HATE all pie, rather it just isn’t my dessert of choice, nor is it rarely something I have a craving for.  I don’t know what it is, it just really isn’t the sweet treat that does it for me.  However, a few weeks back I just couldn’t get the idea of some sort of chocolaty pie out of my mind, now this could be the fact that Adam had been talking about chocolate silk pie for weeks on end, but I just really wanted a smooth and velvety piece of chocolate pie myself.

I poured over tons of recipes, trying to find one I deemed worthy enough to make and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Pioneer Woman’s jumped to the top of the list…there must be something about her recipes and me being pregnant.  On a side note, have you been able to catch her show yet, it’s on Food Network, I just love how real and down to earth she seems, like you have known her forever, but I digress.  Her pie really stood out to me and I knew I was going to have to make it the contender, there was just one little problem…little did I know at the time I was researching these chocolate pie recipes, most of them require raw eggs in them, since these pies are uncooked.  While I would typically not care about such things, it really isn’t the smartest choice to be making when I am growing a little bambino.  But not to be easily deterred, I did a little research and found that if I used egg substitute instead I could garner the same results without any possible harm, crisis averted!

So I set out one Sunday afternoon to make said pie and while it was easy enough to follow her directions, her recipes are always laid out so nicely step by step, I was totally unprepared to have to whip each egg in individually for 4-5 whole minutes.  While not a huge deal, I will admit having a stand mixer would have been super helpful, rather than having to stand there myself for 20 minutes.  However, she is completely right when she says this is what it takes to create the texture you are looking for, it is pretty remarkable how just whipping those eggs individually allows it to take such shape.

Recipe: Delicious Chocolate Pie

Prep Time: 30 Minutes  |  Cook Time:Difficulty: Easy  |  Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces, weight Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
  • 1 cup Salted Butter, Softened
  • 1-1/2 cup Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 4 whole Eggs
  • 1 package Baked Pie Shell
Preparation Instructions

In small microwave safe bowl melt 4 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate until stirrable (about 45 seconds on high). Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat 1 cup (2 sticks) of regular (salted) butter and 1 ½ cups of white sugar until fluffy (about 1 to 2 minutes). When melted chocolate is cooled, drizzle it over the butter/sugar mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat the mixture thoroughly until combined (on a Kitchen Aid mixer, you will be using the whisk attachment).

Turn your mixer to a medium speed and over a period of 15 to 20 minutes add in the four eggs, one at a time, leaving about 5 minutes between each egg addition. Once the pie filling is well mixed, pour it into the baked pie shell, scraping every last speck of it out of the bowl. Smooth out the pie filling and place pie in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours (preferably longer).

Plop a heap of whipped cream and garnish with a few chocolate curls if you’re feeling sassy.

Source

I easily went about compiling the ingredients and before long I was quite pleasantly surprised when it started to take shape and really look quite smooth, creamy, and delectable.  Now one thing I will say is I chose to buy frozen pie crust instead of making my own, I know I could have easily taken the time to do so, but let’s be real it has been hard enough to find the time to make such things, much less add onto the time, so I cheated.  Also you can disregard the pregnant lady in her pajamas putting the finishing touches on this pie, I never said it was always pretty Smile.

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Overall, I was quite pleased with how my pie turned out and while I am not sure I was as wowed by the flavor as I thought I might be, it truly did come out looking beautiful with very minimal effort.

TASTE: This is an area I feel the worst about, because while I did enjoy my slice of pie, Adam wasn’t as huge of a fan.  Part of me wonders if because it was “French Silk” instead of straight chocolate, or because it was heavy of the dark chocolate making it really really rich and sweet.  Either way, he didn’t like it as much which made me feel bad since he was the one who had been craving it so badly.  As I said I did enjoy my slice, but boy was it rich and I definitely did not need that full on sugar rock that was then sitting in my belly, perhaps next time I would opt for a smaller slice.

EASE OF PREPARATION: Like I mentioned, this recipe is super easy to follow.  There really isn’t any difficult task, outside of having to attend to those eggs individually, which is by no means hard, rather more time consuming.  So if you happen to have one of those lovely kitchen mixers, by all means drag that puppy out for this!

COST: I was super impressed that this recipe, while looking uber fancy, really isn’t all that expensive to make either.  The only ingredient I didn’t have on hand was the baker’s chocolate and egg substitute, which I had to go pick up so as not to use the raw egg part.  So we are talking simple ingredients, none of which cost a lot, to whip up a dessert that looks quite distinguished when you are finished.

COMPLEXITY: I touched on this above, but this recipe is far from complex, in fact it is almost as easy as whipping up brownies from a box, just add the ingredients as you go in the order she says and beat those eggs individually and voila, you have yourself one decadent, chocolate, creamy pie.

PORTION SIZE: I would say that while this recipe says it will feed 8, I think it could easily feed more.  My eyes, per usual, were bigger than my belly and I cut some pretty generous slices, but this pie is so rich you really do not need a lot to feel satisfied.  So rather than cut the big ol’ boys like I did, I would try and definitely cut 8 if not 10 or even 12 slices from this one pie, believe me a little goes a long way.

So while the pie was not Adam’s favorite, nor hit the chocolate pie spot he had been craving, I still found it to be very good and maybe with a few tweaks the great pie he was looking for.  That being said I do think I need to possibly keep doing my research and find that chocolate silk pie that will melt my man’s heart, because unfortunately this just wasn’t it and while it is hard to say it was just too sweet.  That is why I am giving it two little piggies.

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