My friends and I hold a yearly Pie Night, and this year, with both kids gone, I had a sudden hankering to make a scrumptious pie, a fun pie.
I started out thinking, what's my favorite pie? That was easy :: cherry!
Now... how could I make it outstanding?
Could I somehow combine it with my second favorite pie, a lemon merengue? No, cherry and lemon wasn't the mix I wanted.
Key lime? Hmm, not that either.
Ooohhhh --- I love chocolate cream pie.
Bingo. Chocolate and cherry! That sounded so good.
So I started imagining how I'd like them to go together.
I wanted the flavor to be more concentrated than chocolate cream pie, and not like melted chocolate chips, either. More like a layer of chocolate bar - like an elegant, tender, freshly made chocolate layer.
So I started playing around.
The crust had to be a fabulous graham crust of course, because my Mumma taught me at her knee, and that's a fun, flavorful, easy crust with great texture and mouthfeel. I made it thicker than usual, to give it more body.
The layer of chocolate went through several versions, and here's my theory - it's deciding how much butter and cream (for softness) and how much cocoa butter (making it more solid). Too much butter and the chocolate layer droozles down into the crust. But with too much cocoa butter, the refrigerated chocolate layer makes the finished pie so hard to cut, the whole pie shifts like an earthquake -- ask me how I know!
Okay, so now you know my thinking as I created versions of the recipe ~ here's the (current) final version of
Blackout Pie
[You can watch me make it first, here, and play it again while you're making it for yourself ~ https://youtu.be/jlOUdkFW1ck]
You'll need ::
a 9" pie plate • gallon size ziplock bag • rolling pin • large non-metal mixing bowl • medium saucepan • wooden mixing spoon • rubber spatula • quart Mason jar + lid
CRUST ::
12 graham crackers (12 doubles)
8 oz butter (1 stick, either salted or unsalted, as you prefer)
1/3 c sugar
CHOCOLATE LAYER ::
2 oz butter
2 handsful cocoa butter discs (about 18-20)
2 heaping T cocoa powder (King Arthur black cocoa in the video)
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c heavy cream
2 T vanilla
CHERRIES ::
5 c frozen bing cherries
~ 1 c dark or light brown sugar
3 T vanilla
3 heaping T cornstarch
1/4 c cold water
WHIPPED CREAM (optional) ::
1 pint whipping cream
1/4 c maple syrup
2 T vanilla extract
CRUST ::
Put the 12 graham crackers into the ziplok bag, squeeze out air, and seal. Roll the rolling pin over the crackers until they're quite fine.
Put butter in non-metal mixing bowl (Pyrex is best) and microwave to melt. All microwaves are different, but two 30-second bursts should do it.
Pour crumbs into melted butter, add sugar, stir well until crumbs have absorbed the butter. Pour crumbs into pie shell and spread evenly along bottom and up sides.
*** Cool trick :: if you have a slightly smaller pie plate that fits this way, push it down onto the crumbs and use it to smoosh the crumbs into shape. Pressure on that smaller plate can help form the crust into a firm and steady crust that will hold well, better than pressure with your individual fingers.
Bake at 350˚ F for about 10 minutes, let cool at room temp, then refrigerate for at least an hour, up to overnight, uncovered
CHOCOLATE LAYER ::
Put butter and cocoa butter in medium to large non-metal mixing bowl.
I am still working out the best ratio of butter/cream to cocoa butter for this recipe, but this seems to be a good, reasonable balance.
Warm in microwave just to melting, in 15- or 30-second intervals.
Remove and add cocoa powder, cream, sugar, and vanilla. This King Arthur Flour black cocoa makes for a very dramatic and intensely flavored chocolate layer. Make it light cocoa powder if you prefer a lighter brown.
Mix, stirring until all is smooth. Let cool on counter to room temperature (maybe 10-30 minutes, depending on how hot you got it in the microwave).
Pull crust from refrigerator and pour chocolate layer onto center of crust. Spread out level to the bottom of the side edges, leaving a flat round disc of chocolate on the whole crust bottom.
Refrigerate, at least an hour, up to overnight.
CHERRIES ::
Measure out the cherries into the saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and stir occasionally to let heat through.
Meanwhile, you want to thoroughly mix the cornstarch and cold water, either by stirring with a fork or whisk, or by putting into a shaker of some kind. (I always use the old, misshapen one handed down to me from my Mumma, even though the lid doesn't fit all that well, and it always leaks a bit.)
As the cherries are simmering, add the cornstarch mixture a little at a time, stirring well. As you come to the end of it, pull it off the heat and stir a little more. It should be thickening by now, and it will thicken more as it cools.
* I may adjust the cornstarch down - I think the large amount of cornstarch may be the reason the cherry filling "cracks" after refrigeration, and with less we may still get a thickened pie, without cracking *
Let it cool on the counter until it's close to room temperature.
When cooled, pour into the pie, on top of the chocolate layer. Fill to the top of the pie crust, if you have that much, spread or gently shake until filling is level.
Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve, at least an hour, up to overnight.
WHIPPED CREAM ::
Pour cream, maple syrup, and vanilla into a Mason jar and put the lid on. Shake vigorously for 5-10 minutes, until the cream thickens to the way you like it.
When ready to serve, cut pie and spoon whipped cream onto each piece. Enjoy!
