This pie turned out quite well. Everyone at Pie Night loved it. The caramel was a bit boozier than I thought it would be, but I coulda been doing it wrong. Recipe comes from Dennis Wilkinson. As is normal, I’ve modified it slightly.
Crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 stick cold butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- dash salt
- 1½ ounces cold water
- 1½ ounces vodka
Pretty standard crust, except there’s a bit more liquid than I normally would use for one crust.
- Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor
- Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon pieces
- Add the butter to the flour mixture
- Pulse the food processor until all the chunks of butter are less than pea size
- Transfer the flour mixture to a bowl
- Combine the water and vodka into a cup
- Add the liquid to the flour, alternately adding some and mixing it with a pastry cutter or fork
- Work the dough until the liquid is pretty thoroughly combined and the flour forms a ball
- Mush the dough into a disc
- Wrap it in sandwich paper
- Chill for a half hour to an hour in the fridge
- Roll into a crust
- Place the crust in a 9 inch pie plate (deep dish works better, but I didn’t do that)
- Crimp the edges
- Weight with foil and pie weights
- Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and bake for 10 more
- Remove from oven and allow to cool
Caramel
- 1 cup sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 ounces Grand Marnier (original recipe calls for 1 ounce, but I don’t have a 1 ounce measure)
- 1 orange
- Grate all the zest from the orange
- Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan
- Cover and bring to a boil
- Remove the cover and continue boiling until sugar starts turning brown
- Swirls the pan on the burner periodically until the sugar is reddish brown (it really does turn a reddish brown)
- Add the cream and Grand Marnier
- Stir until dissolved
- Continue boiling until it’s pretty thick (original recipe says
thread stage
which I have no clue how to judge) - Add the orange zest
- Pour it into the pie shell
- Cool
The caramel was boozier than I expected. Perhaps sticking to the original amount mighta made it more acceptable to me, as I don’t drink or eat anything with more than a trace of alcohol left in it. I kinda expected it to have cooked off considering how long it was boiling.
Filling
- 4½ semisweet bakers chocolate
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- ⅔ cup sugar
- dash salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- 1 can (14½ ounces) Guinness stout
- ¼ cup water
- 1 packet gelatin
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Combine the water and gelatin in a small saucepan
- Separate the egg yolks and discard the egg white
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave
- In a medium saucepan, combine the cocoa powder, corn starch, sugar, and salt
- Whisk in the cream
- Whisk in the egg yolks
- Whisk in the Guinness
- Whisk in the chocolate
- Cook and stir the mixture over medium-high heat until thick enough to coat a spoon
- Heat the gelatin until it dissolves
- Whisk in the gelatin
- Remove from heat and strain the chocolate through a strainer into a bowl
- Whisk in the butter
- Pour into the pie shell (the one with the caramel, not a new one)
- Cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator until set
At this point, I had some leftover chocolate, though not a lot. I really should have used a deep dish pie plate. C’est la vie.
Serve with whipped cream.
Click through to the original recipe to see a lovely photo. I didn’t get a good photo of my edition of the pie.