Anyone
reading this blog would have figured out that I have a wicked sweet tooth, and
an abiding love of chocolate. This recipe is one of my father's, and is a
surprisingly wonderful dessert treat. I have no idea where he got the
original recipe, so can't attribute it anywhere. I have scaled his recipe
up from an 8 inch pie to a 9 inch pie - that extra inch is worth the effort.
The original recipe calls for a pre-baked pie shell, and I've opted to
make my own pastry. I have modified my favourite sour cream pastry recipe
for this pie, with the addition of a bit of powdered sugar for sweetness.
Pie
Crust
Ingredients:
100
grams butter (I use salted or lightly salted butter for this pastry)
125
grams plain flour
2
tablespoons powdered sugar
65
mls sour cream
Method:
Cut up the butter into small cubes, then pulse with the
flour and powdered sugar in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sour
cream and continue to pulse until the dough starts to incorporate into a
ball. If needed, add a small bit of cold water and pulse until it comes
together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap
and refrigerate for half an hour. Roll the
chilled pastry out until about 1/8 inch thick, and fit to a 9 inch pie
plate. Gently pinch the edges making
sure not to stretch the dough at all, or the pie crust will shrink when it
bakes. Line the pie crust with baking
paper and pastry weights (or rice/beans). Bake in a
preheated 180 C/ 350 F oven for about ten minutes. Remove the weights, and
prepare the filling.
Filling
Ingredients:
1
½ cups caster sugar
5
tablespoons cocoa powder
2
tablespoons flour
¼
teaspoon salt
½
cup evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk – importantly)
3
large eggs, room temperature
1/3
cup unsalted butter, softened
1
teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
Turn
oven down to 160 C / 325 F. Combine the
sugar, cocoa, flour and salt. Blend in
the evaporated milk. Beat in the eggs
one at a time with an electric mixer.
Add the butter and vanilla and beat until smooth. Pour into the pie crust. Bake for about 50 –
55 minutes. Keep an eye on it, so your
crust doesn’t get too brown.
Serve
with whipped cream.
