In the comments to my pear tarte tartin post over the weekend I promised to post the recipe for my chocolate pecan pie. This is one of the deserts I usually make for Thanksgiving, so here you all go. If you all are really good, I might put up my peanut butter cup pie, which is a pie sized/shaped peanut butter cup. Or maybe I won’t…
Ingredients:
1 unbaked pie crust or pastry shell (I like to use the Pillsbury pie crusts in the dairy case)
4 tablespoons butter
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup light corn syrup
½ cup sugar
1 ¼ tsps pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups pecan halves
whipped cream
Instructions:
Prepare pastry shell and set aside.
In medium saucepan, melt butter with chocolate, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and beat in corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, salt and eggs.
Mix well. Place pecans on bottom of pastry shell. Pour chocolate mixture over pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, creme anglaise, chocolate sauce, and/or any combination of those you prefer!
Mike J
I have been tasked with pie, and was looking for one. This has been put on the short list.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: I’m a junkie. That’s why I don’t make it very often. But this one is very, very good!
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Glad I could help. Its very easy. Perhaps the only easier pie to make is the key lime.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
@efgoldman:
So cool to see your two names together.
:: ?? singing ?? ::
“Make new friends
But keep the old, man,
One is Silverman
And the other Goldman.”
slag
@Adam L Silverman: Any specific key lime pie recommendation?
Mike J
TV ad: “Star Wars: the force awakens. This film has not been rated.”
I will never be on the MPAA rating board because I’d vote for NC-17 just to fuck with them. You can’t show a naked wookie!
Punchy
I wanna know what to add to stuffing to make it taste less bland. Garlic? Curry? Mass quants of onion powder?
dexwood
I’ve said this before, I like cake, but I love pie. Our trusty old oven died last weekend and can’t be repaired. The new one won’t be delivered until Friday, the day after Angstgiving. My first thought was not about the loss of a turkey, but for the pies I’ll not have.
Omnes Omnibus
@Punchy: Scotch (or equivalent) early and often. It won’t fix the stuffing, but you won’t care.
Face
@Mike J: when’s the last time a mainstream movie was rated NC-17? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one at a theater….
Starfish
Though Adam knows geopolitics, he does not know pie. The pie that he is writing about is often called derby pie. And to do it right, you replace that one cup of light corn syrup with one cup of maple syrup.
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
Not onion powder, but onion for sure. Some garlic. Rosemary and sage. And don’t forget texture — diced celery, and sliced water chestnuts, while not very flavourful on their own, add a lot of interest to a dressing or stuffing because crunch.
TaMara (BHF)
@Punchy: Sage. Good broth.
Omnes Omnibus
@Face: Showgirls?
TaMara (BHF)
@Adam L Silverman: Key lime is my go-to for my birthday. Love, love, love it.
Suzanne
I need a week by myself. I am exhausted.
SoupCatcher
@SiubhanDuinne: Awesome repurposing of the Girl Scout friendship song! Now the tune will be bouncing through my head all night.
Suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne: I also am a fan of real homemade cornbread in stuffing, because FUCK YEAH CORN.
NineJean
Peanut butter cup, uh pie? I have a couple of nieces that would think they’d died & gone to heaven if I showed up wi that. Too late for turkey day, but would love to have it for Christmas!
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Cornbread? In stuffing? You clearly aren’t a northern WASP with years of tradition and blandness in your past. Luckily, my parents escaped traditon and went boho, so weird and spicy foods were a staple of my childhood. OTOH, T-day, X-mas, and Easter – we bow to lares et penates…..
Betty Cracker
@slag: This one is pretty good.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: As a native born and fled as soon as I could southerner, cornbread stuffing is the only real stuffing. With 5 metric tons of sage.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: It is always what one’s grandmother did.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: I had a Silverman cousin, my grandfather’s nephew, marry a Goldman. She appreciated upwards…
Adam L Silverman
@slag: I posted the recipe here about a month ago.
Jordan Rules
@Mike J: As a southerner invoking cornbread, surely you mean dressing :)
Linnaeus
Pecan pie is just not my thing.
NotMax
@Punchy
Sauteed onion and celery.
Most basic of spices to add punch: Poultry seasoning + some additional ground sage. Mix ’em up in a little chicken broth and pour over stuffing before final cooking.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: Too sweet, yes?
Adam L Silverman
@Punchy: You want my cornbread stuffing recipe:
Bessie’s Cornbread Stuffing:
Make 6 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix (instructions on box) in a sheet pan. And allow to cool. Remove the giblets and sweatbreads from inside the turkey and saute them on medium low in butter with two diced onions. Once the onions are translucent and the giblets/sweetbreads are cooked through remove from heat and allow to cool. Thinly chop six to eight large celery stalks. Take the cooled giblets and sweetbreads and run them through a robo-chef grinder or mince fine by hand. Crumble the cool cornbread into a very large mixing bowl. Incorporate the ground/finely minced giblets/sweatbreads, onions, and celery. Add salt, fresh ground pepper, poultry seasoning, and sage to taste. Add chicken or turkey stock (I use the low sodium UHT stuff in the boxes) until the mixture is moist – not drowned, moist. If you’re stuffing it into the bird, it can be drier as it’ll pick up juices from the bird. If you’re cooking it separately, making it a bit moister. Either stuff it or place in a baking dish. If baking separately cover it and heat it back up thoroughly so that all the flavors combine. And you’re good to go.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
‘Zactly. I’ve had it so sweet you could crunch the sugar crystals. I like pies with a bit of tartness to them, which is why I like apple and cherry the best.
And this is not a dig on pecan pie qua pecan pie. If that’s what you like, roll with it.
Adam L Silverman
@dexwood: I had that happen my second year in Carlisle. My oven was dying. I had purchased a new one at the pre-black Friday black Friday sale, but they couldn’t deliver it till the Monday after the holiday. My Mom had come up for Thanksgiving, I had my Nepalese general, my Kenayn colonel and his wife, my Algerian colonel and his entire family – including a nephew, and several other folks coming. I told my Mom that we were eating out and not using the oven until Wednesday night for baking and Thursday for everything else. As long as it got through Thursday night, I didn’t care if it blew up on Friday morning. The old thing made it and the holiday meal was wonderful.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Stop, you are just encouraging him.
Adam L Silverman
@Starfish: I’ve got a recipe here that says otherwise…
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (BHF): I love the stuff too. And its just too easy to make.
Adam L Silverman
@NineJean: I’ll try to put it up tomorrow sometime. I’m working on something that’s taking up some time right now, but if I can knock it out by mid afternoon, I’ll try to post the recipe before I head off to the gym and the dojo.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: Really, you couldn’t link to the recipe I posted here? I will meet you on the plains of Lake Panosofkee at noon tomorrow. Bring a second!
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Step back. It’s too damned sweet.
mclaren
Making a desert for Thanksgiving takes a lot of work. You have to clear land, bulldoze down trees, uproot grass, import lots of sand, fill in all the watering holes. And even then, how can you be sure nothing will grow there afterwards?
Linnaeus
@efgoldman:
Nah, that’s those Picts down the street.
Punchy
Thanks everyone for the stuffing suggys! Seems that celery, broth, and sage are popular add-backs. Gunna get on that…
Linnaeus
Oyster stuffing is pretty awesome, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: Honestly, my ancestors probably killed those Picts with an axe. But, to be fair, they wouldn’t give up their treasures.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Having lived for a few years deep, deep in Pennsylvania Dutch country and thus subjected to many a shoo fly pie, pecan pie seems positively astringent in comparison.
:)
Enjoy eating most nuts, but have never been a big fan of pecans.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think mine were busy fighting each other. No treasure, but lots of flat, open land.
No pecans, either.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Actually, I was,raised that way. And as soon as all those people died. I said FUCK YEAH and started making good food.
Ohhhhh I use so much garlic and hot sauce.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: None us of us got pecans then?
slag
@Betty Cracker: Excellent! Thanks!
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
That’s why they crossed the big pond – to get to a Stuckey’s..
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Every time I visit my parents, they try to offer interesting food. Except for the three holidays I mentioned above.
Suzanne
Having had stuffing/dressing with both white bread and cornbread, I will swear that cornbread blows white bread out of the water.
However, this year, we are all sick of turkey, so we are doing prime rib and Gruyere mac and cheese and Gorgonzola mashed potatoes. I have done the roasted turkey, the brined turkey, the spatchcocked turkey. They are all good (though the spatchcocked birds are the best)….but they are all still turkey, and therefore my least favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Of course, that was what I said.
/not
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Journey to the New World: The Quest for Pecans.
slag
@Adam L Silverman: Search “key lime pie” on this blog and these are your results: https://balloon-juice.com/?s=key+lime+pie. You have only yourself to blame on this one.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: The traditional Protestant food is all gross. My grandmother used to make ham with this fuckin’ glaze on it every Christmas. Tasted like cough syrup. SUCKED. As soon as she died—BOOM I am done with eating that forever.
She had one great recipe, for this cream cheese dip that she served with wavy potato chips. Every holiday got this dip. I have improved it significantly with garlic, lemon zest, and dill. My friends have renamed it “crack dip”, though we call it “once-a-year dip”, as it is too decadent to have more often than that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: Pecans have never been a part of my tradition. Beaver is really our thing.
Adam L Silverman
@slag: Slag, I just went back and checked. Apparently I did not ever post my key lime pie recipe. Apparently memory is the second thing to go… Here it is:
Key Lime Pie
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick butter) melted
2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
1 cup key lime or regular lime juice
2 whole eggs
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.
Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pie shell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: You are wrong!
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: I rescind my challenge. Apparently I had not posted that recipe here. No need to gird for battle tomorrow.
NotMax
@Suzanne
No longer as prevalent as used to be, but any place worth its salt here for local plate lunches would include on the menu a take-out container with two scoops sticky rice, one scoop potato-mac salad and a heaping helping of turkey tails.
Yes, just the tails.
JCJ
@NotMax:
Are there still Stuckey’s around anywhere and if so do they still sell those praline rolls or whatever they were?
Adam L Silverman
@slag: I did that, realized I hadn’t posted it, and that’s why I put it in a comment for you.
Adam L Silverman
@JCJ: yep, here in Florida.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not part of my tradition, either. It was more like show up and go farm or work in the burgeoning urban factories.
Suzanne
@NotMax: Weird.
NotMax
@JCJ
Quick check says yes, and can even be ordered online.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Have seen teriyaki turkey necks for take-out, too.
Walked into a local Filipino place here once, and there was a deep steam table tray chock full of something I could not readily identify.
The hand-printed sign taped to the display glass read…
(not making this up)
…Fried Cow Lips.
Mike J
@NotMax: I like having a cleaned and dressed turkey.
Suzanne
@NotMax: Did you eat them?
NotMax
@Suzanne
Emphatic negatory on that.
reality-based
@Punchy:
Things I have successfully added to stuffing (not all of them at once, of course! )
Crumbled Bacon
Dried Apples
Pecans
Dried Cranberries
Golden Raisins
Chopped Sauteed Shitake Mushrooms
Chopped Sauteed Kale (weird, I know – but it worked.. I put the golden raisins in this one, too. )
With cornbread stuffing – diced roasted red bell peppers
Unfortunately, my favorite add-in – chopped roasted vacuum-packed chestnuts, imported packed in glass jars – is apparently unavailable here in the wilds of North Dakota (where I have returned after years in Silicon Valley). so no chestnuts for me.
Think I’ll do cornbread/bacon/onion/celery/dried apple – lots of sage and thyme from the garden, LOTS of salt – but i’ll miss my chestnuts!
Old Dan and Little Anne
@Omnes Omnibus: Truth.
ThresherK (GPad)
Well, I awoke in a sweat, and am listening to Hats by The Blue Nile. I am officially ill.
And I’m becoming cross with the suggestions of autocorrect.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@reality-based:
Jarred, vacuum-packed chestnuts to your door! (Possibly too expensive.)
Origuy
I don’t go home for Thanksgiving, but I do for Christmas. For years, my little sister has made that awful green bean casserole with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. I think she was the only one who ate much of it. Last year, as I recall, she gave up.
My family is scattered for Thanksgiving. I’m in California, little sister is with Dad in Indiana, and my other sister and her family are in Philadelphia for the parade. My niece will be playing sax with the Brownsburg, Indiana HS band.
opiejeanne
@Origuy: It’s late, I took a hydrocodone for my right shoulder (wrenched it good in a fall a month ago), so I think I can be forgiven for reading that your niece will be playing sex with the Brownsburg, Indiana HS band.
Origuy
@opiejeanne: You startled me and made me double-check that I spelled that right. I hope your shoulder gets better soon. I wrenched mine climbing out of a steep ravine earlier this year. I’d slid in and managed not to hurt myself on the way down, but I had to haul myself up pulling on bushes.
One of the Philly TV stations will be streaming the parade. It starts at 5:30 PST, but I’m going to try to wake up for it after my Scottish dance party Wednesday night.
HeartlandLiberal
Adam Silverman understands how to make a pecan pie on steroids.
My wife makes a similar Southern pecan pie (think Alabama origins), with chocolate, that is among the greatest pies any human will ever be privileged to taste. I am printing out his recipe to give her as a hint of what we could do to really derail the diets we are on right now for a few days.
Seriously, if you have never tasted pecan pie, you really have not fulfilled your life.
Betty Cracker
@Adam L Silverman: Whew! Looks like your recipe is very similar to the Epicurious one I linked, though less eggy. I like to try different ones, as long as they don’t contain Cool Whip. Any key lime recipe with Cool Whip goes straight into the round file.
debbie
I used to make Maida Heatter’s Chocolate Pecan Pie. The sweetness was cut by unsweetened chocolate and a bit of rum. I also toasted the pecans a bit. It is a killer recipe.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-12-21/features/8902160142_1_pecan-halves-cups-pecan-chocolate-pecan-pie
Betty Cracker
@JCJ: Pecan logs.
ET
I make a Creole pecan pie that has Steins pure cane syrup. Delicious!
Fogeyman
I make a pie that is almost identical, except that I add 1/4 cup of bourbon.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
A good alternative is to use the standard pecan recipe with a couple of wise substitutions and additions:
First, replace the corn syrup with maple syrup, richer in flavor, not as sweet. Corn syrup is the HP Lovecraft of dessert making! Just don’t do it! Never go down into the dark basement alone without both a weapon AND a torch!
Second, replace the pecans with either english walnuts, which are not as sweet as pecans, or (Mrs J’s fav) black walnuts, which are even a little bitter, although still rich in complex flavors.
Third, serve these puppies with a small scoop of good vanilla ice cream, which cuts the richness of the pie filling just enough, while complementing the flavor! I know it’s hard to believe that adding ice cream can make something less rich, but it is so.
I have won several pie contest party awards with my maple/pecan/walnut pies. I would make one for this holiday meal if I hadn’t been asked to make my giant pineapple upside down skillet cake. It’s a from scratch cake with lots of egg beating and flour blending, but the reward is so good.
I love cooking, and eating and drinking. And we have a bagpiper coming down for the party, it’s gonna be awesome.
Spike
@Fogeyman: This matches my sister’s version of this delicacy, except she marinates the pecans in the bourbon first. I couldn’t tell you if that makes any difference.