Checkmate Pie
Okay, I’m making up names again…but isn’t that one of the joys of being a food blogger and tinkering with all those recipes? I mean, given the number of sheer food failures and food explosions in my kitchen (I’m still cleaning some kind of weird substance off my ceiling), I think creating and naming a dish is just desserts reward. (Yes, that pun – albeit a bad one was intended.)
There’s been a lot of talking about Momofuku’s Crack Pie lately. For some reason, I just can’t get excited about a pie that costs $44…but it does sound pretty tasty. I was also watching Food Network the other night and saw a pie called the Baltimore Bomb Pie. It seems to be pretty similar to the Crack Pie but has a sneaky addition of some local cookies mixed into the batter, instead of having a cookie crust. Oh, and the Baltimore Bomb is $28 for the whole pie. I can see paying like $12 – $15 for a pie, but neither of these pies even has fruit in it!
Since both of these pies seem to be a raving hit with people I took it upon myself to try to make a better version of these pies. Or at least a reasonable facsimile of these pies that you can make at home without spending all day on the project or breaking the bank while doing it. I used my mom’s pie crust recipe and tweaked the traditional Chess Pie recipe found in The Joy of Cooking. Both pies are a spin on the traditional Chess Pie (hence my new name of Checkmate Pie) And since it’s National Pi Day tomorrow (March 14th) what better time to do it? By the way…National Pi Day is honor of Pi, you know that seemingly never ending number that starts with 3.14 and you haven’t used since High School geometry. Well now you can tell your kids (without lying) that you really do use that “stupid stuff” you learned in school later on in life. So it’s not exactly used in its intended purpose…but you ARE using it aren’t you?
* While I was dishing out a couple of pieces of the pie to take my pictures, Craig snuck into the kitchen. When I turned around the plate with 2 pieces of the pie had disappeared. Since the dog was staring at me, I knew it could have only gone to one place. I warned him that eating 2 pieces would cause a belly ache…but he ignored my warning. For the record, one piece is good…2 or more pieces in one sitting may cause a belly ache or a major sugar high.
Relationship Advice
One way to keep from making excuses in your relationship is to stop being in defense mode. If you are in a relationship with someone you love (or at this stage like a lot) there really is no reason to be on the defense. If you don’t feel like you can trust the intentions behind their words, you should not be in a relationship with that person. If you are both on the same page with one another you should not be expecting them to hurt you with what comes out of their mouth. Being on the defense causes you to speak out of fear. When a person is in fear, their natural response is attack. Not necessarily a physical attack, but verbal attack. So if you find yourself making excuses about the tone of your responses, take some time to think about why you feel scared and talk to your significant other about it.
Serves 6 – 8
Ingredients
for Pie Crust
- 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 3 Tablespoons Lard (see recipe in link)
- 1 Cup All Purpose Flour (additional needed for dusting)
- 1/2 Tablespoon Salt (not Kosher salt)
- 1/4 Cup Ice Water
- Dried Beans or Ceramic Beads for (blind baking crust)
- Parchment Paper (for blind baking crust)
for Pie Filling
- 1 Large Egg
- 4 Large Egg Yolks
- 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 2/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt (not Kosher salt)
- 2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar
- 2/3 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (cut into small pieces)
- 1 Package Classic Dark Chocolate Tim Tam Biscuits – Chopped (11 cookies…these are now available in the US through Pepperidge Farms)
Directions
for Pie Crust
The secret to getting a great pie crust is keeping your ingredients cold.
After separating out the butter and lard needed for the crust, put both in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
Combine flour and salt into a medium size bowl.
Cut butter and lard into 1/2″ pieces and add butter and lard to flour mixture, blending with a pastry blender. (This is a tool that you use by hand.) Mix just until crumbly in texture. All crumbs do not need to be the same size. In fact, different size crumbs is preferred.
Add in 2 tablespoons of water to the mixture. Using the pastry blender combine the water with the crumbly mixture. Continue by adding next tablespoon of ice water. Keep blending. Add in final tablespoon of water and blend. Remember that you want to keep different sizes of the fat intact.
Once you are able to squeeze some of the dough into a ball, you are done blending. If 1/4 cup of water (4 tablespoons) is not enough to achieve this, continue adding ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until you are able to form a ball by squeezing some of the dough together.
(You can use a food processor for blending the dough. Just remember to follow these individual steps and only pulse the processor a few times with each addition.)
Form dough into a ball. Then flatten dough into a disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for at least one hour. (This only makes enough dough for one crust.)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.
Remove dough from refrigerator.
Lightly flour rolling surface and both sides of the dough.
Roll out dough to a 10″ – 11″ circle.
Fold dough in half and carefully fit into a 9″ pie pan.
Gently push dough into pie pan form. The edges can be cut flush with the pan or crimped by hand. Use any excess dough to fill in thin spots on dough surface.
Using a fork, gently poke holes in the bottom of the pie crust.
Cover dough with parchment paper. Add beans or pie weights to parchment paper. Make sure that beans/weights are pushed into the edges of the pie dough.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove parchment paper and beans/weights. Continue baking for another 10 – 15 minutes longer.
Remove from oven and let cool completely.
for Pie Filling
Preheat oven to 275 degrees Farenheit. (yes, 275 degrees Farenheit)
Whisk, in a heatproof bowl, the first six ingredients until no yellow streaks remain.
Whisk in heavy cream.
Scatter in the pieces of butter.
Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium size saucepan.
Place heatproof bowl, containing the filling ingredients, over the simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Gently whisk until filling is warm to the touch. (butter will probably not be completely melted)
Add in chopped Tim Tams and whisk gently to combine.
Pour filling into pie crust.
Bake for 6o minutes.
When it is time to remove the pie, you will see that it still jiggles a bit in the center…that’s okay, it should do that.
Let cool. Slice. Serve.
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wow. this looks amazing!