chocolate glazed pecan pie

chocolate glazed pecan pie

• 2 Jul 2012

Many moons ago I spent a year living and working in Edmonton, Canada. I worked at the Edmonton General Hospital and on my walk home, I used to pass a restaurant called Vi's. Occasionally a group from work used to meet there for cake and coffee and it was at Vi's I first laid eyes on a chocolate glazed pecan pie and a strawberry rhubarb pie.



Fruit pies are more my thing so I ordered the strawberry rhubarb pie. A few years later I was in Vancouver and was roaming through a bookstore when I saw a Canadian cookbook called 'Nuts about Chocolate'. I flicked through the pages and there inside was the chocolate glazed pecan pie of my memory. Now this was way before the internet or digital camera age so I scribbled the recipe into the back of my diary eventually transposing it into my Canadian note book.



This pie was inspired by the original recipe (it's the pecan fudge pie recipe without the chocolate in the filling) but I've adapted the recipe so often over the years it's now quite different from the original. I had some leftover chocolate pastry from the Popina's Book of Baking chocolate pear and hazelnut tart I made a few weeks back so I used it to make the crust. The filling is from a pecan pie recipe I've had for years and the glaze I've been making for so long now, I can't remember it's original source.



The chocolate glaze was a bit of a disaster. I have a cold at the moment and a fuzzy head, so I kept overheating the chocolate mixture causing it to seize. By the time I made it to the third version of the glaze I only had 100 grams of dark chocolate left and had completely run out of patience, so the glaze isn't quite as luxuriant as it should be.



I took the leftover pecan pie into work today. I can't taste a thing at the moment so my piece of pie remains untouched in the fridge, but my workmates assured me that the pecan pie tasted okay. Here's the recipe for you.

Chocolate Glazed Pecan Pie
printable recipe
Chocolate Shortcrust Pastry
225 grams plain flour
25 grams cocoa powder
125 grams unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
85 grams caster sugar
1 egg

Place the flour, cocoa, butter and sugar in a mixer and blitz until you get crumbs. Add the egg and mix again. Take the dough out of the mixer and bring together into a ball.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface then roll with a rolling pin until 3-4mm thick. Line the tart tin with the chocolate shortcrust pastry and trim the excess dough neatly around the edges. Refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling
3 eggs
½ cup sugar (I used a combination of light muscovado sugar and caster sugar)
2 tablespoons cornflour (optional)
3 tablespoons melted butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup light corn syrup
1½ cups toasted pecans, roughly chopped (reserve a few for decoration)

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F).Remove the pie shell from the fridge and place the pecans over the base. Lightly beat the eggs with the sugar until combined. Add the melted butter, vanilla, the corn syrup and cornflour (if using) and mix until the mixture is well combined.(I used a stick blender for this).

Pour the filling over the pecans. The pecans will rise to the top. Place the pie tin on a baking tray and place in the preheated oven. Bake the pie for 45-55 minutes or until the top is well browned and the filling is set.

Remove the pie from the oven and cool on a wire rack. When cool place the pie in the fridge while preparing the glaze.

Glaze
155 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped
3 teaspoons butter
2½ tablespoons boiling water
2 teaspoons rum

Place all the ingredients in a small bowl over barely simmering water. Mix well until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the basin from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to spreading consistency before using to glaze the top of the pie. Decorate with the reserved pecans.
Store the pie in the fridge until ready to serve.

I hope you had lovely weekends. I'll see you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian