CHOCOLATE CARAMEL PIE

If the length of this recipe appears intimidating, trust me it’s as easy as pie. The crust is one of the simplest and can be used for any pie you choose to make. The dough for the pie crust can be made ahead and refrigerated in shrink wrap for up to a week.

Serves: 12

Baking tin: 8″ Loose bottom flan tin

Ingredients for the Pie dough:

• Flour – 150 grams
• Sugar – ½ tablespoon
• Cold hard butter cut into tiny cubes – 85 grams
• Vanilla essence – 2 teaspoons
• Egg yolk – 1
• Cold milk – 6 teaspoons
• Salt to taste

Method for the Pie crust:

• Grease and dust the sides of a 8″ flan tin. Use a circle of baking paper on the base of the tin.
• Before you begin, bear in mind that the less you handle this dough, the better it turns out. Do not knead it as you would bread or roti dough.
• To a food processor with a dough hook, add the flour and sugar.
• Next, drop in the cold hard butter cubes and process to a grainy mix. (don’t worry about cold butter bits as long as they are no larger than a pea.)
• Add vanilla essence, egg yolk and milk and mix until just combined.
• Turn the contents on to a sheet of shrink wrap (large enough to wrap the dough and refrigerate) and very gently with both hands gather and press down the mix into a thickish square or disc. Do not knead this dough as you would bread or roti dough.

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• Pull the cling film over, wrap the dough tightly and chill the dough for 1 hour.
• While the dough is chilling make the filling for your pie
• Once you’re done with making the filling, pull the chilled dough out of the refrigerator, take off the cling film and roll the dough into a ¼” thick disk .
• Using the rolling pin load the dough on to the prepared flan tin as shown below.

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• Gently press the dough into the edges of the tin. Clean up by running the rolling pin over the top of the tin. Refrigerate the pastry for about 2 hours. It has to be well chilled before pouring in the chocolate filling.

Ingredients for the Caramel filling:

• Sugar – 1 cup
• Water – ⅓ cup
• Cream – ¾ cup
• Butter – 4 tablespoons
• Salt to taste

Method for the Caramel filling:

• To a heavy-bottomed saucepan, on medium heat, add sugar, water and mix well.
• Leave the sugar to dissolve, occasionally shaking the pan, and wait for it to turn into an amber caramel.
• Take the saucepan off the heat and whisk in the cream taking care of the spluttering from the caramel.
• Return to the stovetop and cook for a minute or two, whisking all along.
• Turn off the heat and stir in the butter. You should have a smooth shiny caramel sauce. Cover and set aside for later.

Ingredients for the Chocolate filling:

• Dark chocolate – 225 grams (50-60% cocoa) chopped tiny and as even as possible
• Soft, room temperature butter – 60 grams
• Eggs – 2
• Fresh cream – ½ cup + 2 tablespoons
• Sugar – ¼ cup
• Instant coffee – 2 teaspoons
• DesmondJi Mahua Liqueur – 2 tablespoons (optional)
• Vanilla – 1 tsp
• Salt – a pinch

Method for chocolate filling and assembling the pie :

• Before you begin melting the chocolate, mix the chocolate bits and butter well so as to coat all the chocolate bits with butter.
• Now melt the butter coated chocolate over a double boiler until smooth and shiny.
• In a separate bowl large enough for all the chocolate mix, whisk together the eggs, cream, sugar, instant coffee, liqueur, vanilla, and salt until well combined.
• Add the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mix whisking all along.
• Pour the chocolate mixture into the chilled pie shell until an inch and half below the edge of the pie crust, level the top with a spatula and bake at 130°C for no more than 25 minutes.
• After 25 minutes, cool the pie to room temperature and refrigerate for about an hour until the top feels cool. Next, pour the caramel sauce over the chocolate filling, using a spatula to spread it in an even layer.
• To serve, cut into wedges and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes:

• For the pie shell, you can mix the dough by hand. Gently rub the butter into the flour and sugar until you have a grainy mixture.
• Dust the rolling pin and countertop with a little cornflour to prevent the dough from sticking.
• Any leftover dough can be wrapped in shrinkwrap and refrigerated for up to a week.
• Chopping the chocolate tiny and even, helps in melting it quicker.
• Alternatives to a caramel topping include whipped cream, chocolate shavings, dust the chocolate filling with cocoa powder or icing sugar.