Chocolate Truffle Pie

Yeah you heard me right. Chocolate truffle pie. I have been promising the good people following me on Twitter that I would put this recipe up. I got sick and had to take a few days off. This is not my recipe, but I think I did it some justice. I served this pie at Christmas.

This recipe comes from the blog How To Cook Like Your Grandmother.

*Note that this is their recipe with my own images mixed in.

Ingredients

12 ounces bitter sweet or semi sweet chocolate
1-1/2 sticks butter
6 large egg whites
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
pinch cream of tartar
pre-baked pie crust

Directions

Make a double boiler by bringing a half pan of water to a boil, turning the heat to low, and setting a large stainless bowl over it.

Even if you already have a double boiler, do it this way. You'll be able to mix everything in this one bowl and save on clean-up.

Put the butter in the bowl, and once it's melted add the chocolate, cocoa, sugar and salt.

 

Ingredient notes: I used half bittersweet and half semi-sweet chips, both Ghirardelli. You can find them in the baking section at some grocery stores. They're the best domestic chocolate I've tried. (And I'm not saying that just because I'm a chocolate snob. Try them for yourself.)

And for the sugar, I decided to use raw instead of white. Just because I saw it in the cupboard and decided to give it a shot. More on this below.

(Candice: I used regular white sugar and the pie turned out fine.)

While the chocolate melts, separate the eggs (see here for tips). If you're thinking ahead, you'll set aside the two extra yolks to make mayonnaise once you're done with this. If you're distracted, or just don't feel like it, don't feel bad about dumping them. Eggs are cheap. They'll make more.

(Candice: I separated the egg whites at the beginning. You want your egg whites to be at room temperature for beating them or they won't peak.)

Start mixing the chocolate and butter together as soon as you see the chips start to melt.

If you've never melted chocolate before, you might want to separate the eggs first so you aren't distracted. When the chocolate is completely melted, and the sugar and cocoa are incorporated, remove it from the heat and mix the yolks in one at a time.

Set the chocolate mixture aside and let it cool to room temperature. While it's cooling, add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat until it forms stiff peaks.

For the first minute the egg whites will just foam up a little. Then all at once they'll turn pure white and look like a whole different food.

 

Congratulations, you just made meringue. Add about a third of the meringue to the chocolate and mix it in. Then add the rest and fold it in gently.

Try not to deflate the eggs while folding. Once the meringue is completely incorporated, pour the mixture into a pre-baked pie crust.

Spread the chocolate evenly. If you're fussy about this stuff (like I am), make sure the top looks nice. 

Remember when I mentioned the raw sugar? You can see a little bit of a speckled texture on the surface. Because raw sugar isn't ground as fine as refined white, it didn't completely dissolve in the melted chocolate. Once it's frozen, you'll barely notice the difference. As it thaws you'll notice a slight crispy granularity. Personally, I liked it, but if you're expecting silky-smoothness you'd be better off using powdered sugar. I heard in a comment below that even refined white sugar still left a bit of graininess.

Freeze for at least two hours, four would be better. Cut with a very sharp knife, not a pie spatula. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

(Candice: Don't serve this pie right out of the freezer. Some of you may think that that would make perfect sense, but the recipe doesn't say that. If you serve it right out of the freezer, it's impossible to cut, serve, and eat. This pie does fine once it's set, in the refrigerator.)

Beer Pairing Suggestion: Berkshire Brewing Company's Imperial Stout.

In my honest opinion, one of the best and most underrated stouts, or in this case Imperial Stouts is from Berkshire Brewing Company. This stout is nearly perfect for it's definition of style. Balance is the key to this beer. It's not too bitter or robust, it's not too weak or too thin either. It is one of my favorite beers and as this blog progesses you will notice me talk about it frequently. Especially with chocolate. This the beer that I think will compliment this pie the best.

This is a sweet chocolate pie, but the chocolate is still very robust. Be careful when pairing big stouts with this pie. Beers like Southern Tier's Choklat, Great Divide's Yeti, Rogue's Chocolate Stout are all very bitter and robust Stout's. For me personally I think they may be too big. But that's not to say it would be a wrong pairing. I just find it might be too bitter. But if you really appreciate a strong bitter flavors, these beers could be right on track for you. Sometimes it's okay to pair similar flavors. A really sweet stout and a sweet dessert have this effect of canceling each other out. The sugars at like interference and when they are slapped with another similar element, it allows the other flavors to come out and shine. I don't always rely on that tactic for marrying flavors. I used to be strongly against it.

I recently paired Southern Tier's Creme Brulee (Milk Stout) with a buttery, bourbon pecan pie. Anyone familiar with this beer, knows how big and sweet it is. It's almost hard to drink because it's that sweet, but it does taste exactly like creme brulee. The pecan pie is nothing but sugar, and as per requested, it was made with so much butter, it nearly disintegrated upon serving. Not in a gross way, but in a decadent, there-is-so-much-butter-it's-sinful-to-eat-this kind of way. The sugars knocked each other out and allowed the vanilla burnt sugar tastes to marry in to the bourbon and pecan flavors. It was absolutely tremendous. That is one of the better examples I have of pitting similar flavors against one and other to get the less dominant flavors of a pairing to come out and play.