Rich Chocolate Pecan

Easy as pie! Because it was. The crust turned out much better this time (we're blaming last week's snafu on subpar lard). The first time I rolled it out (on my new silicone mat, which worked like a dream), it stuck a little bit, so I wadded it back up, sprinkled a little more flour on it and it was perfect. No sticking to the mat as I folded it to move it to the pan. I mean none. Look for yourself:



I tried to get tricky with the edge. Tried to do something different than the thumbprint thing my mom has always done, but it didn't work, and I ended up doing a sort of fork-print thing. Probably best to stick to the tried-and-true.

I like the way Alton Brown films inside his oven, so I took a picture while it was cooking:


Oy, my oven needs to be cleaned!

I wish I could have photographed the smell in my kitchen. When the crust is cooking, there's this sort of fatty, vinegar-y smell that brings back so many childhood memories. It's impossible to describe.

The pie turned out really nicely. Sometimes pecan pies seem to only have pecans at the top and between them and the crust is sort of a layer of unappetizing goo. This pie had chocolate, nuts, and delicious sweetness all the way through.


And, oh yes, that's caramel sauce drizzled on top. The recipe for the filling and sauce is from Emeril Live and can be found here.

P.S. Some pies are better when they're cold (namely, pumpkin). This one was good cold (2nd piece--can't waste pie!), but definitely better warm.

Coming next: Prima has requested a chocolate pie. I'm not sure whether I should make a chocolate cream pie with chocolate cookie crust (which seems to be her point--I guess she has feelings about "animal fat crust" as she called it today), or if I should stick with that crust and find an excellent homemade chocolate pudding recipe to fill it. Any suggestions? Recipes you want to share?