Chocolate Shoo-Fly Pie for Pi Day 3.14.15

This Saturday is Pi Day! 3/14! And this year it's even more digits: 3/14/15. While there will be throngs of people waiting in line for Pie Shakes at Chili Pies in SF, I thought I'd make something here at home. And it has to be Pie, not a tart or galette!

Shoo-Fly Pie is a Pennsylvania German dish and a must-have at our Thanksgiving dinners when I was growing up. My mom's family is from Lancaster and Lebanon Counties in Pennsylvania, and we grew up eating many of the local dishes. Lebanon bologna, scrapple...yum. But I digress...

This pie is a mix of the classic pie and Marcel Desaulniers' Chocolate Shoo-fly Bites from Celebrate with Chocolate. With or without the chocolate, it's a "sliver pie" - just a sliver will be very satisfying. And maybe another sliver before bed. And maybe another for breakfast...we knew the classic version was a hit with my college roommate's Basque mother when she asked for some more the morning after Thanksgiving. 

1. The Crust: you can use a pre-made crust if you like, but don't get the folded kind. It'll crack and the filling might leak through and burn. I learned lots of cuss words when I was young and my mom tried this. A chocolate cookie crust won't work either. Get a nice all-butter one in a foil pan. 

To make a chocolate crust, you'll need: 

1 c plus 2 Tbsp All-Purpose flour
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
2-4 Tbsp cold water

Put the dry ingredients in a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. 

You can mix in a bowl with a whisk if you don't have a food processor. 

Cut the butter into tiny cubes and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse a few times and then hit "on" to blend until it looks like cocoa-y sand like the picture below. 

Use a pastry blender or your fingers if you don't have a food processor. 

Then, add the first two Tbsp of cold water and pulse a few times. Add the third Tablespoon of water, blend a little more, and stop there if the dough comes together into a ball. If it hasn't come together yet, add the last Tbsp a little at a time until it comes together. 

Pat the dough into a round disc, wrap with a towel or some plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes (or overnight). 

My dough was a little wet, so I gently kneaded a little flour into it when I did this step, but it could have turned out tough and overworked. I got lucky. It's probably safer to roll in a little more flour when you roll it out if that happens, but sometimes I throw caution to the wind. Like I tell my ESL students, you learn by making mistakes. 

Bust out the rolling pin, sprinkle a surface with flour, and roll out the dough. Start from the middle of the disc and lift and turn the dough after each couple of rolls. Roll it out to about a 12-14 inch circle. Roll the dough around the pin and unroll it into the pan. Trim the excess, leaving about a 1 inch overhang.

Pinch the excess under to strengthen the edges of the dough and make it an even thickness. You can crimp it in a variety of ways, but the easiest is to use a fork (see the empanada pastry post). I'll post some how-tos for various crimps soon :-) Refrigerate the dough for 30-45 minutes.

2. Make the streusel topping. Put: 

1 c all purpose flour
3/4 cup (tightly packed in the measuring cup) light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut in itty bitty cubes


into the bowl of a stand mixer. Blend one minute on the lowest setting and one minute on the next lowest. It's OK if there are still some visible pieces in the otherwise sandy mix. A hand mixer, a pastry blender or some clean fingers are also fine for this. Set aside.


Pre-heat the oven to 350. 

3. Make the filling. 

Melt 5 oz semisweet chocolate: I used chocolate chips and the microwave method, but you can use any semi-sweet chocolate and the double-boiler method. Both melting methods are well outlined here at Fine Cooking. 

 almost...

When the chocolate gets really smooth, set it aside for a minute (not in the fridge). I got sleepy and dropped the ball on photos for this section, sorry! I'll find an excuse to make another pie soon :-)

• Pour 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses into a 1/2 cup measure.
• Add enough corn syrup (Karo) to fill the 1/2 cup measure (a couple of Tbsps). 
• Crack 2 eggs.
• Add the molasses, syrup and eggs to a bowl and mix well until a little frothy.
• Stir in the melted chocolate and 1/3 cup warm milk or hot water mixed with 1 tsp baking soda. I didn't quite mix it well enough this time, but that meant alternating bites of molasses-y goodness and chocolatey yum. 

Filling the pie:

Take the pie shell from the fridge. 

Now, I come from a wet-bottom shoo-fly family, which means that we put the molasses filling on the bottom and the streusel on top. Dry-bottom people put the streusel on the bottom and the molasses on top, which makes for a cakier pie. However, we recently learned that if we sprinkle some of the streusel on the bottom, it helps prevent the crust from leaking as it bakes, and no blind-baking is necessary. 

So, sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the streusel over the pie crust. 

Next, pour in the molasses-chocolate mixture. 

Finally, top with the rest of the streusel. You'll have to sprinkle it around to get it even rather than dumping it all on at once. 

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until it doesn't jiggle when you take it out. The toothpick test does NOT apply here! Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. 

Billionaire's Shortbread

Billionaire's Shortbread - a fancy name for delicious layers of buttery shortbread, caramel, and chocolate. 'Twould be just Millionaire's Shortbread, but making the chocolate layer a ganache and the addition of fleur de sel (flaky salt), and other toppings takes it up to the next level.

There are three stages to making this, since each layer needs to cool. You could do one layer a night if you want to do this during the week, or just do the whole thing between spurts of housework or binge-watching. I recommend leaving a few hours between caramel and ganache to allow the caramel to really set up, but the 45 minutes suggested below will do as well.

Part 1: Shortbread

• 2 sticks COLD unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces each
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 c fine cornmeal (not polenta)
• 3/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a 9" x 13" pan with buttered parchment paper (butter side up).

You can just grease the pan itself, but if you line it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and butter that, it'll be much easier to cut the final product into pretty bars when all the layers are done. 

Put the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until they form a dough. This itty bitty food processor (because I have an itty bitty kitchen) couldn't handle all the ingredients, but a regular size one will. If you don't have a food processor, you can use a pastry cutter to work the butter into the other ingredients and then finish it off with a wooden spoon. If you do it the hard way, imagine yourself in the Downton Abbey kitchen with Daisy and Mrs. Patmore. Can you believe I forgot to watch last night? Thank goodness for the DVR. 

I dumped the whole thing into my stand mixer with the paddle and watched it carefully to make sure I didn't over-mix it. The dough will look like this when it has come together - stop mixing as soon as it all comes into a big clump. 

Pat the dough into the pan with your fingers. Get it as even as you can. 

Trim the paper so it still hangs over the edges but doesn't quite stick out this much. 

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until nice and golden. This is a touch pale in the middle, but it will keep cooking for a few minutes when you take it out of the oven. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, at least an hour. Letting it cool will give it the crisp, crumbly texture you want in a shortbread. 

Part 2: The Caramel

The caramel is the trickiest part. It requires some focus and patience. Brew yourself a nice cup of tea to sip while you make it. Or pour a little nip. 

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 tsp regular table salt or 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c corn syrup
• 1/4 c water

    

Melt the butter and salt into the cream in a small pan over low-medium heat. Make sure not to boil this...if it starts to simmer, turn it down a smidge. 

Put the sugar, corn syrup and water into a medium pan. Note: the corn syrup is Karo syrup, less nasty than the high-fructose variety in junk foods. You can replace it with more sugar, but it's your Caramel Insurance Policy. I had to throw out two batches and start over when I tried to do this with just sugar because it crystallized on me! It helps ensure that your caramel will work and you won't be throwing out tons of perfectly good sugar. 

When it starts to look like the above right photo, swirl a little from time to time but do not stir. Keep a close eye on it as it gradually changes color. Sip your tea and hang in there for 5-15 minutes. 

When it gets to the lovely brown color below and -just- barely starts to smell like burnt sugar, turn off the heat and CAREFULLY stir in the cream mixture. 

Turn the heat back on to medium, medium high and cook a few minutes more, stirring often. If you have a candy thermometer, stick it in now - you're aiming for 230 degrees. If you don't, watch for the color change below. When it's 230 degrees or this beautiful brown color on the right, pour it over the shortbread. Chill for 45 minutes. 

Part 3: Ganache!

• 12 oz 70% dark chocolate
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbsps coffee liqueur or strong brewed coffee (optional)
• Toppings: a little flaky sea salt (fleur de sel) and pretzel pieces (or mini marshmallows, or whatever makes you happy with chocolate. Crisp bacon bits?)

Chop the chocolate finely with a serrated knife. Nobody told me to use this kind of knife for the first few years I was making ganache - it really really helps! If you don't have one, a regular knife will do. Bring the heavy cream and coffee to a simmer that's ALMOST a boil, but don't scald it. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir stir stir with a wooden spoon or a whisk. Now you have ganache! Pour it over the caramel layer. 

     

Put the ganache in the fridge for a few minutes before sprinkling the sea salt on top (otherwise it will dissolve in the warm chocolate). Remove while still not set up and sprinkle the sea salt and any other toppings you like over the ganache. Return it to the fridge for another 30 min - 1 hour. When the ganache is set, gently pull the whole thing out of the pan by the parchment paper or foil. Place it on a cutting board and slice pretty squares. The uneven bits on the edges can be chef's snacks :-). Keep in the fridge and bring to room temp before serving if you can bear to wait that long. I'm going to pack most of this up to take to the office tomorrow, and then I'm off to the Y for some calorie-burning cardio! 

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from the stickiest page of one of my oldest and dearest cookbooks, The Frog Commissary Cookbook by Steven Poses, I've been making these for over twenty years. The recipe is very easy to halve if you want to make a smaller batch, or you can freeze the dough and bake a little at a time over a few weeks. (Directions for freezing, more pics and a printable recipe card below).

Ingredients
It's best to get them together before you start, rather than assuming you have everything and ending up running out to the 24 hour market halfway through mixing,  or guesstimating how much molasses to add to white sugar to make brown. Or so I've heard.

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened. (As I mentioned with the madeleines, it's ok if you forgot. Just cream longer).
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour (you can substitute a second cup of AP or regular whole wheat if you don't have this).

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant or steel-cut)
12 oz mini chocolate chips (this is usually the amount in one bag, but they've been making smaller bags lately). I like mini chips for even chocolate distribution in every bite. 

Preheat oven to 350.

1. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars on medium high speed for about two minutes. Some say it's not creamed until you can't feel the sugar crystals anymore, but I don't have that kind of patience. It's creamed when the mixture lightens in color a bit, like you can see in the contrast in colors in the third photo.

2. Crack the eggs into a clear container, then add vanilla and put into the butter mixture. Beat on medium high another minute, stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir up the bottom with a rubber or silicone scraper, then beat one minute more. 

 3. In a medium bowl combine the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisking them together helps make sure there aren't any little clumps of baking soda in your cookies. 

4. Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and mix on low just until incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through again. Be careful not to overmix - being a tough cookie is good. Eating a tough cookie, not so much. 

5. Add the oats and chocolate chips to the dough, get out a good old fashioned wooden spoon, and stir them in by hand. Make sure to stir up from the bottom for even distribution. 

6. Using a small scoop or a spoon, drop 12 to 16 1 1/2 Tbsp rounds of dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 11-14 minutes, turning the pans around halfway through fire even browning. If you like them on the soft side like I do, pull them out when the outer edges are -just- turning golden and the centers don't look very wet. If you like them crispier, wait until they're golden brown about halfway from the outside. Let cool air five minutes on the sheets before using a metal spatula to transfer them to cooling racks. When cool, put in one big airtight container or several small ones to share with friends, neighbors, yoga teachers, whoever will enjoy them! 

Repeat step 6 until all the cookies are baked, or roll the remaining dough into logs, wrap the logs in plastic wrap and foil, and place in the freezer for up to three weeks. Slice off a couple of cookies at a time to bake when you want some, or slice and bake the rest all at once to share. Bake directly from frozen - don't defrost the dough, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time. 

Note the cracked outlet plate where I tilt up the stand mixer and it hits the wall...oops!

Right click to print!

Vanilla Madeleines, or How to impress people with minimal effort

I love to bake, and one of my favorite things to make is a batch of Madeleines. They're simple, delicious, and elegant, and they never fail to impress. As with many recipes I re-use, I've played around a bit to incorporate some whole wheat flour.

The only special equipment you need are a pair of Madeleine tins, available at kitchen stores or online for about $9-15 each. They're well worth the investment, as you'll use them over and over again. 

This recipe makes 24, another thing I had to play with a bit. 

Vanilla Whole-Wheat Madeleines

About an hour before you start, take the butter (1 and 1/2 sticks plus extra for the tins) and 3 eggs out of the fridge so they come to room temperature. If you forget to do this, it's not the end of the world. 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put one of the oven racks at the middle height. 

2. Prepare the tins with butter and all-purpose flour. Note: you can use a baking spray that's a mix of oil and flour, but I find that the spray mechanism tends to get clogged by the flour. Instead, take a piece of butter in your fingers and work it into the grooves of the shell shapes. Repeat with more small pieces of butter until each shell is well-coated. 

Put a little flour in each shell and shake the tins around in kind of a circle until the flour is evenly distributed. You can try skipping this step, but you might end up with 24 very stuck little cakes. Better safe than sorry!

Set the pans aside, preferably not on the stove because it should be getting warm by now. 

3. Cream the butter and sugar: Put 1 and 1/2 sticks of softened butter and 3/4 cup granulated sugar into a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium about two minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy, which means until it looks a bit like vanilla frosting. It might take a little longer than two minutes if you didn't soften the butter or if you use raw sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with  rubber or silicone scraper. Add 3/4 tsp baking powder and 1 and 1/4 tsp vanilla and beat one more time. 

4. Add, one at a time, 3 eggs, preferably pastured or from the farmer's market: First, crack one or all three into a glass container of some sort. This will allow you to make sure there are no little bits of shell remaining. Then add one egg at a time, beating for one minute and stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. 

The batter is supposed to look smooth at this point, but mine always looks a little lumpy because my apartment is usually much cooler than the 73 degrees that "room temp" implies. If you put in the butter and eggs straight from the fridge, it'll look even lumpier. Not to worry, it'll turn out fine once you add the flour. 

5. By hand, whisk in 3/4 cup each of all-purpose flour and white whole wheat flour* (total of 1 and 1/2 C flour). You can use all of one kind of flour or the other, but I like the flavor and texture of the blend. Also, if you get in small amounts of whole grains and other healthy things throughout the day, the nutrition adds up. 

6. Put an egg-shaped spoonful of batter in each shell in the tins. The batter should fill up more than half of the space, and will spread out as it bakes so don't worry about patting it down. It should work out to exactly 24, so if it doesn't, you can re-distribute as needed. Not that I've ever had to do that myself with cookie dough or anything...

7. Bake at 350 for a total of 15 minutes. For evenly colored Madeleines, set the timer for 7 minutes and 30 seconds, then turn the pans front to back and bake for another 7 min 30. 

8. Remove from the oven, let rest one minute, then turn Madeleines out of the tins and onto a wire rack to cool. Once they are cool to the touch, enjoy with coffee, tea or a lovely dessert wine. Don't worry if they have uneven edges. That's how people will know you really made them yourself instead of buying them. The Madeleines should keep in an airtight container for a few days, but if you take them to share with your co-workers, they won't last that long!

*White Whole Wheat flour is whole wheat flour made from soft white wheat, rather than the hard red wheat used to make most whole wheat flour. I find it more palatable for some recipes, and it's becoming pretty easy to find.