OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 23CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE
Serves 8
Chilling the pie dough for 2 hours
is important; even if you plan to
freeze the dough for later use, do not
skip this step. Toast the pecans on a
rimmed baking sheet in a 300-degree
oven for 7 to 10 minutes, stirring oc-
casionally. You can substitute other pie
weights for the sugar, if desired. This
pie needs to cool for at least 4 hours to
set the fi lling.
CRUST
1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose fl our
1 tablespoon granulated sugar,
plus sugar to use as pie weight
½ teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter,
cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
6 tablespoons ice water
FILLING
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate,
chopped fi ne
¾ cup light corn syrup
¾ cup packed (5¼ ounces) brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon table salt
2 cups pecans, toasted and
chopped coarse
WHIPPED CREAM
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1–2 tablespoons bourbon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch table salt
- FOR THE CRUST: Process fl our,
sugar, and salt in food processor until
combined, about 3 seconds. Scatter
butter over top and pulse until irregular
large chunks of butter form with some
small pieces throughout, about 5 pulses.
Add ice water and process until little
balls of butter form and almost no dry
fl our remains, about 10 seconds, scrap-
ing down sides of bowl after 5 seconds. - Turn out dough onto clean counter
and gather into ball. Sprinkle dough
and counter generously with fl our and
shape dough into 6-inch disk, pressing
any cracked edges back together. Roll
dough into 13-inch circle, refl ouring
counter and dough as needed. - Loosely roll dough around rolling
pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch pie
plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang
around edge. Ease dough into plate by
gently lifting edge of dough with your
hand while pressing into plate bottom
with your other hand. Trim overhang
to ½ inch beyond lip of plate. - Tuck overhang under itself; folded
edge should be fl ush with edge of
plate. Crimp dough evenly around
edge of plate using your knuckles. Push
protruding crimped edge so it slightly
overhangs edge of plate. Pierce bottom
and sides of dough all over with fork,
about 40 times. Wrap dough-lined
plate loosely in plastic wrap and refrig-
erate until dough is very fi rm, at least
2 hours or up to 2 days. (After being
refrigerated for 2 hours, dough-lined
plate can be wrapped tightly in plastic
and frozen for up to 1 month. Let
dough thaw at room temperature for
25 minutes before using.)- Adjust oven rack to lowest position
and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line
chilled pie shell with aluminum foil
and, while pressing into plate bottom
with 1 hand to keep foil fl ush with
bottom of plate, work foil around
crimped edge with your other hand.
Fill foil to lip of plate with sugar.
Transfer plate to wire rack set in
rimmed baking sheet. Bake until edges
are dry and pale, about 45 minutes.
Remove foil and sugar, rotate sheet,
and continue to bake until center of
crust is light golden brown, 20 to
25 minutes longer. Remove sheet
from oven, keeping pie shell on wire
rack in sheet. Lower oven temperature
to 325 degrees. (Pie shell needn’t cool
completely before proceeding.) - FOR THE FILLING: Melt butter
and chocolate in bowl at 50 percent
power, stirring halfway through micro-
waving, until melted, about 2 minutes.
Add corn syrup, sugar, eggs, vanilla,
and salt to chocolate mixture and whisk
until combined. Stir in pecans. - Place pie shell on rimmed bak-
ing sheet. Pour fi lling into shell and
distribute evenly with rubber spatula.
Bake until pecan layer that forms on top
begins to crack and fi lling in center of
pie registers 185 to 190 degrees (fi lling
will jiggle slightly when pie is shaken),
1 hour to 1 hour 5 minutes, rotating
sheet halfway through baking. Let
pie cool on wire rack until set, at least
4 hours. - FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
Using stand mixer fi tted with whisk
attachment, whip cream, sugar,
1 tablespoon bourbon, vanilla, and salt
on medium-low speed until foamy,
about 1 minute. Increase speed to high
and whip until soft peaks form, 1 to
3 minutes. Add remaining 1 tablespoon
bourbon to taste. (Whipped cream can
be refrigerated in airtight container for
up to 24 hours.) - Serve pie with whipped cream.
At end of step 7, pie can be wrapped
tightly in plastic wrap, then in alumi-
num foil, and frozen for up to 1 week.
To serve, unwrap pie completely and
let thaw at room temperature for
5 hours. Make whipped cream while
pie thaws.RECOMMENDED CRITERIAMrs. Anderson’s Baking
Ceramic Pie Weights
Model: 108
Price: $5.99 ($23.96 for set of four,
our recommended amount)
Material: Ceramic stonewareEase of Use
Performance++ 1⁄ 2
+++Matfer Bourgeat
Baking Beans
Model: 340001
Price: $56.02
Material: AluminumEase of Use
Performance++ 1⁄ 2
++NOT RECOMMENDEDChicago Metallic
Pie Weight
Model: CMB164
Price: $13.38
Materials: Silicone and steelEase of Use
Performance+++
+Mrs. Anderson’s Baking
Pie Weight Chain
Model: 43611
Price: $9.24
Material: Stainless steelEase of Use
Performance+++
+Comments: This perforated
metal disk with silicone fl aps per-
formed inconsistently and didn’t
work with softer doughs.Comments: Positioning this chain
in unbaked dough was easy. But
once baked, our crusts were
slumped, uneven, and unusable.For a Perfectly Baked Pie Crust,
Use the Best Pie Weights.
by Carolyn GrilloMANY OF OUR pie recipes call for blind baking—baking the crust either
partially or completely before adding the fi lling. But without a fi lling to hold
the raw dough in place, the bottom can puff up or the sides can slump during
baking, resulting in misshapen pie shells with less room for
fi lling. To prevent this, the test kitchen uses pie weights
to hold the crust in place as it bakes. While bakers can use
dried beans, raw rice, and granulated sugar as pie weights,
we wanted to fi nd the best product designed specifi cally for the job. We tested
four models of pie weights: a set of ceramic balls, a set of aluminum beans, a
6-foot-long stainless-steel chain, and a steel disk ringed with soft silicone fl aps.
We had high hopes for the chain and the disk, which promised easier use and
storage than traditional loose pie weights. It was a breeze to position them in
the dough-lined pie plate and extract them once the dough was baked, but the
dough puff ed up between gaps in the chain no matter how we arranged it, and
neither model suffi ciently supported the sides of the
dough, which allowed them to slump and shrink.
Although it was a little more time-consuming to
layer aluminum foil over the chilled dough before
pouring in the ceramic and aluminum weights and
baking, these weights produced crusts that were
evenly cooked with tall sides. However, neither
model came with enough pieces in a single package
to completely fi ll our pie shells, which is critical to
preventing a slumped crust. Since we would need
to buy multiple packages of pie weights, we zeroed
in on the less expensive option, Mrs. Anderson’s
Baking Ceramic Pie Weights. At about $24 for
four packages (a total of 4 cups of pie weights), it
was a winner.EQUIPMENT
REVIEWKEY Good +++ Fair ++ Poor +Web subscribers can read the full testing
and see the complete results chart at
CooksCountry.com/nov19.A Weighty Matter
Our Chocolate Pecan Pie
recipe calls for using granu-
lated sugar to keep the
dough in place as it bakes.
In a pinch, you can even
use raw rice or dried beans.
But if you bake a lot of pies,
dedicated pie weights are
handy to have around, since
they are arguably easier to
maneuver and store than
sugar. Plus, unlike make-
shift pie weights such as
sugar, rice, and beans, they
are infi nitely reusable.TO MAKE AHEADComments: Four cups of these
ceramic balls gave us crisp, fl aky,
and golden-brown crusts with
sides that stood tall.Comments: It takes two sets
of these beans (so more than
$100) to fi ll a pie shell—that’s an
expensive pie. But they work well.