{"id":80,"date":"2011-02-07T05:31:19","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=80"},"modified":"2011-02-07T05:31:19","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:31:19","slug":"pie-of-the-month-encrusting-chocolate-with-pine-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=80","title":{"rendered":"Pie of the Month: Encrusting chocolate with pine nuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Way back in late November, when I was writing about my pie-baking apprehension (I guess it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that long ago, but it seems as if years have passed since then), I suggested a challenge to myself aloud (for me, typing is as aloud as speaking — sometimes louder) for 2011: pie-of-the-month, testing a new pie recipe each month throughout the year. Once I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve issued a challenge to myself, I hate to back off. So on New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day, in addition to making my traditional black-eyed pea soup (for luck) and dark green salad (for prosperity), I made a new pie recipe for dessert.<\/p>\n

Before I talk about that pie, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to lay down some guidelines and definitions for what is considered a pie, so that the recipes I try fall within those clarifications. What counts as a pie? Well, a pie should have a crust, I think, to qualify, whether that crust be made from butter and flour or graham cracker crumbs. The crust does not have to be both top and bottom to count as a pie \u00e2\u20ac\u201c think bottom-only cream pies and top-only chicken-pot pie. Does it have to be baked in a pie or tart pan? Not necessarily; so, to me, an apple turnover counts as a pie. Tarts count, but tortes don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t (or do they, I wonder). Cheesecake counts\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always thought of cheesecake as more pie than cake. Cobblers? Hmmm, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tough call. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say the biscuit topped cobbler does not, but the more pastry crowned cobbler\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6maybe? Well, then, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to include pandowdy and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just going rogue. What about quiche? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s baked in a tart shell, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to say that savory fillings, by all means, count as pies. What about a crostata, a tarte tatin; Napoleons and Josephines? Cream puffs? Some of these things are more pastry than pie. But you may be getting a hint at some of the directions I plan to take. Most of my recipes will have the official and traditional name of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in them. But occasionally a tart, quiche, cobbler or cheesecake could appear. I have no formal schedule yet, but have a loose list of possibilities<\/p>\n

My first pie on New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day was a Chocolate-Ricotta Pie. The recipe comes from Giada De Laurentis of the Food Network. The pie, to me, is actually a tart, baked in one of those fluted specialty tins with a removable bottom. A buttery crust and a cream-cheese-ricotta cheese-chocolate filling were enough to make the pie recipe sound enticing, but what really sold me on giving it a try was the incorporation of pine nuts in both the crust and topping the pie.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ever eat a pine tree?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Euell Gibbons used to inquire in those 1970s commercials about Grape Nuts cereal (he was the butt of many parodies). No, I never ate a pine tree, but if it tasted anything like a pine nut, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d strap a bib on my neck and latch on to the next available Scotch (pine, that is). Pine nuts are so delicious, smoky in flavor; when you toast them in a pan atop the stove they actually smell like bacon! Pine nuts are seeds taken from the pine cone. They resemble small, pale kernels of corn, slightly longer than sunflower seeds, but plump. They have a softer, creamier texture, similar to cashews. They are often used as the basis for pesto, and incorporated into salads and pasta dishes. Interestingly, they are also used for desserts.<\/p>\n

For this Chocolate-Ricotta Pie, you grind pine nuts into the crust ingredients in the food processor, making the pasty for the pie very crumbly and coarse, but still manageably pressed into the pan. My first try at the recipe, I followed it strictly, having a few misgivings at the time about the addition of two tablespoons of cornmeal to the crust. De Laurentis has used cornmeal in a number of desserts, so I was open to giving it a try.<\/p>\n

All was great with my New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pie \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it even popped out easily from the tart mold, something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a gamble for which I hold my breath. Upon trying the pie, I was pleased with the filling. The richness of the cream cheese and ricotta, along with three egg yolks and one egg gave the chocolate filling a consistency and flavor that seemed a brownie-meets-cheesecake-meets-flourless chocolate cake (for those of you who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never made a flourless chocolate cake, the high amount of eggs in most of the recipes for the creature give the cake structure).<\/p>\n

But, alas, that crust. Those mere two tablespoons of cornmeal overshadowed the entire pie. The gritty texture was so distracting, no amount of pine nuts or chocolate could bring me back. But I vowed to try it again \u00e2\u20ac\u201c without the cornmeal.<\/p>\n

So later in January, I made the pie again, changing but a few things. The cornmeal was taken out. Dough still worked fine for the crust. And I added about \u00c2\u00bd teaspoon of vanilla and a dash of salt to the filling. Oh, and I never melted my chocolate chips using a double boiler (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have one). I used the microwave.<\/p>\n

It was a better pie. Without the cornmeal, the true tastes of the pie were the focus. The interesting hint of creamy spiciness and nuggety crunch added by the pine nuts both above and below was the perfect accompaniment to that rich, smooth fudgy filling. It is a decadent dessert worth making. I hope the next 11 live up to my expectations. And if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll work on them \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctil they do.<\/p>\n

Chocolate-Ricotta Pie
\nFrom Giada De Laurentis, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyday Italian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (www.foodtv.com)
\nIngredients
\n1 1\/2 cups all-purpose flour
\n2 tablespoons cornmeal
\n3\/4 cup pine nuts, plus 3\/4 cup, toasted (about 8 ounces in total)
\n1\/4 cup sugar, plus 3\/4 cup
\nPinch salt
\n1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
\n1\/2 cup water
\n8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1\/3 cups)
\n3\/4 cup ricotta cheese
\n3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
\n1 large egg
\n3 large egg yolks<\/p>\n

Directions
\nBlend the flour, cornmeal, 3\/4 cup pine nuts, 1\/4 cup sugar, and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Add the butter and pulse, just until the dough forms. Press the dough over the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of an 11-inch-diameter tart pan with a removable bottom. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 30 minutes.
\nPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
\nLine the tart dough with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake the tart shell in the lower third of the oven until just set, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and pie weights. Bake the shell until golden, about 10 minutes longer. Cool completely.
\nCombine the remaining 3\/4 cup of sugar with 1\/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cool the sugar syrup slightly.
\nIn a double boiler, melt the chocolate over very softly simmering water.
\nPulse the ricotta cheese and cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the egg and egg yolks, 1 at a time, and process until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and process until combined. With the machine running, add the sugar syrup in a thin steady stream and process until smooth.
\nPour the custard into the tart shell and bake until the filling is almost set, about 30 minutes or until the custard has set. Scatter the remaining 3\/4 cup toasted pine nuts on top of the filling. Let the tart cool completely before serving.
\nThe tart can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Return the tart to room temperature before serving.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Blogger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note: The recipe above is printed in its original form. This blogger changed the recipe (as mentioned previously), eliminating the cornmeal from the crust and adding vanilla and salt to the filling.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in late November, when I was writing about my pie-baking apprehension (I guess it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that long ago, but it seems as if years have passed since then), I suggested a challenge to myself aloud (for me, typing is as aloud as speaking — sometimes louder) for 2011: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oantry","category-recipe-box","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}