Chocolate Pecan Pie

I've been relying on Martha's recipes quite a bit lately. Particularly for her pie crusts, now that I've officially broken up with Mark Bittman's pie crusts. It wasn't him though, it was me. They were too flaky and hard to deal with. Much like most of my former boyfriends.

Chocolate Pecan Pie
Adapted from: Martha Stewart

Ingredients

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole pecans
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 9-inch pie crust, such as this one

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in lowest position.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together (don't whisk) eggs, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Set aside.

3. Using a double boiler, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate. Gradually add melted chocolate into egg mixture and stir together. Pour filling into prepared crust. Arrange pecans in one layer over filling.

4. Bake for 50-60 minutes, rotating the pie once halfway, until filling is set. It may still be a little jiggly in the center. Let cool for at least 4 hours, or overnight, before serving.


Ready to go:

Sour Cherry Pie with Almond Crumble

My dad spends a few nights per week at the museum in New Jersey where he works as an archivist (he actually sleeps in the museum), and every once in a while he comes home with some fruit or vegetable that he's (sort of) allowed to take from the property. This week it was sour cherries. My dad's a funny guy, so when he texted that he was "on a ladder picking cherries," it was an amusing image.

Anyway, he brought me the sour cherries that he picked from these trees, and I made him a pie for Father's Day.

Note: I divided the crumble between 2 pies because I was being lazy, and I regretted it. Use all the crumble for one pie.

Sour Cherry Pie
Adapted From: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
1 pie crust of your choice, I used this one from Martha Stewart

Almond Crumble

2/3 cups whole oats, ground to an oat flour in a food processor
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted raw almonds, coarsely ground
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Sour Cherry Filling

2 1/4 pounds sour cherries, pitted (if you give them a light squeeze, the pit will pop right out)
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Roll out the bottom crust and place firmly into a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes while you prepare the rest of the pie.

3. To make the almond crumble: Grind oats to a flour in a food processor. Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt and pulse again in food processor. Add the almonds and pulse so that they become coarsely ground, but not ground into a powder. Stir mixture together in a bowl with melted butter. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, mix the cherries with sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Taste the mixture, if it's too sour, you can add more sugar.

5. Pour the cherries into the pie crust and top evenly with almond crumble. Place the pie plate on a cookie sheet (to catch any overflowing juices) and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let cool before serving.



Sour cherries:

Almond crumble: 

Filling: 

Pie!