Yes, It's a pie!
This is about as decadent as you can get with one pie. A chocolate pie can’t get any more luxurious than this one. It’s a thick Chocolate Chip Brownie and a Bourbon Pecan Pie all wrapped up into one delicious pie crust. It’s that good! It’s heaven on earth with espresso or coffee.
Start by making the crust from scratch, or substitute a store-bought version. I opt for the scratch crust simply because it tastes better. It takes a little more time to make and par bake, but it’s definitely worth it.
Stir up the brownie layer with chocolate chips and spread over the par baked crust and bake it again. Top it with the Bourbon Pecan Pie topping from the stove top and you have a beautifully layered pecan pie with a thick deposit of brownies. The espresso powder in the brownie layer punches the chocolate flavor up a little bit. As you cut into it, the layers are gorgeous. It’s even yummier with your favorite Vanilla Bean ice cream on top alongside a cup of espresso. Slice the 10” pie thin and you have unforgettable desserts for a crowd.
Servings:
This pie will provide 10-12 servings. The slices do not need to be very big since it’s a deliciously decadent pie, and it’s an extra large pie pan.
Preheat your oven:
Set your baking rack in the lower third of the oven. You’ll par bake the crust and then bake the pie in the lower portion of the oven.
A few minutes before you’re ready to bake your crust, heat the oven to 375F degrees.
A few minutes before you’re ready to bake the brownie portion of the pie, preheat your oven to 350F degrees. This portion of your pie will bake at that lower temperature.
Prep your baking pan:
No need to butter the 10” pie oven safe baking pan. I favor my heavy glass pie plate.
Gather up your Ingredients:
Pie Crust Ingredients:
2 ½ C Flour
2 T Sugar
½ t Salt
1 C Butter, cold, cubed
1/3 C Water, iced (may need more)
Brownie Filling Ingredients:
½ C Flour
¼ C Cocoa
½ t Salt
6 T Butter
2 oz Chocolate chips, good quality semi-sweet
¾ C Sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 Egg
2 t Espresso powder
2 T Vegetable oil
¾ C Chocolate chips, good quality semi-sweet
½ C Pecans, rough chopped
Pecan Pie Topping Ingredients:
½ C Butter, divided 6 T and 2 T
2 C Pecans, rough chopped
¾ C Corn syrup, light
½ C Sugar, dark brown
1 t Espresso powder
¼ t Salt
2 T Bourbon
2 t Vanilla extract
1/3 C Chocolate chips, good quality semi-sweet mini sized
Make the crust:
- Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together.
- Cube the cold butter and toss it in the flour mixture so all pieces are individually coated.
- With a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until you have a coarse meal, the size of small peas. Do not overmix.
- With a spatula, slowly fold in the ice-cold water. I prefer a silicone spatula so the dough does not stick to the spatula.
- The dough will become shaggy, not firm. At that point, pour it out onto a floured countertop and knead it gently bringing it together into a ball.
- Flatten the ball into a disc shape, fold plastic wrap around it and refrigerate it for 2 hours. If you keep it overnight be sure to place it, wrapped, into a sealable container or sealable plastic bag.
- Remove the dough from fridge about 20 minutes before you want to roll it out into a crust.
- On a cool floured surface, roll the crust less than ¼” thick, rolling and flipping and turning it until it’s about 17” in diameter. The first time I made this crust, I rolled it about ¼” thick but found that was much too thick, so now I opt for a thinner crust, less than 1/4” thick. (Use the leftover crust to bake little jam tarts, just like Gram used to make.)
- Fold the crust in half and gently lay it in the 10” oven safe pie plate, unfold it so the edges overlap the outer edges of the pie pan. Form the crust up the edges of the pie plate all the way around, without stretching the dough. Stretching it can create tears in the crust.
- Leaving 1.5 inches overlapping around the entire edge of the pie plate, cut the excess crust off.
- Tuck the excess crust UNDER, all around the edge of the pie plate.
- Crimp the pie crust all around the pie plate. I simply use one of my left-hand knuckles to push an edge outward and use two knuckles on my right hand to press inward around the left knuckle, making a simple crimp pattern all around the pie crust edge. I use my knuckles as my Gram
did. She always said using your knuckles gives it a softer scalloped/crimped edge, than if you use your fingertips. Besides that, Gram always said that the fingernails, no matter how short, can tear the crust. It was fun to watch her crimp her pie crusts, she did it so fast and they were prefect every time. Now, I wonder why I would remember little tidbit from her since she passed away so many years ago in 1976.
- Wrap the crust, in the pie pan, in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Bake the crust:
- To par bake the crust, first crumple up a piece of parchment paper cut to be a couple inches bigger than the pie pan. - Uncrumple it and spread it over the bottom of the crust and up the sides. (Crumpling the parchment paper will take the crispness out of the paper and help spread it on top of the crust.)
- Spread your dried beans or ceramic beans or metal beans on top of the parchment paper, so they cover the bottom of the crust. (I keep a covered jar of dried beans in my pantry, labeled only for use as weights in pie crust par baking. Once I use them as weights, I don’t use them for anything else like soup.) This will process will help prevent the crust from puffing up.
- Par bake the crust in the lower third of the preheated oven at 375F degrees for 20 minutes.
- Take the crust out and remove all the pie crust weights and the parchment paper.
- Poke the bottom of the crust with a fork a few times to prevent the crust from puffing up while you do the next bake.
- Bake for another 15 minutes in the lower third of the oven at 350F until it’s a very light golden color around the edges. - Set aside until your brownie mixture is ready to bake. (Sometimes I par bake the crust the day before and set it in my cupboard overnight before I make the brownie mix and bake it together.)
Mix up your brownie filling:
Caution: Do not mix this brownie filling until you are ready to bake it in your par baked crust. In other words, I don’t let this set in the fridge or on the counter.
- Make sure your oven is preheated at 350F degrees.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
- On low heat on the stovetop, melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan. Let it cool a few minutes before adding the eggs.
- Add the sugar and stir to combine.
- Add the egg yolks and egg, whisking to combine.
- Whisk in the espresso powder and vegetable oil.
- Add the flour mixture and stir with a spatula to combine. Don’t over stir.
- Gently fold in the chocolate chips and pecan pieces.
- Spread the brownie mixture over the par baked crust and smooth out the top.
- To keep the edges of your pie crust from baking too brown, create an aluminum foil circle to place over the entire outer edge of the pie crust before baking. It’s easy to make a circle strip out of foil, by cutting a round piece of foil
about 2 inches bigger around than the pie pan. Fold the foil circle twice to create a quarter circle “triangle.” Then, clip out the center of the “triangle” so that you have about a 4” edge strip. As you carefully unfold it, you’ll find that you have a nice big circle of foil with the center cut out. That leaves you with a circular foil strip that you can lay onto the outer edge of the pie crust and loosely tuck over the entire edge so the outside crust will not get dark as you bake the pie. (Some people actually purchase a metal crust cover, which I have found do not work very well. Since I have different sized pie plates, I opt for creating a foil cover each time I bake a pie. I’m lucky to have different pie plates from my Grams, so I have the option of using different sizes.)
- In the lower third of the oven, bake your pie at 350F degrees for 30 minutes until the brownie filling is firm on top and the crust should be golden brown. Don’t overbake it.
- Take your pie out of the oven and cool on a rack 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.
Cook the Pecan Pie Topping:
Caution: Do not make the Pecan Pie Topping until you are almost ready to serve the pie. If the topping is made too far ahead, it can solidify too much to spread it. If it does get too hard, reheat it to liquify it and spread it on the pie.
(If you find that you have too much topping, don’t throw it away! It makes a delicious ice cream topping. Just keep it in a covered bowl and microwave it for a few seconds to liquify it before drizzling over ice cream. What a treat!)
- Over medium heat in a saucepan on your stovetop, heat the 6 tablespoons of butter and add the pecan pieces.
- Toast the pecans in the butter over the heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Reduce the heat to low.
- Add the rest of the items and the last 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Cook and stir constantly until it thickens, about 3 minutes or more. Don’t cook too long or the topping will get too hard to spread.
- Spread the hot pecan topping on the brownie filling.
- Top it off with sprinkles of chocolate chips.
- Let set for 5 minutes, slice and serve. It’s great with ice cream and a cup of espresso or coffee alongside.
Option:
- Drizzle melted chocolate on top or sprinkle chocolate chips while the topping is still warm.
- Dollop it with a little freshly whipped cream topping.
- Garnish with fresh strawberries or kiwi.
Storage:
- This is a pie I do not refrigerate.
- I store the pie on the counter under a large domed cover for up to 5 days. I want to keep the pecan pie topping at room temperature. Storing it in the fridge would harden the topping and make it tough on the teeth.
This is a delicious Bourbon Pecan Brownie Pie that will quench any chocolate desires. Enjoy it with family or friends, and “Bake your own Memories!”
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