Chocolate pie, my friends. I think that’s pretty much all one needs to know. Last weekend was super duper cold in this city, and the cold always ups my craving for comfort foods. We had a small get-together on Friday night, wherein Boots made delicious, delectable pizza, and I pulled out a recipe for a chocolate souffle pie from the good folks over at chocolate bar. I’d made it before, a few years ago, and had nothing but fond memories of sinking my teeth into this rich, chocolatey, melty pie; I was certainly ready to relive the experience.

mixings and fixings.

chocolate bar’s recipe is fantastic, and fantastically simple: a basic sweet pie crust is filled with a rich chocolate pudding-esque liquid and then baked for about an hour. The result is a pie that is creamy, indulgent and messy (well, at least messy if you don’t chill it, which I don’t). The only thing that’s even remotely a to-do is the crust, which really is only time-intensive insofar as it involves a modicum of advance planning. I picked up some ingredients on my way home from work on Friday and set to work straight away, so the crust would have ample time to chill before any baking happened. In my food processor, I mixed together some flour, sugar, salt and butter, and then added iced water until the dough started to clump together. Then I turned it out onto a piece of parchment paper, wrapped it up and placed it in the chill box for a few hours. Then it was downstairs to Coach and Boots’ place to see what was happening.

I’ve mentioned Boots several times in this here blog-thing, but what I don’t believe I’ve written about are her prodigious cooking skills. Seriously, the lady cooks a mean dinner. And what’s even more remarkable about that particular talent of hers is her ability to look in her fridge, see five or six seemingly (at least to the untrained (i.e., my) eye) disparate and non-complementary ingredients and magically create an awesome, hearty, tasty meal. What’s more, she never seems to make the exact same thing twice. Seriously, I may be pretty good at this whole baking thing, but Boots is an artist when it comes to meal preparation. All of which is to say that her meals are looked forward to and enjoyed with relish on the part of Kenan and myself. Which is why we went knocking on her door on Friday night, bearing pie dough and coyly asking what was happening for dinner. And sure enough, Boots was in the middle of chopping up vegetables and rolling out pizza dough, and Coach was breaking out a new tin of white truffle oil (holy moly). It just so happened that Chris and Jodi were coming over, and there was more than enough pizza to go around. Hooray for comfort food.

high time for pie time.

Everyone chipped in and helped make the pizza, and it was lovely and amazing, and we ate each small, delectable pie with joy in our bellies. After the pizza baking was done and we had sated our appetites for cheesy goodness, I took the pie dough out of the fridge and cleared some space to roll it out. This particular crust recipe is very dry, so things got a bit crumbly and stuff, but it was easy enough to roll out and patch together where it was needed. Then I placed the dough in the pie pan, crimped the edges and set it in the fridge to cool a bit before baking. When the crust had firmed up sufficiently, I popped it in the oven to pre-bake, and about 20 minutes later, the crust had turned a light tan color and smelled of butter and sugar. I got a bit concerned about halfway through the baking process because the bottom of the crust had started to sweat and looked greasy (due to the high ratio of fat to lean material), but it dried out and baked up nicely in the end. After I’d nestled the baked crust on the window ledge to cool its heels until baking time, I was ready to move on to the filling.

And, as luck would have it, the filling is just as reassuringly and heartwarmingly simple to prepare as the crust. First, I mixed some gigantic eggs with a bit of flour, some sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Then I melted chocolate, butter and cream and mixed the chocolate into the egg mixture. I poured the whole lot into the pie crust, but there was still quite a bit left, so I poured the rest into muffin molds so we could have mini muffin friends. I know; really awesome.

After the pie had baked for about an hour, the top was puffy and ever so slightly cracked and smelled of chocolate and butter in the best way. And it was so, so very delicious. The crust was flaky and buttery and tender, and the filling was luxurious and sweet – all in all, absolutely amazing. Granted, it’s also very rich, so be careful when eating large amounts of it if you want to avoid a tummy ache, but otherwise, it’s a home run.

So make some pie, before spring creeps up on you and leaves you terrified that you’ll actually be expected to leave your apartment.

melty chocolate pie

chocolate souffle tart.
(adapted from Ilene Shane, via chocolate bar)

for the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse together all the flour, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the iced water slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture starts to come together in a ball. Turn onto a slightly floured work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap in parchment or waxed paper and let cool in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

Flour a work table and roll out the dough to 1/8″ thickness. Place the dough in a 10-inch pie plate or tart dish. (To easily transfer the dough to the plate, fold it in half and then in half again and gently transfer the dough to the plate and unfold.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven.

Line the pie crust with aluminum foil and weigh down with pie weights or dried beans, making sure to cover all the side. Bake until the edges start to brown (approximately 15 minutes), then remove the weights and foil and bake for another 15 minutes, until the crust begins to turn a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let come to room temperature.

for the filling: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the beaten eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the chocolate, butter and cream over low heat, stirring occasionally. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Pour into the cooled pie crust. (I had a lot of extra filling; you can pour the extra into muffin molds if desired.) Bake the pie for 45 to 60 minutes, until the top is puffy and just starting to crack. Serve warm, or cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours and serve chilled. Get your yum on.

photos by the chronically unfocused and fantastically charming kenan rubenstein. fancy camera and absurdly wide lens generously furnished by SMASH!