Mmmm... That looks SO good. I'll have to try it sometime. Your design of this site is also really cool! Keep doing what you're doing. -N
This looks fantastic. I've never had a Chocolate pecan pie before - I'll have to see if my wife will make this for me. :)
Great blog, by the way. I think that recipes in a blog is a fun format.
Congrats on your new found popularity! May I ride on your coattails at http://mysite.verizon.net/fauxpax
Keep posting great stuff!
Hi. I've been returning to your site since I found it on Blooger's Blog of Note.
I find the recipe and cooking diagram very ingenious and easy to understand. This blog is really about cooking for engineers!
Congratulations!
I'm glad that you are really are trying out other people's recipes. Enjoying the blog a great deal.
Alredhead
http://alredhead.blogspot.com
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I had no idea I was going to be famous though! :)
Eric~
That pie looks really good (I bet it was heaven still warm with a scoop of ice cream). I've had a similar recipe before but not with the addition of maple syrup. I am wondering what a hit of bourbon would do in place of the syrup? I have some pecans on hand, I might have to try this recipe out soon.
Thanks for posting -
Jennifer
I'm a retired Aerospace Engineer that loves to cook. I really like the format but it confused some of my housewife friends so I put it into this form so I could give them the recipe. They ate two of these without saving me a crumb! I love it!
Eric's Chocolate Pecan Pie
Preheat oven to 375º F. Cream 4 Tbs. butter, then mix in 1/2 cup dark brown sugar and 1 large egg, Stir in 1/2 cup maple syrup, 6 oz. pecans and 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips. Pour into 1 9 inch pie crust (Bought or homemade) and level. Bake for 45 minutes, until the sides are set and the middle wiggles a little like Jello. This pie is best fully cooled, if you can wait that long. Well, you should let the first one cool completely so you have a taste test comparison with warmer pies! This is not as sweet as you might expect a chocolate pecan pie to be, but I'll bet it disappears all too soon anyway! :)
Since I'm in the South, and have great access to cane Sorghum, I'll have to try one sometime with that in place of the maple syrup. Many think Molasses and cane Sorghum are the same, but they're NOT! Sorghum is made from the Sorghum canes, similar in appearance to sugar canes, and squeezed in a horse or mule driven, homemade squeeze mill. Molasses, on the other hand is a by-product of sugar refining.
jafo21
I like your recipe, but as an engineer, I can't understand why you still use weird mesaures such as tablespoons, cups and ounces. Surely you should use an internationally standard system such as metric? I am quite sure that if you were building a bridge or designing a vehicle or performing any one of the millions of things that engineers do, you would find yourself in deep, deep strife if you started by saying "Take 978 cups of cement, 448 tablespoons of sand, mix with 2000 teaspoons of water .."
So please, be an ENGINEER, not an out-of-date Mrs Beeton.
YOUR COMMENT WAS UNCALLED FOR AND RUDE. MEASUREMENTS ARE A USER FRIENDLY METHOD. THE WORD "ENGINEER" DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TAKE LITERALLY. COME ON DOWN OFF YOUR HIGH RISER :P
RE: MESSAGE POSTED MAY 06 FROM GUEST LIONEL
When surfing for a recipe I often come back to this site and am very pleased with the very clear instructions. Some sites are not reviewed for clarity. I love the additional helpful comments and pictures. I thank Angelina for her comments and hope that if folks don't have anything good and enjoyable to add, that they'll just refrain from posting.
I am famous for my Chocolate Pecan Pie and somehow lost my recipee. We don't drink so the bourbon one is out - but I have a half gallon of maple syrup in the fridge and we are going to make this right now! It may become our new favorite.
Thanks for all the fun food we have enjoyed using your site!
I am raising an 12 year old daughter who has already decided to be an engineer, so the fun of teaching her to cook has been a bonus to introducing her to a site organized logically and precisely as an Engineer works.
Girls need positive perks in this area - always searching for more.
I've made this recipe several times now, and always get rave reviews!!! I personally love the format of your recipes and directions, and though I agree it would be nice to have mL and such, instead of Tbs., I don't own a mL measuring spoon set either, so I guess we are stuck with the English system.
I'm a chemist by training and really enjoy the "science" aspect of cooking, (e.g. why egg whites will make good meringue), it'd be cool to add some of this to the site when applicable.
Keep it up!
Re: Lionel
I am pretty sure that Michael has covered this in other threads, but I'll give it a go here.
Being an engineer is not the same as being a laboratory scientist. Units of measurement need to be chosen carefully depending on where you are and who your audience is. Michael's audience is the home cook, who measures in teaspoons, tablespoons, and fractions of cups.
How many cooks do you know with a kitchen full of graduated cylinders, beakers and pipettes?
Your civil engineering example is ludicrous, not to mention wrong. In measuring ingredients to build a bridge, most things would be measured in tons (including the cement). This is obviously not an SI unit, but it is used anyways.
Demanding that units conform to some sort of standard format, regardless of audience and application is idiotic and pretentious.
First, I have to say that the layout of the recipes is fantastic and that's what led me to return to this site again and again.
Second - made the pie (several times) and it's a rave. Not only tasty, but easy and reliable (i.e., I don't get a soupy mess that I've gotten in the past with other pecan pie recipes). Tried this on picky eaters and on several people who will eat anything that doesn't move and all have raved about the taste and texture.
You done good! :)
Eric,
I learned how to make that pie in 1980 while going to school at Stetson U., Deland, FL. It was called Cajun Pie. I refused to make it since 1982 because it is so good and addictive. I don't need the extra weight. But I am considering making it one more time now that I saw your recipe.
Thanks for the memories!
P.S. All these whiners complaining about this site and the measurements need to get a life and go away. This is a fun site with good info. Your whining is annoying just as you are. Go away!
Bon Appetite!
Marlene (BS Physics, NYIT) (Notice I didn't graduate from Suntan U. - too much fun!)
Please tell us about the crust. You mentioned that you usually blind-bake your crust. The crust in the photo of the chocolate pecan pie looks absolutely perfect around the edges. How was the bottom of the crust? Was it soft and doughy or nice and flaky?
If you make the pie again, what crust-modifications would you make?
Thank you. Love the site.
I baked that pie over 3 years ago... I don't recall the crust being really flaky, so I'm going to say that it was a little soft. As to modifications - I'd probably say making your own crust is preferable to the store bought ones.
:P Best pecan pie every - a small slice goes a long way!
I made this recipe with a few changes...
I used organic raw sugar instead of the brown sugar. And instead of 170g (6 ounces) of chocolate, I instead used only 100 grams. I found the sweetness to be at the proper level; however, I found there to be WAY too much chocolate, even with far less than the original recipe called for. All I can taste is the chocolate - the pecans are only noticable from their crunch. It is so decadent. Next time I would only use half the amount of chocolate as I used. Otherwise, this is a fantastic recipe.
My variation of this pie adds two steps. I roast the pecans on a cookie sheet 350 for 10 minutes. After the pecans cool, I soak them in a cup or so of bourbon overnight. After draining the pecans, make the rest of the recipe. The extra moisture in the nuts will cause the filling to set slower, adding 10-15 minutes to the baking time.
Guittard chips are far superior to Ghiradelli. Good choice. I don't even consider Ghiradelli to be real chocolate, but then again, I am chocolate snob. I'd even choose Baker's chocolate brand any day over that cheap crap. :D
Brian, it's too bad you haven't lived in the SF or Monterey Bay areas and eaten at a Ghiradelli's... as a chocolate snob you would be pleased. I have eaten better and I don't like the chips from the supermarket, but from the Market in SF, it's very good. And of course they have the chocolate fair every year. Now, if we want to talk real chocolate... Belgium, or From the champs in Paris... OH!!!
The pies are in the oven.
For those of you reading along, I made a double recipe to make two pies, but one of my pie pans happens to be a 9.5" instead of the standard 9" (more pie!). However, simply doubling the recipe does not fill both crusts now. I'd recommend making one and a half recipes when using a 9.5" crust. Or, you can take the opportunity of the extra space to fill the top with fruit/light whipped cream/ice-cream/etc.
I always make a bourbon chocolate pecan pie. I roast the pecans in the oven, and then soak them in a cup of bourbon for a few hours. Drain the pecans, and then mix it all together and bake. With the extra moisture, it will take an extra 10-20 minutes, but it's worth it.
I've been searching for a chocolate pecan pie recipe that does not use corn syrup for my Thanksgiving dinner this year. I will test run this recipe before Thanksgiving to make sure it comes out right, but just by the ingredients alone, I'm sure it will be delicious. Thank You for all your work in posting this recipe.
I baked 2 of this pie. For one I covered the edge of the crust, and baked it till slightly golden (about 15 min in a preheated 400 oven). The other un blind baked.
Both crusts were my standard homemade flaky crusts with shortening, butter, white 2/3 pastry flour 1/3 whole wheat pastry flour, etc..
The blind baked crust was substanitally better. It was crispier, flaky, and looked much better. The un-blind baked crust was noticibly soggier, ever so slightly doughy when compared with the blind baked one.
Definatley worth the 15 minutes to blind bake it. Just remember to cover the edges. I use a crust shield, some people swear by foil, others claim it is evil (pie and pastry bible). YMMV.
Well, it's in the oven now. I'll let you know. I was a little spectical about the maple syrup, dark brown sugar and so much chocolate. But I only changed using light brown sugar and I doubled the receipe using 3 eggs.
Bourbon chocolate pecan pie with maple syrup is basically just Derby Pie. Been eating it for a while as a Ky boy born and bred.
Eric's recipe made two to three pies, so the first thing I needed to do was effectively halve the recipe. The new list of ingredients became 4 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, a large egg, 1/2 cup 100% pure maple syrup, 6 oz. pecans broken up by hand, and 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate. I decided that since we're interested in testing fillings here, I would take the easy way out and use a store bought frozen pie crust.
First, I creamed the butter and brown sugar together.
Then I added an egg and mixed until it was fully integrated.
I scraped the bowl down once and added maple syrup. A few more seconds and my Kitchenaid stand mixer had the mixture smooth and consistent.
After removing the bowl from the mixer, I poured in the halved pecans and stirred by hand with a spatula. Then I added the chocolate chips and stirred and folded until the pecans and chips were evenly dispersed, about ten strokes.
The mixture is then poured into the pie crust and leveled. Normally, I would blind bake the crust to ensure that it doesn't get soggy. (Blind baking is where you bake the crust without filling to harden the crust. This gives the crust more structural support to handle a wet filling so it doesn't fall apart or soak up too much liquid before the filling is baked.) Eric's recipe didn't mention this and called for a fairly high heat of 375?F so I did not blind bake the crust.
I then baked the pie in my oven at 375?F until the filling set. I checked the filling by holding the pie on both sides and twisting gently to spin the pie pan. A set filling should not move on the outside and jiggle on the inside (like Jell-O). The pie was done after 45 minutes (just like Eric said).
The general concensus was that the pie was very good and a welcome departure from the traditional pecan pie. The chocolate lover's especially liked the chocolate chips and some commented on the excellent flavor that the maple syrup introduced. I recommend trying this recipe!