Derby Pie -- A Pie 101 Post

originally posted May 2012 on More Time at the Table

"Derby" Pie or  Pecan-Chocolate-Bourbon Pie.  Can you say decadent?

When someone needs something baked, I do it if I can.  If I have the time.  Not everyone bakes.  I love to bake and need an excuse now that there are only two of us in the house.  If I bake for an event, I somehow always manage to make enough so that we can share a sample or even have a tiny sweetness for ourselves.  (If it's pie, it's usually for Dave; I eat a bite, that's it.  He loves pie too much for me to eat much.)

(Aside:  After I saw how many people read my basic Pie 101 post, I thought I'd begin a series (quite intermittent) on pies.  I hope  you like them.  Anywho, read on.)

Dave's baby pie in a 4" ramekin.  He was so relieved.

My friend Roberta likes to give Kentucky Derby parties and her pie baker was a no-show.  I was happy to have an afternoon in the kitchen, though I had never before baked Derby Pie.  I had baked many a pecan pie (the easiest pie to make except for custard and, by the way, pecan pie is a kind of custard pie as it contains eggs and melted butter) and this didn't look much different--once I figured out what it was.  And while it wasn't terribly different, it sure tasted differently.   Think of pecans.  Then think of what they taste like sweetened up a little.  Add chocolate.  Bourbon.  You have the picture.  And oh, how lovely this would be for Thanksgiving.

I don't know from bourbon, but this is what I bought.

But to begin with,  I  couldn't locate a recipe in any one of my many cookbooks.   A bit embarrassing.  But not much.

This is my cookbook corner.  That's not all of them, of course.

  And no Derby Pie. Hmph.

I thought it was odd that there was no "Derby Pie" even in any of my baking books; I have a few baking books!  Back to the computer to discover that "Derby Pie" --or the term itself-- is patented and can only be baked by the Kern family in Louisville, Kentucky.  In other words, they have a monopoly on it.  Once I knew exactly what Derby Pie was, I began to look on other sites for a recipe.  I found dozens --some too simple and some too complicated-- and settled on one (below) from examiner.com, a site I wrote for for a few years.  It looked like a recipe I could easily triple or quadruple, which was my day's goal.

Warming the eggs in warm water since I forgot to take them out the night before.  Room temperature eggs are needed for baking.  I left them about 10 minutes.  Warm eggs crack easier and are less likely to leave bits of shell in your bowl.

Collecting the pie plates.  I keep a couple in my kitchen and the rest downstairs. I use pie plates for a lot of cooking.  They're perfect for anything in the microwave (vegetables, leftovers) and I bake biscuits in them because you can take the Pyrex plate to the table and the biscuits stay warm.  I almost always use glass pie plates for even baking and for seeing the crust when checking to see if the pie is done.  Do not ever use disposable aluminum pie plates; they're just too shallow and lightweight.

Toasting all the pecans at once on a half sheet pan.  I like to buy pecans in the fall from Georgia growers.  Often churches sell pecans for fundraisers.  Buy enough for the year then and freeze them.  I make a lot of spicy pecans for Christmas and also at other times of the year for nibbles with wine. (below)

Here I've mixed them with other nuts for gift giving or cookie trays.  Recipe here.

For photos of the making dough portion, turn back to my Pie 101 (Step-by-Step) or use your own favorite.  My own dough recipe--scroll down.  Do not use a sweetened dough here.

Dough in all four pie plates, including the baby pie for Dave.

Mixing each pie's ingredients separately to make sure each pie has enough of everything.

Carefully filling the shells so that I don't spill the filling onto the pie dough.  Some people do this on the oven rack.

This one is baked in a deep dish stoneware plate from Pampered Chef.  Emile Henry also makes a good deep dish plate.

Glass Pyrex plate

Side view of deep dish pie.

The baby.  You can bake pie in about anything that's oven proof.  Apilco (French porcelain--excellent dishes for everyday and any day) makes large coffee cups that are oven-proof--as does Corning Ware.

The whole gang all done.    Enough for a Kentucky Derby Party.    How about Thanksgiving?

derby pie                      makes one 10-inch pie*

• 10-inch Single Crust Pie Crust  (see below for my crust recipe or use your own)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted (and cooled or it'll cook your eggs)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup Karo light corn syrup
• 4 large eggs  (at room temperature)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla  (I like Nielson-Massey vanilla; some prefer Penzey's.)
• 1/4 cup bourbon (You see -above- I used Jim Beam.  You may know more and choose better.)
• 3/4 cup gourmet chocolate chips (I use Guiradelli or Guittard; Callebaut is lovely, but pricey and hard to locate.*)
• 1 1/4 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, shelled and chopped in half if desired

 How To Make Kentucky Derby Chocolate Pecan Pie  or "Derby Pie"

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Roll crust according to my directions in the Best Ever Pie Crust Recipe, or use Alyce's crust below,  or use a store bought pre-baked pie crust, line a 10-inch deep dish pie pan with the dough, and flute the edges as desired.
• In a large mixing bowl, on medium speed with whisk attachment, whip butter, sugars, corn syrup, eggs, vanilla and bourbon together until frothy.
• Remove bowl from mixer, and fold in chocolate chips and pecans or walnuts. Blend well.
• Pour into prepared pie crust and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until set.
• Serve warm, or cool completely before serving with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
• Yields 8-10 slices.   
• *If you only have a 9-inch pie pan, make the pie exactly as above. You'll have leftover dough and filling.  Make yourself a little extra pie or two in an ovensafe mug, cup, or ramekin.
•  Derby  Pie Recipe courtesy Donna Diegel, Examiner.com

*You can also choose an excellent semi or bittersweet baking chocolate like Valrhona or Callebaut and chop your own chocolate if you like.  BTW, I sometimes order Valrhona chocolate from amazon.com though it is sometimes available at Whole Foods or better grocery stores.)

 Pie Dough Recipe-- courtesy a small CUISINART instruction book, circa 1980

Pâte Brisée--- Made in a Cuisinart -- This is the dough I use most often.
                                                        for each 10" pie shell 
1 1/3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup or 1/4#  unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 8 pieces (1 stick) 
1/4 cup ice water (measure 1/4 cup water into a 1 cup measuring cup half full of ice)

Place flour and salt in the work bowl of the food processor* fitted with steel blade.  Pulse a couple of times to distribute salt.  Add cold butter and pulse briefly several times until butter is worked into flour in several different sizes (1/4" - 1/2").  With machine running, slowly pour water through feed tube until dough begins to come together.  Stop machine and carefully remove dough from work bowl.  Working quickly to avoid melting the butter within the dough, form into a ball and then flatten into a disc.  Roll out and fill immediately (see above) or chill, well-wrapped,  1 hour or up to two days ahead.  

*If you don't have  food processor, cut the butter in using two knifes or a metal  pastry blender.