This is another one from my "BAKE: Beautiful baking recipes from around the world" cookbook. I was so excited when I found this - after the story of the Mississippi Mud Cake it was cool to find the mud pie recipe too.
This was the second recipe I made the other weekend for Kai's parents' BBQ. I was so nervous about this - the difficulty with pies and things like that is, you can't try a test piece before you take it somewhere. Whereas brownies you cut it into slices, so no one has a clue how many there were - people will probably notice if you show up with a pie with a slice missing!!
As I've mentioned, the book has a description for each recipe, and the one for this pie is:
"This dish was created by home bakers in Mississippi and was only published for the first time in the 1970s. The pie is made using ingredients that are close to hand, and leftover biscuits are often used in the recipe for the base. This sticky chocolate pie is good with vanilla ice cream."
I've always wanted to visit the Deep South of the US - I'm a big fan of John Grisham novels, and most of them are set in the Deep South. I remember reading one where a man was in hiding and it really made me want to visit that area (I can't remember the name of the book.. But I remember it having a really sad ending! But the setting was well described and inspiring!) Also in one of my favourite kids/teens book series, they visit the Mississippi River (and have a pretty cool adventure there while they're at it). Kai and I are planning to visit the US again next year and we want to include a ton of places in the south while we're there. Hopefully while we're there we'll get to try some mississippi mud pie and we can compare it to my efforts!!
Let me know what you guys think!!
RECIPE - serves 6-8
Prep time: 30 minutes, plus time to cool
Cook time: 35-40 minutes
Pastry
175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
25g cocoa powder
40g light brown sugar
85g unsalted butter
2-3 tbsp iced water
Filling
85g milk chocolate chips
85g unsalted butter
85g light brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
100ml single cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
250ml whipping cream
85g milk chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. To make the pastry, sift the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add just enough water to bind to a dough.
2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a round large enough to line a 3cm deep, 20cm round tart tin. Use the pastry to line the tin. Prick the base with a fork, cover with a piece of baking paper and fill with baking beans, then bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and take out the baking paper and beans. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees.
3. Put the chocolate and butter into a saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring, until melted. Put the sugar and eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth, then stir in the chocolate mixture, cream and vanilla extract.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pastry case and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Leave to cool.
5. To make the topping, whip the cream until it just holds its shape, then spread over the pie. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30-second bursts, stirring each time, then spoon melted chocolate over the pie to decorate. Serve cold.
Source: BAKE: Beautiful baking recipes from around the world