Project: Pie: One For The Ladies

My friend Melissa bugged me for months to make her a chocolate strawberry pie. She got overly excited when she saw this pie from The Waitress, so she had to ask her pie-obsessive friend to make one: moi. Damn you Keri Russell. I wasn't enthusiastic about it 'cause I'm not a big fan of chocolate. When I saw this however, my eyes lit up and I was inspired to make a Double Bottom Chocolate Strawberry Pecan Pie! The colours match Valentine's Day so it had to look good. Ladies, this pie's for you! Near the end before I ruined it with the strawberry glaze, the pie looked pretty much what I envisioned.

I first crushed the pecans with my rolling pin and placed them evenly on the bottom dough liner. I didn't make the dough this time as I used one of my leftovers in my freezer. There were so many in my freezer!

I then sealed the pie with another dough liner, and hence the name 'Double Bottom'. To make sure that heat isn't contained inside the pie, I cut some steam vents like I normally would on any other double crust pies. I then baked the pie.

Baked at 425°F for 25 minutes

You can see that the pie inflated during this process but I was able to push it down with my finger. I wasn't expecting it to inflate, but I guess this means that I need to prick more holes. While the pie was baking, I turned my focus to chocolate.

Bernard Callebaut is one of my favorites and luckily, you can buy them in bulk for cheap now. I've never worked with chocolate before so I was nervous. After spending a day researching on ways to melt chocolate, I decided to go with the easiest way possible: cutting it into pieces and adding boiling water.

The white stuff that you see above is just a mixture of water, sugar, and corn starch. Next, the strawberries!

After cleaning and hulling the strawberries, I cut them in different sizes: one batch had bite-size to go into the chocolate and the others were halved as they were placed at the very top of the pie. To soften these strawberries, I cooked them in a pot at low heat.

I also prepared a strawberry glaze to enhance the strawberry flavour. It took a while because I don't have a masher for the strawberries so I used a wooden spoon instead. Never again will I do that. From here on, it's just a matter of adding everything together.

Nice!

Not so nice.

In case you're wondering why there is pink puke, it's because of corn starch. It was bright red before I added the corn starch.

Finally it's over. I got my friends to try it (including Melissa) and although this pie was meant for the ladies, it was actually a bunch of dudes who ate most of it. At least Melissa got her wish.

I was surprised at how this pie turned out. Not only did it look good (minus the glaze), but it was delicious! The chocolate was sweet on its own, but the pecans help offset it. What a difference they make! The crust wasn't soggy. I just wish there was more strawberry flavour. For my next pie, I'll probably add more strawberries and cut down on the chocolate.