Mississippi Mud Pie

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[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
When weekends approach, I like to bake some desserts and bring them over to my mum's place to share with my siblings and extended family. That weekend, I made a Mississippi Mud Pie. I've heard much about this pie and cake before, but I've never tried one, nor saw any in our bakeries.

Recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie, adapted from "the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook"
Makes a 9" pie

Basic Pie Crust
Ingredients:
260g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Salt
110g Liv unsalted butter, cold
Water to combine (I used 4 tbsp)

Method:

1. Put the flour, salt and butter in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
2. Add 1 tbsp water and beat until well mixed. Add a 2nd tbsp of water and beat until you have a smooth, even dough.
3. If the dough is till a little dry, add another tablespoon of water, but be careful not to add too much, it is safer to beat the dough at high speed to try to bring the ingredients together.
4. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest for 1 hour (I left mine in the fridge overnight).
5. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.
6. Line the prepared pie dish with the dough and trim the edges with a sharp knife.
7. Lay a sheet of parchment paper over the dough crust and pour in the baking beans.
8. Bake the pie crust in the preheated oven of 170C for 10mins.
9. Remove the parchment paper and baking beans, and bake for a further 10mins.
10. The dough should still be pale and slightly raw in the centre. Leave to cool.

Mud Pie Filling

Ingredients:

150g Dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I use 85g dark compound chocolate with 65g 77% Cacao Barry chocolate)

50g Liv unsalted butter

20g Light corn syrup (recipe use golden syrup)

6 Whole eggs

160g Soft light brown sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

300g Whipping cream

30g Caster sugar

Chocolate shavings

Method:

1. Put the chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth, then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.
2. While the chocolate mixture is melting, put the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixer with a paddle attachment (I use a whisk) and beat until well combined. [my note: this step is to combine the eggs, sugar and vanilla. It is not to whipped up the eggs to become light and fluffy. This mixture is very liquid.]
3. Gradually beat the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture on slow speed. Make sure the chocolate isn't too hot, otherwise it will scramble the eggs. Beat thoroughly until smooth.
4. Pour into the partially blind-baked pie crust and bake in the preheated oven for about 20mins, or the pie is firm, but slight wobble in the centre.
5. Leave to cool completely, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
6. When you are ready to serve the pie, whip the cream and sugar with a handheld electric whisk in a bowl until soft peaks form, then spread over the pie and finish with chocolate shavings.

Comment:

• Like I mentioned in step #2 above, the mixture of the eggs and sugar is watery. It shouldn't be whipped up. When I was whisking the mixture, I wonder what will the outcome of this mixture be. However, when I looked at the shallow pie dish, I figured the mixture at this stage should not be light and fluffy.
• When you blind bake your pie crust, ensure that there is no holes in it. The batter that goes into the pie crust is very very liquid. Should there be any open holes, then it will definitely seep through into the baking dish.
• The pie crust for this recipe is NOT nice. If you have a good pie crust, use yours. It doesn't really tell how much water to add, it's up to you to mix in the dough. The crust is hard and tasteless. If you like, you can improvise it to add sugar or salt. Nevertheless, this is not a good pie crust.
• As I still had the chocolate filling left over, I poured it into a baking cup and bake it. It turned out nicer than the ones with the pie crust. :p