Sunday, February 27, 2011

Layered Chocolate Pie

Yesterday, my family gathered at my grandmother's house to celebrate her life. My grandmother was an amazing woman -- super glamorous, highly opinionated, passionate activist, wonderful artist . . . and ultimate gourmand. Everyone who knew her knew that she loved a huge range of cuisines and was extremely vocal about her opinions on different foods or restaurants. In providing dessert for the event, I knew that I wanted to make something delicious that she'd be proud of. Since she loved chocolate, I decided that one of my desserts would definitely be a chocolate pie; for variety, I also made a berry tart. Since there are several steps to each dessert, I'll just post about the chocolate pie here and will save the berry tart for another later.


There were a couple of considerations in making these desserts other than just trying to make them tasty! Since this was a day for family, I wanted everyone to be able to participate -- so these pies reflect the various dietary restrictions present. As always, there are no eggs or milk, but there is also no wheat, no sugar, and the whole thing is low-carb* to be diabetic friendly.

When I was shopping for ingredients, I came across coconut flour, which I had never seen before -- but in addition to being gluten-free it is also low-carb, with most of the carbohydrates coming from fiber. Since it looked perfect for my needs, I decided to give it a try despite having never cooked with it before! Some quick googling didn't turn up any useful recipes, so I plunged in blind -- but fortune was on my side, and surprisingly the results were quite tasty! I actually made two of each kind of pie, but halved my recipe below so the proportions are right for one pie.



Chocolate Pie
The chocolate pie consists of three layers -- the chocolate crust on the bottom, a layer of chocolate ganache, and a layer of chocolate custard.

Chocolate Crust
  • 6 tbsp coconut flour
  • 2 tbsp melted earth balance
  • 1 1/2 tbsp ener-g
  • 6 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 6 tbsp water
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp agave nectar

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together dry ingredients, then mix in the wet ingredients until well-mixed. The dough will still be fairly wet, so use a rubber spatula to spread it on the bottom of a nine inch pan. I used a cake pan with flat sides for one (with crust only on the bottom) and a pie dish with sloped sides for the other (with crust up the sides); the cake pan is pictured above. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache
Full disclosure: I was running out of earth balance when I made this, so I might have made more or used other proportions otherwise -- but this is the amount I made yesterday, and it worked fine. Feel free to make more though! Additionally, to keep it sugar-free I used grain-sweetened chocolate chips; if you don't care about the sugar but want to keep it gluten-free, use regular dairy-free chocolate chips.
  • 1/2 c soy milk
  • 1 tbsp earth balance
  • 2 tbsp chocolate chips
Place s'milk and earth balance in a saucepot, then bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate chips until they are well-melted and thoroughly combined. Pour the ganache into the prepared pie crust and place in fridge to cool.

Chocolate Custard
This is also great by itself as chocolate pudding, though it needs a touch less tapioca starch if you intend to eat it plain instead of as part of a pie.
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1/2 c cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp tapioca starch
  • 3 packets of truvia stevia
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 tbsp agave nectar
Whisk all ingredients together in a saucepot before turning on heat. Once the mixture is well-combined, turn the heat on medium and continue to whisk. The mixture will thicken as it heats; once it is evenly thickened, pour the custard over the cooled ganache and refrigerate for a few hours. You may want to smooth the top with a rubber spatula before placing it in the fridge.


* With the ingredients I used, there were 13 carbs for a slice (1/12) of the chocolate pie.