It's a good thing when your show-off dish is easy to make

[xiphias]

I think everybody should have at least one dish that they can make and bring places that everyone loves. Lis has two -- she makes an incredible baklava and an incredible fudge. I've got two -- cheesecake and chocolate pie. Cheesecake is fun to make, but it takes like a dozen ingredients, hours, and vaguely tricky timing. It's not actually that difficult, but it's a bit of a pain.

But my chocolate pie is EASY. And that means that I've got a show-off dish that I can just, y'know, MAKE.

I've made two this morning. Took about an hour for both of 'em. vonbeck suggested putting cinnamon sticks on the hot one to distinguish them, which is what I'm going to do. I like the chili pepper idea, but I don't have chili peppers, and I DO have cinnamon sticks.

Comments

[minerva42]

Neat! Have fun! Wish I could be there to try some.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

Yum! That sounds really good.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I can make a delicious filling for truffles. I've got the ganache down, I just keep burning the coating so I think I'm going to have to roll them in cocoa or coconut or something (I'm making them for a dinner tonight). Unless you know something I don't (yes, I'm using a double boiler).

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

What are you trying to coat them in? I might be able to suggest something....

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying to melt some chocolate and brush it on the ganache. But I keep burning it. Perhaps I could benefit from actually owning a double boiler. If you have a foolproof recipe, I'd be delighted to try it.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

The way we were taught to do it, a bowl on top of the water is fine--that's as much of a "real" double boiler as anyone in a restaurant generally uses. You just have to make sure of the following:

1. First you get the water simmering, and remove the pot from the stove, and *then* put the chopped chocolate bowl over the pot. Yes, it will melt very slowly this way. That's best for the chocolate. Make sure the water never actually reaches the boil when you do this, as 212 degrees is hot enough to burn chocolate. Just-simmering and then right off the heat is perfect.

2. Make sure the bowl with the chocolate in it is never actually touching the water, only receiving its steam, but you probably knew that part already.

That's really all you have to do. Chop the chocolate small before you start so it melts faster and more evenly, stir it very occasionally as it gets melty over the pot, and you're fine. Chocolate burns at very low temperatures, so it needs patience, is all.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I really wanted to coat my dark chocolate truffles in white chocolate, but, as I am discovering, white chocolate is a much more difficult beast to deal with, so I'm going with gran marnier flavored truffles coated with bittersweet chocolate, possibly with a drizzling of the failed white choclate ganache I attempted but added too much cream. We shall see.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Sounds delicious! Good luck with those.

White chocolate is a pain to work with, yeah. It's because it has even more sensitivity to heat than the dark stuff. (The order of decreasing temperature to be used is dark, milk, white, for those who care.)

Basically you melt it the same way, only with even lower heat, and ghod forbid you actually want it tempered because then you have to keep fiddling with it in that narrow window of temperature to keep it liquid but still where it'll set hard and not burn either. Yeek. Semisweet, aka dark, is so much more forgiving in comparison.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

White chocolate is a pain to work with

Yes. Yes it is. I gave up on it, actually.

[beardedone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I'm planning on coating strawberries tomorrow, but I was originally planning on using the semi-sweet chocolate fondue I have in the fridge.

Which is better for this purpose, the fondue, or melting chocolate like you've explained?

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

What's in your fondue? I'm guessing it has cream in it?

If you want to make the sort of chocolate-dipped strawberries you usually see, where the chocolate is set, you want to use unadulterated melted chocolate as opposed to a fondue.

If you actually bother to temper the chocolate, you'll get ones like you see at good restaurants where the chocolate stays hard and shiny even at room temperature for a good while, but for home use it's easier to just gently melt the chocolate, dip the berries, and refrigerate them so you don't have to bother.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

Specifically, A real double boiler that's not just one pot inside another like I've been doing.

[cowgurrl.livejournal.com]

use a glass jar instead of the 2nd pot (chocolate in glass jar, in pot of water), always seems to work for me

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

Anything else? Just chocolate? Some butter? Oil? If this fails I'm just rolling the little bastards in cocoanut and calling it a day.

[cowgurrl.livejournal.com]

well, i've never added anything, but that doesn't make it right, lol. all i know is i've never burned the chocolate that way... though i would definitely say, save yourself the hassle and roll em in cocoa/coconut/nuts/nonpareils something like that

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I'm stubborn.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

I haven't done it in ages, but I used to use a couple tablespoons oil, about 1 teaspoon for every 2 ounces of chocolate in the coating. I suggest a nutty oil, like walnut, almond, or pistachio. Butter will only work if you clarify it first, which is more trouble than it's worth, IMNSHO.

After you make the fillings, put them on wax paper or foil in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so. While they chill, melt the chocolate (bittersweet is really good for this sort of thing) in a double boiler, then mix in the oil. Let the coating chocolate cool a bit, and then dip the cooled truffles in it, using a fork or tongs to hold them, making sure to get a lot on them. Then put them on foil in the fridge for an hour or two to set. At that point you can roll them in cocoa or somesuch, and put them in an airtight container.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to trying it, as long as I don't get lost getting there from Roxbury :)

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Mine is toffee. Impresses people and really doesn't require me to do anything but watch and stir.

American Pie

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

Is actually my such dish, strangely enough, although I do make it with whole-wheat flour. It takes me about two and a half hours to make, so I don't make it often...

Re: American Pie

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

What is American Pie?

Re: American Pie

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

"As American As Apple Pie" - Your standard thick-crust Apple Pie, made with semi-sweet (Smith?) green apples, lot's of sugar, Cinnamon and ground Muscat nuts. Baked until the thinly sliced apples "melt". As I make the pie dough and crust myself, it can be a lot of work...

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Can we see the recipe for hot chocolate pie? Sounds WONderful.