I'm not a fan of pecan pie. It's not really pecan pie's fault, though. I used to enjoy it, but once, when I was fourteen, I ate some pecan pie and then promptly came down with the flu. I have hence forth hated it. It's pretty much a guilty by association thing. The mere thought of it makes me nauseous! Don't you hate when that happens?? Anyway, enough about my stomach ailments. The point is, I don't like pecan pie or bourbon, for that matter, but my sister insisted that this pie is awesome, so I made it, and let me tell you . . . it is AWESOME!! It doesn't really taste like pecan pie. It's more like a fat, warm, chocolate chip cookie. Yum! I wish I had taken a picture after it was cut because that's where all the yumminess resides, but I was so distracted by eating it, that I forgot! Oh, well, next time!As far as the baking process is concerned, this is one of the easier recipes from the Baked cookbook. The pie crust came out perfectly, but if you want to opt for a store-bought crust, you could make this really quickly. Oh, and you can't taste the bourbon, which I liked, but if like your desserts a little more boozy, you can always add more.
More From Baked: Whoopie Pies, Sugar Cookies, Sweet and Salty Cake, Lemon Drop Cake, Coconut Snowball Cupcakes
You can find the complete recipe after the jump.
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
1 ball of Classic Pie Dough (below), chilled
2 cups pecan halves, toasted
3 large eggs
¾ cup light corn syrup
3 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp. bourbon
1 cup (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips (I used a bit more)
Dust work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the ball of chilled dough and put it directly on the work surface. Roll out into a 12-inch round. Transfer the dough to a pie dish and carefully work it into the pie dish, folding any overhang under and crimping the edge as you go. Wrap and freeze the crust until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Coarsely chop ¾ cup of the pecans. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until combined. Add the corn syrup, sugars, butter, salt, vanilla, and bourbon. Whisk again until combined. Stir in the chopped pecans and set the filling aside.
Spread the chocolate chips evenly along the bottom of the frozen pie shell. Slowly pour the filling on top of the chocolate chips. Arrange the remaining 1 ¼ cups pecan halves on top of the filling.
Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, then cover the edges of the crust loosely with the aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Test the pie by sticking a knife in the center of the filling. If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done. If the knife comes out with clumps of filing sticking to it, bake for another 5 minutes and test again.
Cool the pie on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 2 days.
Classic Pie Dough
Yield: 2 balls of dough, enough for 2 (9-inch) single-crust pies or 1 (9-inch) double-crust pie
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. fine salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
¾ cups ice cold water
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt together.
Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss the cubes in the flour mixture to coat. Put the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and pulse in short bursts until the pieces of butter are the size of hazelnuts.
While pulsing in quick, 4-second bursts, drizzle the ice water into the food processor through the feed tube.
As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, remove it from the food processor and divide it into two equal balls, Flatten to a disk and wrap each disk first in parchment paper and then in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the disks until firm, about 1 hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding with the recipe.)