This week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe is one that doesn't require you to turn on the oven, but you do have to dirty a pretty big pile of bowls in the course of making it.
The gentlemen bakers offer a recipe for Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie in honor of Grandparents' Day -- a walnut crust filled with frozen dark chocolate filling made with whipped cream and Swiss meringue (which I assume is the source of the name?). The crust was easy -- just mix together melted butter, granulated sugar, and chopped toasted walnuts, and press the mixture into a pie pan. The recipe is supposed to yield one 9-inch pie, but I halved it and made three 5-inch mini pies instead. I had just the right amount of crust for three small crusts. I refrigerated the crusts while making the filling.
The base of the chocolate filling is a mixture of melted dark chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger 70%), instant espresso powder, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cream. You fold in Swiss meringue (egg white and sugar that has been heated in a double boiler and beaten to stiff peaks) and whipped cream. You're supposed to add some whiskey into the whipped cream, but I skipped it. My chocolate base mixture was very stiff and I had a hard time folding in the meringue and whipped cream without losing a lot of volume. I ended up with a lot of filling (relative to the size of my mini pies), so I put it in a piping bag with a star tip and piped a heaping mound into each crust. Then I sprinkled on some more chopped walnuts and put the pies in the freezer.
The pies froze hard as a rock; I wonder if adding the alcohol to the whipped cream might have prevented it from freezing solid. I had to leave one in the refrigerator for a few hours before it was soft enough to cut. I have mixed feelings about this pie. The walnut crust was my favorite part -- it was sweet and so delicious. The filling I could take or leave. It was creamy and pleasingly dense, but I thought it was not sweet enough. I used very dark chocolate, but that's what the recipe calls for. However, I think that I would have preferred it with chocolate in the 50%-60% range, and perhaps also without the espresso powder.
I'm also a little confused as to why it makes sense to make a frozen pie if you have to thaw it out to serve it. I make a lot of frozen mousse cakes and semifreddos that can be served directly from the freezer, which makes them very convenient for parties. I did enjoy this decadent dessert. But I'm not sure if I like it enough to make it again.
Recipe: "Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
The gentlemen bakers offer a recipe for Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie in honor of Grandparents' Day -- a walnut crust filled with frozen dark chocolate filling made with whipped cream and Swiss meringue (which I assume is the source of the name?). The crust was easy -- just mix together melted butter, granulated sugar, and chopped toasted walnuts, and press the mixture into a pie pan. The recipe is supposed to yield one 9-inch pie, but I halved it and made three 5-inch mini pies instead. I had just the right amount of crust for three small crusts. I refrigerated the crusts while making the filling.
The base of the chocolate filling is a mixture of melted dark chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger 70%), instant espresso powder, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cream. You fold in Swiss meringue (egg white and sugar that has been heated in a double boiler and beaten to stiff peaks) and whipped cream. You're supposed to add some whiskey into the whipped cream, but I skipped it. My chocolate base mixture was very stiff and I had a hard time folding in the meringue and whipped cream without losing a lot of volume. I ended up with a lot of filling (relative to the size of my mini pies), so I put it in a piping bag with a star tip and piped a heaping mound into each crust. Then I sprinkled on some more chopped walnuts and put the pies in the freezer.
I'm also a little confused as to why it makes sense to make a frozen pie if you have to thaw it out to serve it. I make a lot of frozen mousse cakes and semifreddos that can be served directly from the freezer, which makes them very convenient for parties. I did enjoy this decadent dessert. But I'm not sure if I like it enough to make it again.
Recipe: "Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
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