Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

Hello everyone,
Today I am here with a new recipe. Those of you that follow me on Instagram (@curlsncakes) might know that I recently came back from a (more than) week-long holiday in London. It was fantastic and I managed to see plenty of shows, ballets and musicals, one of which were the Broadway hit: Waitress. The musical is based on a movie from 2007 with Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, with music written by Sara Bareilles. I saw the movie some time ago and loved it, because it was tragic and beautiful, and had so many pies in it.

Waitress is about an unhappy woman, Jenna. She's in a messed up relationship, but works as a waitress in a diner. Jenna's only happy when baking her pies. All along watching the movie and then the musical (which is beautiful with lovely music, by the way) I kept wishing there would be a recipe book for all these incredible pies that Jenna bakes.

Coming out of the play I noticed a book in the little shop stand in the theatre. And lo and behold, it was what I had wished for: Sugar, Butter, Flour - The Waitress Pie Book.
I was so excited and instantly bought it (and some other things).

This first pie that I baked from the book is called the In the Dark Dark pie, and it makes 24 cm pie. I made some modifications to the recipe to suit me and my ingredients more, and I will present that modified recipe. For the original recipe, see the book. Without further ado...

Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

INGREDIENTS

For the pie shell:

• 1 packet of Oreos (original)
• 75 grams melted butter

For the pie filling:

• 230 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 dl skimmed milk (1.5% fat)
• 2 dl heavy cream (35% fat)
• 2 eggs

For the pie topping:

• 2 dl heavy cream, chilled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 dl powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• Decorations in the form of chocolate curls

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 175°C.
Crush the oreos in a blender and add the butter to it. Press the moistened oreo crumbs into your pie tin. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and then bake in the middle rack of your oven for 10 minutes.

Bring the milk and heavy cream to just before a boil in a saucepan and pour it over the copped chocolate. Mix until smooth. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mix into the eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes. The centre of the pie should still be rather loose and wobbly when given a shake.

For the topping mix vanilla, sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. In another bowl whip the heavy cream until slightly thickened, then add the dry ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe the topping using a piping bag and a tip unto the cooled (to room temperature) pie. Add the chocolate curls on top, and voilà!

I personally preferred this pie chilled, rather than cooled to just room temperature. So if you're anything like me, bake this pie the day before serving and refrigerate until you are going to eat it.

Until next time!

Much love,
Mona

Chocolate Macarons

Hello all,
Some weeks ago I made chocolate macarons, after not having baked macarons for over two years. I was worried that I had lost my touch, but alas it was fine!

That proves that this recipe is an easy one, and that really, you have to be really unlucky to fail with it. The macarons may not have been perfect (I think I would've needed another minute of beating the batter), but they were very tasty. That's really all anyone can ask for!

Chocolate macarons

INGREDIENTS

• 100 g almond powder
• 3 egg whites (about 100-110 g)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 185 g powdered sugar
• 15 g cocoa powder
  

DIRECTIONS

I like to prepare my egg whites by leaving them in room temperature for a day before I start baking. It yields better macarons in my opinion.
 
Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Sift the almond powder and throw away the large pieces.
Mix the almond powder with the powdered sugar and the cocoa and sift again.

In another bowl whisk the room tempered egg whites until it starts to foam. Then gradually add the tablespoons of sugar. Whisk the egg whites until thick and shiny. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without anything pouring out.

Add the almond-powdered sugar-cocoa mix to the eggs and mix. This is where it can get a bit tricky. Obviously the almond-mix should get completely incorporated within the egg whites, however you usually need to mix it a bit more. I usually pick up a bit of the batter with a spatula and if it falls down in a ribbon like shape it is ready and should not be mixed anymore. Mix it too much and you get flat macarons.

Pour the batter into a piping bag with a round tip and pipe the batter onto baking trays prepared with baking sheets. Now it is important to let the piped to-be macarons rest on the baking trays in room temperature for about an hour. I know you're eager to see how they turn out, but the resting of the macarons is super important, because the surface dries a bit and that makes them not loose their shape when they are baked, and it enables the feet to come out when baked (if the anatomy of a macaron is a mystery to you, I highly recommend googling it, but below a photo follows to explain some things).

After the macarons have rested for about an hour in room temperature, bake them at 150°C for about 14 minutes.

Let the macaron shells cool completely before you fill them with ganache. For my ganache recipe click here.

I also painted my macaron shells with a bit of edible gold, just so that they would look a wee bit more luxurious.

And that, my friends, is really all there is to it!
I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Much love,
Mona