Featured Recipe
Jo's Chocolate Pecan Pie
Jo Gilks gave up her lucrative job in the City of London for food. She has always loved to cook and has forged a very different, yet often equally stressful, career for herself as a chef. Her Chocolate Pecan Pie has become a Thanksgiving dinner favourite and she warns you not to be put off by the crumbly texture of the pastry – it is difficult to roll but worth the trouble.
| Preparation time: | 35 minutes plus 25 minutes chilling |
| Cooking time: | 1 hour, 25 minutes |
| Use: | 28cm (11in) loose-based tart tin |
| Serves: | 8 - 10 |
PASTRY
- 275g (10oz) plain flour
- 75g (3oz) icing sugar
- 150g (5oz) unsalted butter, cold
- 2 large egg yolks
FILLING
- 275g (10oz) dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
- 200g (7oz) shelled pecans, chopped
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 225g (8oz) light soft brown sugar
- 250ml (9fl oz) evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 50g (2oz) unsalted butter, melted
To make the pastry, sift together the flour and icing sugar and cut the butter into cubes.
Place in a food-processor and mix together, adding the egg yolks at the end to form a dough.
Carefully roll out the pastry. You will need quite a lot of flour on your board and rolling pin as it sticks easily. The pastry needs to be very thin. Lift it carefully into the tart tin by rolling it up on the rolling pin, then slowly unroll it over the tin, press into the base and sides and trim away the excess, but allow a little extra as the pastry will shrink slightly. Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Bake the pastry case blind by using parchment or greaseproof paper and baking beans for about 15 minutes.
Remove the beans and paper and return the pastry to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until it has developed a very light colour. Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Mix together all the remaining ingredients for the filling, then stir in the melted chocolate. Spoon into the pastry case and return it to the oven for about 1 hour. Watch the pastry carefully and if necessary cover with foil to prevent it burning.
HINT: Any dried beans or pulses can be used for blind baking – red, kidney, black, corn or rice – all they are doing is putting weight on the pastry so that it doesn’t rise during baking. Once cooled, they can be used again and again.
