The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Dark chocolate pie

Chocolate pieThis pie is not even the littlest bit good for you, but it is so full of chocolate that even the chocoholic will feel little need to hunt down an extra dose until the next meal.  Plus, it's just delicious....

Crust:
0.5 cups flour
0.5 cups cocoa
0.25 cups sugar
7 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons water

Add flour, cocoa, sugar, and butter to the food processor and blend until butter is well-distributed.  Add the water and blend again to mix.  Pat into the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the crust is just barely done.

Filling:
2.25 cups milk (separated)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons cocoa
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup dark chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter

Bring two cups of the milk to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat (being careful not to burn.)  Meanwhile, whisk the other quarter cup of milk together with the egg yolks, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Mix in the cocoa and cornstarch and then pour your cocoa mixture into the hot milk, whisking constantly.  Slowly bring it all to a boil, stirring constantly --- at this point, your filling should become relatively thick (although it will thicken more later as it cools.)  Turn off the heat and stir in the chocolate chips and butter, mixing until they melt into the filling.  Pour the filling into your baked pie crust.

Meringue:
5 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons sugar

Raw goat milkBeat eggs until they form stiff peaks, then gently mix in vanilla and sugar.  Spoon meringue on top of the pie's filling, making sure that it touches the edges of the pan all the way around.  (If your meringue doesn't touch the pan edges, it will shrink and won't cover the whole pie surface.)  Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for about ten minutes until the top is brown.

Chill for at least eight hours before serving.  Serves 16 if you have tiny appetites or 8 if you like chocolate.

I made this with some of Megan's goat milk, and it was phenomenal.  I suspect that lower quality milk from the store won't result in quite as delicious of a pie, but it's hard to say.

Our chicken waterer cuts daily care time in half.


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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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That looks like a very tasty pie. What did you think about the goat milk taste? Was it the same as cow's milk? Could you drink it straight? Just wondering about the taste. Thanks.
Comment by Heather Sat Sep 24 16:47:24 2011
I didn't understand a heck of a lot about the linux chicken door opener further up, but THIS POST --I can deepy and truly comprehend the awesomeness of this chocolate post :-)
Comment by J Sat Sep 24 17:11:40 2011

Heather --- I've been reading up on the taste of goat milk, and what I've read says that as long as you do everything right, goat milk tastes just like cow milk, only a bit sweeter. There are lots of ways you can go wrong, though, which is why goat milk has a reputation for having a hard to stomach flavor.

I haven't actually drunk any cow milk straight in years since it started to bother my stomach, so my comparison isn't really fair, but I thought this milk tasted great. Definitely no goaty flavor, although possibly a hint of an aftertaste from the way the goats had been eating honeysuckle. (Honeysuckle and several other weeds are supposed to add a flavor to goat milk, which is why people who want completely cow-like goat milk don't let their goats graze.)

So, to answer your question --- I could easily drink this goat milk straight, but I've gotten out of the habit of drinking milk straight so I figured I'd cook with it.

J --- I'm glad you said that, because I was on the fence about whether to post this. Since we clearly don't grow chocolate here, it's only very vaguely homestead related. But so tasty... :-)

Comment by anna Sat Sep 24 18:18:21 2011

Anything involving chocolate is good . . . whether it's homesteading-related or not! :)

As for this pie, I'll definitely be making it, although sans goats' milk(as we don't have a local supplier) and sans meringue (as I've disliked pie meringue since I was little). I'll try to remember to let you know how good it is when made with local milk from a certified organic dairy! :)

Comment by Ikwig Sat Sep 24 22:05:18 2011

"Anything involving chocolate is good . . . whether it's homesteading-related or not!" My sentiments exactly... :-)

The meringue wasn't actually in the original recipe (and neither was the chocolate crust.) I just don't believe in recipes where the egg whites and yolks don't come out even, so I tweak them until they do. :-) (I'm sure you can figure out why I added in the chocolate crust....)

Comment by anna Sun Sep 25 08:07:19 2011





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