Monday, February 24, 2014

Mini Chocolate Chess Pies

Last November, I saw a recipe for Chocolate Chess Pie on I'm a Celiac's blog.  I was amazed at how easy it was to make, and it was so delicious, I made it once a week for at least 6 weeks, and even included it as part of our Thanksgiving feast.  


The recipe calls for 2 ounces of semisweet chocolate.  I usually use Guittard Real Semisweet Chocolate Chips that I purchase from The Fresh Market.  They are labeled gluten free.


I have also experimented with Dagoba semisweet and unsweetened chocolate in this recipe, using one ounce of each.  Dagoba, like Guittard, is labeled gluten free, and I purchase it from The Fresh Market.


Like Pam Jordan from I'm a Celiac, I use Whole Foods GlutenFree Bakehouse Pie Crust.  It's perfect for quickly making Chocolate Chess Pie or my Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie.


With my kitchen scale, I don't even need to get out a measuring cup for my sugar.


It's also helpful for measuring 2 ounces of chocolate.  


When making a full size pie, it will look like there is not enough filling when you fill your pie shell.  


The filling does puff up as the pie bakes, especially when I use extra large eggs.  


When I was sent a sample of Grandma's House Gluten Free Pie Crust, I had to make chocolate chess pie with it.  We do have a slight addiction to this pie.  :-)


Yesterday, I finally made mini chocolate chess pies, a version I have been wanting to make for a couple of months.  I used Williams-Sonoma Gluten-Free Piecrust Mix, the mix I use for my peach, raspberry, and apple crostata.  This piecrust mix is amazing!  Not only does it taste like a buttery wheat filled pie crust, but it is so easy to work with.  


I only used one of the packets of piecrust mix in the box. I put it in my mixer, added 1 stick of cold unsalted butter (cut into cubes), 3 tablespoons of ice water, and 1 egg large egg yolk, then mixed it until the dough came together.  It only took a couple of minutes to prepare.  I then weighed my dough, divided the weight by eight because I was making eight mini pies, and portioned out 48 gram little dough balls.  I didn't even grease my muffin pans.  


After rolling each lump of dough into a ball, I flattened them with my hands until they were larger than the opening of the muffin cup.  I then pressed and shaped each crust, not allowing it to come above the top of the muffin cup.  


The dough was incredibly easy to work with.  I didn't use any of the extra flour provided with the Williams-Sonoma Piecrust Mix for the purpose of rolling the dough.  


I filled each pie up to the top with the chocolate mixture.  I had a little bit left over, so next time, I am considering making 9 pies.  


I have noticed that when I use extra large eggs, the pie puffs up more.  It really isn't necessary with how much filling I had leftover, so I will be using large eggs the next time I make mini chocolate chess pies.  


Here's the finished product.  I allowed the pies to cool for about 15 minutes in my muffin pans, the removed them to finish cooling on a plate before putting them in the refrigerator.  I was impressed with how easily they lifted out of the muffin pans.  My husband, daughters, parents, and aunt & uncle all said they loved the mini chocolate chess pie last night.  My aunt said she couldn't believe it was gluten free.

Mini Chocolate Chess Pies

Ingredients

1 recipe of gluten free pie crust (enough for a single-crust pie) -- prepared
1 stick (8T) unsalted butter
2 ounces semisweet chocolate
200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat, stirring well to combine, then remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Slowly add the melted chocolate mixture, whisking well with each addition.

Make your pie crust and divide it between 8 muffin cups.  Press the dough into each muffin cup, not allowing it to come up over the edge.  Fill each crust with the pie filling and bake for 28 minutes in the center of your oven.  Allow the pies to cool for about 15 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a plate.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Recipe Notes

We like to chill our chocolate chess pie for a couple of hours in the refrigerator before eating it.  I take it out of the fridge when we sit down to dinner, and it is the perfect temperature for us when we eat it about 20 minutes later.

If you are making a full pie in a single pie crust, it needs to bake for 35 minutes.  When I use a frozen Whole Foods GlutenFree Bakehouse Pie Crust, I put it in the oven for 2 minutes to defrost it a bit before filling it.  Most of the Whole Foods pie crusts have cracks in them, but after heating it, they are easy to fix by just pressing the pie crust back together.

I have successfully made this recipe with extra large eggs and/or  half semisweet and half unsweetened chocolate.  We have loved it every time, no matter what ingredients I have used.

Many thanks to Pam Jordan of I'm a Celiac for posting this recipe from The Angus Barn in Raleigh, NC.  You can view Pam's Chocolate Chess Pie blog post here.


Linked to: Gluten-Free Wednesdays 




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