Listen now | Well, hey there, kiddos. Back again so soon. This past weekend was the Kentucky Derby, which means absolutely nothing to either one of us. but we used it as an excuse to delve into one of America’s lesser-known culinary classics: definitely not derby pie. You’ll have to tune in to find out why we definitely didn’t make derby pie for this episode, and instead stuck to the much more hilariously named
These were my impressions when I tried this bake a week or so ago:
I ignored the crust baking instructions at the start of the recipe because both the cooking time and oven temperature seemed oddly low (did the author want us to just warm up the raw dough?). Instead I blind baked the crust (I used Erin McDowell’s “All Buttah Pie Dough” recipe—it’s nice to know we both rely on this recipe!). I imagine that if you do not blind bake the crust you may end up with a sticky mess at the bottom of the pie plate whereas my pie popped right out of the pan. To bake the pie itself, I reduced the temperature down to 350 degrees as indicated.
Some other recipes I came across while deciding whether I should attempt this bake, recommend subbing in mini chocolate chips so that they stay dispersed evenly throughout the pie filling rather than using regular-sized chocolate chips that tend to sink to the bottom. Other recipes recommended dumping the chocolate chips onto the bottom of a just-baked crust so they could melt and form a bottom chocolate layer, and then topping this with the rest of the batter. As usual I went with the route that required the least amount of effort and mixed regular-sized chocolate chips directly into the batter because that is what I had on hand. I found they stayed mixed evenly throughout the filling and did not sink to the bottom.
This particular recipe does not include bourbon, although many of the others I found online did. Again, taking the lazy route I opted not to add bourbon and saved myself a trip to the store!
Another interesting recipe debate was over whether Derby Pie should be made using walnuts or pecans. I had a bit of both on hand and thought about combining them if I did not have enough of one or the other, but in the end I had just enough walnut for the recipe. I went with walnuts over pecans because I find that walnuts pair well with chocolate in brownies or Nanaimo bars, so they would likely be good here too.
I ended up baking this pie a bit longer than suggested because the filling had not “puffed up” at the 30 minute mark. Concerned about overbaking, I removed the pie once the edges had puffed up but the centre was still a bit jiggly. I think it could have been baked a bit less. The resultant filling was more smooth than the chewy gooeyness of a pecan pie, but very pleasant.
Overall this was an easy bake and I love that it can be thrown together from pantry items—making it a good last-minute recipe. At the same time, I have to say I still prefer the brown sugar flavours of pecan pie or butter tarts to the chocolate overtones of Derby Pie.
I am curious to know what are some other southern US pies I should try?
Thank you again for another listen!
These were my impressions when I tried this bake a week or so ago:
I ignored the crust baking instructions at the start of the recipe because both the cooking time and oven temperature seemed oddly low (did the author want us to just warm up the raw dough?). Instead I blind baked the crust (I used Erin McDowell’s “All Buttah Pie Dough” recipe—it’s nice to know we both rely on this recipe!). I imagine that if you do not blind bake the crust you may end up with a sticky mess at the bottom of the pie plate whereas my pie popped right out of the pan. To bake the pie itself, I reduced the temperature down to 350 degrees as indicated.
Some other recipes I came across while deciding whether I should attempt this bake, recommend subbing in mini chocolate chips so that they stay dispersed evenly throughout the pie filling rather than using regular-sized chocolate chips that tend to sink to the bottom. Other recipes recommended dumping the chocolate chips onto the bottom of a just-baked crust so they could melt and form a bottom chocolate layer, and then topping this with the rest of the batter. As usual I went with the route that required the least amount of effort and mixed regular-sized chocolate chips directly into the batter because that is what I had on hand. I found they stayed mixed evenly throughout the filling and did not sink to the bottom.
This particular recipe does not include bourbon, although many of the others I found online did. Again, taking the lazy route I opted not to add bourbon and saved myself a trip to the store!
Another interesting recipe debate was over whether Derby Pie should be made using walnuts or pecans. I had a bit of both on hand and thought about combining them if I did not have enough of one or the other, but in the end I had just enough walnut for the recipe. I went with walnuts over pecans because I find that walnuts pair well with chocolate in brownies or Nanaimo bars, so they would likely be good here too.
I ended up baking this pie a bit longer than suggested because the filling had not “puffed up” at the 30 minute mark. Concerned about overbaking, I removed the pie once the edges had puffed up but the centre was still a bit jiggly. I think it could have been baked a bit less. The resultant filling was more smooth than the chewy gooeyness of a pecan pie, but very pleasant.
Overall this was an easy bake and I love that it can be thrown together from pantry items—making it a good last-minute recipe. At the same time, I have to say I still prefer the brown sugar flavours of pecan pie or butter tarts to the chocolate overtones of Derby Pie.
I am curious to know what are some other southern US pies I should try?