Celebrating Pi (π) day: Chocolate Fudge Pie and Fudge Brownie Pie

Ha Ha. The title easily gives away how serious I am about celebrating ‘Pi’ day! Well,.. ahem, I was never too crazy about mathematics. I mean I was good at it until 10th grade or so when it started becoming too complicated with theories (or was it theorems) that I slowly started losing interest!  Hyperbola, parabola, ellipsis etc etc..yuck…was the kind of stuff that put me to sleep. Why then you will ask so much importance for ‘Pi’ day? Well my 14 year old can recite the value of Pi for up to 30 decimal points (yeah he likes to brag about it of course!) So he was talking about it yesterday at the dinner table – Tomorrow is Pi day mom!  It is 3/14/15 and you know what Mrs V (his math teacher who is expecting a baby any day now) was hoping that she delivers her baby on Pi day at 9.26 AM or PM!  We all had a hearty laugh and hoped that his teacher’s dream came true! Then the conversation shifted to what should I be making for dessert today at a potluck party at our friend’s place. Knowing my love for making desserts no one else had picked the dessert slot. So as I was asking my family for suggestions, my son suddenly goes – “Mom, its Pi day” with a twinkle in his eye!  I stared blankly at him for a few seconds until it registered – Yay! I don’t need to think too hard! Pies on Pi day now that’s a ‘no brainer’! And off I went looking for different pie recipes. But my kids helped me to further narrow it down – it has to be chocolate, Mom!

OK so I ended up making two different chocolate pies.  Further narrowing recipes was not hard since I had to work off what I had in my pantry since I had no desire to rush to the store on a  saturday morning. In the end both the pies ended up being a mishmash of different pie recipes that I browsed! But they both turned out fabulous – so gooey and decadent.  As they say you can never go wrong with chocolate 🙂  Happy Pie day folks! I am bringing these delicious pies to Fiesta Friday at Angie’s – Hey we need to celebrate, right? 🙂

CHOCOLATE FUDGE PIE

Makes a 9 inch pie; recipe adapted from omgchocolatedesserts

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter (cold and cut into half inch cubes)
• 2-4 tablespoons ice cold water

• 1½ cups sugar
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 8 ounces or 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces or chocolate chips
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules

Method:

1. In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar and salt.
2. Add butter and mix with a fork (or your hands) until it starts to look like a coarse meal.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time and continue mixing with your hands until a dough forms.
4. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
5. Take the dough from refrigerator and roll out on a lightly floured work surface into a circle about ⅛ inch thick.
6. Transfer the dough to a pie plate
7. Keep the pie dish aside.

For the filling:

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Take a large mixing bowl and add the flour, cocoa, salt and sugar.

In another small microwave safe bowl, add the butter, milk and the chocolate pieces and heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes stirring at 30 second intervals. (Alternately you can heat in a pot over the stove until everything is melted).  Let this mixture cool for a couple minutes.

Add the above chocolate mixture to the flour mixture in the bowl and mix using an electric mixer until all the flour is blended in. then add the eggs one at a time and mix to blend. Finally add the coffee and the vanilla and mix again.

Pour this filling mixture onto the pie dish lined with the unbaked pie crust.  Bake at 350 deg F for about 45 minutes until a tooth pick inserted at the center shows no liquid – it will still be sticky which is ok.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving with a dollop of freshly whipped cream!

FUDGE BROWNIE PIE

Makes one 9 inch Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup butter scotch chips
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Method:

Heat oven to 350 deg F.

Lightly grease a 9 inch pie dish and keep aside.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, sugar and butter with an electric mixer until creamy. In a plate, mix the flour, cocoa and the salt. Add this mixture to the bowl and mix again slowly until all the flour is well mixed with the butter mixture. Add the vanilla extract and then add the nuts and mix.

Dump this mixture onto the pie dish and sprinkle the chico chips, butter scotch and white chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 deg F for about 25 minutes until the edges turn dry. Center will still be gooey.

Serve topped with chocolate syrup and / ice cream!