Pi Day Recipes! Part Two

Happy Pi Day, y'all!

I hope you all celebrated 3.14 in a similarly yummy way as we did.

Yesterday I showed you three of the four recipes I prepared for our Pi Day celebration and auction at work: Lemon Chess, Lemon Meringue with Raspberry Coulis, and Coconut Chocolate Pies

If you missed it, I made Lemon Chess, Lemon Meringue with Raspberry Coulis, Coconut Chocolate, and a fourth mystery pie that I promised to share today.

Well, the wait is over! Here it is - the Irish Car Bomb Pie!

I dreamed this recipe up a few days ago. It's based on a cupcake recipe I make every year for St. Patrick's Day. I was trying to come up with an idea for a March-relevant pie, and kept coming back to those cupcakes. Then, I had one of those moments: Why don't I turn my cupcakes into a pie?!?

Brilliant!

The cupcakes, my Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, are one of my favorite recipes to make. It's a dark chocolate Guinness cake with Irish whiskey ganache filling and topped with an Irish cream buttercream. Drooling yet?

The pie adaptation is fairly similar.

I make my crusts with vodka, so I decided I could substitute whiskey and flavor the crust a little. Then, I decided I adapt a chocolate pudding pie to make it Guinness flavored (like the cake) and top it with an Irish cream flavored meringue (using a Swiss meringue recipe). The only part not immediately obvious was how to incorporate the whiskey a little more. Then it hit me, just use the ganache from the cupcake recipe! I decided I could cover the crust with a layer of ganache before adding the pudding.

The next step was to try it out, cross my fingers, and hope it turned out like I wanted.

And, voila! I'm pretty proud of this one if I may say so myself. This pie is best when it has time to sit and awesome-ize, so plan ahead if you're gonna give it a go.

Irish Car Bomb Pie

For the crust (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 8 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp cold Irish whiskey

For the whiskey ganache

• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp Irish whiskey

For the pudding (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

• 2 cups whole milk
• 12 oz bottle Guinness
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

For the Irish cream meringue

• 4 egg whites, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• Pinch Cream of Tartar
• 1/4 cup Irish Cream

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar until combined. Cut in butter and blend until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour).
2. Sprinkle whiskey and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.
3. Form into a ball and flatten into a 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes.
4. When ready to prepare pie, heat your oven to 375 degrees.
5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and drape the crust into a pie dish. Crimp the edges to your liking and prick the bottom of the crust. Weigh down the crust with weights (or rice or beans) OR use my new method: put the shell back into the freezer for 20 min and press a piece of buttered foil (butter side down) against the frozen shell (as tightly as you can).
6. Bake about 25 min, remove foil or weights, and bake about 15 min more.
7. While baking, make the ganache. Combine chocolate and cream in a double boiler until melted and smooth. Remove from heat, stir in whiskey, and set aside.
8. When crust has baked, pour ganache over the crust and set aside to cool. It will take several hours for this to firm up – plan ahead.
9. When crust is set, prepare the filling. Whisk together cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk then Guinness and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, for about two minutes (or until thickened).
10. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla then pour filling into cooled shell and chill.
11. Finally, prepare the Irish cream meringue. Using the steel mixing bowl from your stand mixer and a medium saucepan, create a double boiler. Bring water to a high simmer in the saucepan and combine the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the mixing bowl.
12. Whisk over med-high heat until sugar is disolved and egg whites are warm to the touch. 
13. Transfer bowl to mixer and whip on high til soft peaks form. Gently fold in Irish cream, incorporating completely but not over mixing.
14. Spread on top of chilled pie, swirling with the back of a spoon. Toast with brulee torch if desired. 

It went over really well at the auction, as did my other pies! We had a great time. Some highlights are below:

Yes that's someone in a purple dolphin costume. Yes he "ate" his pie...with the help of a wet vac. He was disqualified. Kid Pie was the clear winner.

Pretty fantastic day. Hope y'all enjoyed yours, too!