One of the features of my upcoming book on food swapping are profiles of nineteen food swap groups around North America and Great Britain. I love this aspect of the book and thoroughly enjoyed interviewing all the different food swap organizers. But when it came time to write the profiles, I struggled. I was not certain how to approach it. Should I follow a template? Draw connections between all the different profiles? Or should each one stand alone?
I mentioned to a friend how uncertain I was about how to structure these profiles and she suggested that I look at a cookbook called Teeny’s Tour of Pie. The author of that book apprenticed at pie shops around the country and profiled each one as part of her book. My friend Jill, who has written a few cookbooks herself, thought that the profiles in Teeny’s Tour of Pie would inspire me. I wrote down the title of the book and promptly forgot about it.
Months later, however, I saw a discounted copy of Teeny’s Tour of Pie on the very dangerous and addictive website, Book Outlet, and remembered Jill’s suggestion. So I ordered it, figuring that the worst thing that could happen was that my already excessive cookbook collection would grow by one.
Reader, I am so happy that I did. I do not know if the profiles of the various pie shops actually helped me, but I loved the book, which I read from cover to cover. The author, the improbably named Teeny Lamothe, has a distinctive, whimsical voice and charmingly relates how she forged her own path as an apprentice Lady Pie Baker. Plus, the book is chock full of recipes and tips about pie, one of my favorite things to make. The author’s tips on how to bake “teeny pies,” miniature pies about five inches in diameter, absolutely helped me rethink an important recipe, so I am 100% deducting the book on next year’s taxes.
With Pi Day (March 14) only a few days away, it seems fitting to discuss this great pie cookbook and share with you the recipe for this chocolate-orange cream pie. Although I relied on my own method for making the pie crust — which method has been heavily influenced by The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie — I used recipes from Teeny’s Tour of Pie for the chocolate cream filling and orange-scented whipped cream. The result was pretty spectacular. I brought this pie to a meeting as a thank-you to the attendees and everyone loved it.
Teeny recommends serving her chocolate cream pie with orange-flavored whipped cream but I decided to pump up the orange flavor by adding some Grand Marnier to the chocolate cream and then I garnished the top of the pie with candied kumquats. You should be able to find kumquats in stores through March and into April. They’re tricky little guys to use: I think this method of candying the slices is among the easier and more fun ways to deal with these littlest members of the citrus family.
The chocolate cream pie recipe is only one of many in Teeny’s Tour of Pie that caught my eye. As we head into the spring and summer months, and local fruits come into season, I have no doubt that I will make many more of Teeny’s wonderful recipes. So if you are looking for a cookbook that will demystify that most American of desserts, pie, with a healthy dose of fun on the side, Teeny’s Tour of Pie is for you. And if you just want to make a dessert that will wow your friends and family, this Chocolate-Orange Cream Pie will do nicely indeed.
- 7 ounces cold, unsalted butter
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup ice water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 3 TB cornstarch
- Pinch salt
- Pinch espresso powder (optional)
- 1½ cups whole milk
- ½ cup cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 TB Grand Marnier
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 TB powdered sugar
- Splash vanilla
- Zest of one orange
- 1 pint kumquats
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- Cut the butter into small cubes and place half of the cubes in the freezer. Return the other half to the refrigerator until needed.
- Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the chilled butter from the refrigerator to the dry ingredients and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Add the frozen butter to the food processor and pulse until the butter is in small but still visible pieces.
- Combine the lemon juice and ice water and add six tablespoons of the mixture to the ingredients in the food processor. Pulse several times until combined. Pinch a bit of the dough and if it holds together, you do not need to add more liquid. If it is still dry, add more of the liquid, one-half tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough to a bowl or a well-floured board.
- Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Divide the dough into two and wrap each half well in plastic wrap. Place half the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least a half-hour. (Can be done in advance.) Reserve the other half for another use.
- If your dough was chilled for longer than thirty minutes, remove from the refrigerator and allow to soften for ten to fifteen minutes before rolling it out.
- Prior to rolling out the dough, strike it with your rolling pin to flatten. This will soften it further.
- Preheat the oven to 375 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.
- Liberally dust a pastry board or mat and your rolling pin with flour.
- Roll the dough out, rotating it and turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is the size of your pie plate and between ¼ and ⅛ of an inch thick.
- Carefully center the pie dough in the plate and press it into the bottom and sides. Trim or fold over any excess dough around the edges and make a pretty crimped crust by pinching with your fingers.
- Blind bake the crust by covering it with parchment paper and filling with pie weights or raw rice. Bake for twenty minutes, then remove the parchment paper and pie weight and bake an additional five minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the crust to cool completely before filling.
- To make the filling, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, salt and espresso powder, if using, in a large saucepan and whisk together.
- In a bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, egg yolks and Grand Marnier
- Add the liquids to the saucepan and whisk together until frothy.
- Heat the ingredients in the saucepan over medium to medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture simmers and begins to thicken to a pudding-like consistency, about ten to twelve minutes. Do NOT allow mixture to boil or you might scramble the eggs. (If you do see little pieces of cooked egg in the cream, remove them.)
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips. Stir until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Pour the chocolate cream into the prepared pie shell and cover with plastic wrap.
- Chill until set, at least four hours.
- Make the orange whipped cream by combining the heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and orange zest in the bowl of a standing mixer and whipping with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Cover and chill until needed.
- To make the candied kumquats, slice each kumquat in half and remove the seeds. Cut the halves into thin slices.
- Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Add the kumquat slices to the sugar syrup and simmer until softened, about fifteen minutes.
- Remove slices and allow to dry on parchment paper, turning once to expose both sides to air.
- Garnish pie with whipped cream and kumquats to your liking.
Nice review and the pie looks great.
Thank you! It’s a fun little book.