You Want Pies With That?

You Want Pies With That (click on the link to see what the other challengers made) is a new blog challenge run by some other TWDers – each month there will be a theme and you have to make a pie or tart inspired by the theme. This month the theme is “I love that Movie!”. I took a while batting ideas about with some friends and thinking of movies I really love. My favourite movies include Shawshank Redemption (I couldn’t imagine prison food made into a pie!) and The Sound of Music (I did consider apple pie – apple streudel is one of the favourite things, but thought it was a bit boring).

However, another idea popped into my head – the line “Life is Like a Box of Chocolates” from Forrest Gump popped into my head. My friend suggested making a pie with different flavoured slices, like different flavoured chocolates! I wasn’t quite that ambitious, but made these mini pies instead – chocolate pies with a hokey pokey topping. Hokey Pokey or “crunchie” chocolates feature in Cadbury milk trays and my pie reflects that.

The pastry is a flaky pastry – you could easily buy ready made, but I made a rough flaky pastry using equal amounts of butter and flour and a little milk and vinegar to bind. I folded the pastry like a letter for an envelope four times to get the flaky texture. I then chilled the dough before slicing off sections and rolling them out to line the inside of muffin tins (in much the same way as you would when making Portugese tarts). I didn’t bake the pastry blind for my small pies, but I would if making a large tart.

The filling is a chocolate filling made by making a basic chocolate custard and then baking in the pastry shells. Using some cream in the custard filling gave the tarts a great mouth feel – creamy but with a bit of body. Once the tarts were cold I topped them with hokey pokey.

Hokey pokey is a fun thing to make with kids – in fact I remember making it as a science experiment at school. You gently melt 50g sugar and 2 tbsp golden syrup together, let it boil for a minute or so, then add ¾ tsp baking soda. The baking soda makes the sugar mixture puff up, it then sets to a crisp but chewy lolly. Yum!
We had the pies with whipped cream.



“Life is Like a Box of Chocolate Pies”
flaky pastry (make your own or bought would be fine)
35g sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornflour
50ml milk
100ml cream
50g dark chocolate
2 egg yolks
hokey pokey to top

· Line muffin tins with pastry
· Combine sugar, cornflour, milk and cream in a small pot and stir over medium heat until thickened. Boil, stirring constantly for a minute
· Beat in egg yolks one at a time and then stir in chocolate until melted’
· Spoon into pastry cases and bake at 200c for 10-12 minutes or until custard is firm
When cold, top with hokey pokey