You want Pies with That - Literary Pie

This month’s You Want Pies With That theme was chosen by one of my favourite bloggers, Mary of The Food Librarian. Quite naturally, Mary’s theme is Literary Pies. I am an avid reader, so the decision was difficult, only because of the range of my reading material over the years. Mary also mentioned that we would get bonus points if we have visited the library in the past year – well, I belong to two book clubs and probably go to the library at least every 3 weeks. At the moment I am reading Paula Radcliffe’s autobiography, trying to keep myself motivated while battling this injury!

Anyway, after much deliberation, I delved back into my childhood, when my favourite books were Trixie Beldon books. I am the only person I know who has the whole series. I loved them so much that the covers are falling off many of them as I would re-read them so many times. I loved the adventures of Trixie, her friend Honey Wheeler and their respective brothers. I had Trixie and Honey cut out dolls as well – cut out dolls were my thing and I loved them so much more than my Daisy doll and Barbie doll. Trixie was an amateur detective and her and her friends would solve all sorts of mysteries. I quite fancied myself as a detective (I guess being a lawyer is kind of like that!), so I loved Trixie’s adventures.

One of Trixie’s mysteries was called Mystery on the Mississippi. So, my pie for the month is my take on a Mississippi mud pie. It is not truly authentic, but it tasted pretty good!!! I used Dorie Greenspan’s shortbcrust pastry for the base (a half recipe) and then made a fudgey chocolate filling. I then topped the little pies once cold with a layer of ganache. These were really good with natural yoghurt. I made 4 individual tarts and did have quite a bit of filling left over, which I baked in a pudding dish – it tasted delicious as a fudgey pudding. You could try halving the filling again, but I think the quantity may get to be too small to work with. Check out the other literary pies here.

My Mississippi Mud Pie Filling

35g dark chocolate (I used Whittakers 70% cocoa)
1/3 c brown sugar
25g butter
½ c sugar
1/3 c milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 whole eggs and one egg yolk

· Melt together the chocolate, butter, sugars, milk and golden syrup until combined and the sugar has dissolved. Cool a little and then beat in the eggs one at a time and then the yolk
· Chill completely
· Pour into blind baked tart cases and bake @ 180c until set (about 25 minutes)
Once cold, top with a spread of ganache made by melting cream and chocolate together (I use a ratio of 2:1 chocolate to cream – I heat the cream in the microwave for about 40 seconds, pour over the chocolate and stir until smooth).