A review and remake of AWW’s Triple-Choc Pecan Pie
Jump to RecipeIt was Mothers Day 2024 that I would receive the Australian Woman’s Weekly’s “Baking: The Complete Collection” cookbook. I salivated as I went through the entire book that evening, noting down all the delightful bakes that I was keen to try. One recipe in particular jumped out at me – the “Triple-choc Pecan Pie”. For those that have the cookbook, you will find the recipe on page 125. For those that do not have the cookbook, you can find the recipe on the Women’s Weekly Food website.
Unfortunately, the latter half of 2024 turned out to be a rather rough year due to personal circumstances throwing me way off the pathway of wanting to bake (I even made the decision to not take on any custom cake orders, to better focus on my own wellbeing). I thought I would get back into baking as the new year hit. Of course, we then roll into 2025, and the egg crisis comes up – ugh… I decided to ration the eggs we could manage to get a hold of (if we could), on more important needs. So, the chocolate pecan pie attempt was parked.
Time went on, and it was an invitation to a friend’s place to catch up whereby we were all to bring a plate to share, that it dawned on me that this would be the perfect opportunity to do the triple-choc pecan pie recipe! Yay! It only took one year and three months to finally do it haha I got all the ingredients ready to go, pulled out the recipe book and then realised – oh shoot, this isn’t the same size pie tin as what I have! The original recipe calls for 5″ x 14″ rectangle tin – I have a 9″ round tin.
I did some math to convert the recipe over for the ingredients, and followed the recipe along for the method. Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly cater to the change in cook time/temperature that would be needed, given that the tin size and shape was different. Lesson learned, as we cut into the pie and realised the centre was still a little bit too soft. Other than that, the pie was delicious, albeit a little bit too sweet for my liking. So, I decided then and there, that I would be recreating this recipe in the not-too-distant future, and making some changes.
I was delighted to see that my second attempt turned out much better. The crumbly pie crust was easy to ‘cut’ through with the fork while eating, the filling was cooked through, and the best part – with the usage of only Callebaut dark chocolate callets (~55% cacao solids), it helped tone down the overall sweetness profile. I would say you could even go with roughly chopping up a block of Lindt 70% and it could be even better (well, at least from my point of view – I find as I’m getting older, my sweetness preference has changed).
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Equipment
- 1 Food processor
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 9" pie tin with removable base
- 1 Digital scales
- 1 Measuring cups and spoons
- Baking paper
- Pie weights (ceramic beads) Uncooked rice could be used if pie weights unavailable
Ingredients
Pastry
- 250 g Plain flour
- 2¼ tbspn Icing sugar
- 250 g Cold butter chopped
- 1 Egg yolk
- 2 tbspn Iced water approximately
Filling
- 240 g Pecan nuts 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped, the rest set aside for decorating the top
- 100 g Good quality dark chocolate chips, chopped chunks or callets
- 60 g Butter melted
- 240 g Brown sugar
- 2¼ tbspn Cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Egg white
- 1¼ tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
Pastry
- Process flour, sugar and butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- While mixing, add egg yolk slowly pour in enough water until it starts coming together as a dough.
- Pour out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently just until the dough comes together and is smooth. Be sure not to over-knead, or the pastry will become tough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic, and keep in fridge about half an hour. While waiting, prepare the tin, either with butter, margarine or lightly spray with oil.
- When the half-hour rest time is done, roll the pastry dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until large enough to line the pie tin.
- Take off the top sheet of baking paper, and carefully pick up the remaining sheet of baking paper with the pie dough rolled out. Flip it upside-down over the pie tin, and gently remove the paper (hang onto it for baking!)
- Begin slowly easing in the dough into the tin, ensuring the corners and sides are pressed in. Once complete, trim off the excess dough from the sides. Pop the tin back into the fridge to rest for a further half hour.
- When the second half-hour wait time is done, preheat the oven to 180 °C (
160 °C fan-forced). - Pull the prepared pie tin from the fridge, and place the baking paper back on top, and fill with pie weights.
- Bake the pie crust for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and pie weights, and bake continue baking for 5 more minutes (until browned lightly). Don't be alarmed if the sides have shrunk down a little. Cool the pie crust.
Filling
- While the pie crust is cooling, reduce the oven down slightly to 175 °C (155 °C fan-forced), and prepare the filling by whisking the melted butter, sugar, cornflour, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
- Place the chocolate and chopped pecans into the pie crust, and pour over the filling.
- Decorate the top of the pie using the reserved whole pecan pieces.
- Bake for ~50-60 minutes (checking initially at the 45 minute mark). Use a toothpick or skewer to check the centre is no longer runny.