Rosie’s Chocolate Pie

A Slice of Rosie's chocolate pie

I really wanted to invent something chocolatey to share with you after tantalising you with my Pink Champagne truffles yesterday. I do hope this makes up for it! I aimed for a light orange flavoured sweet pastry, for the filling a silky smooth choc-orange texture with good flavour. I used Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate because I didn’t want a bitter taste had I used a darker chocolate. Another avenue could be to use orange flavoured chocolate all the way through my recipe.

All the family have now eaten a slice of my new recipe of chocolate pie and gave enthusiastic reviews; so now I can safely share with you knowing it’s as delicious as I aimed for in my mind's eye.

Rosie’s Chocolate Pie

Serves 6 –8

Ingredients
For The Orange Sweet Pastry
175g (6 oz) plain flour
50g (2 oz) cold butter
25g (1 oz) Trex vegetable shortening
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange finely grated orange zest
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg yolk
Ice cold water
For The filling
200g (8 oz) good quality milk chocolate
25g (1 oz) butter
150ml (5 fl oz) Jersey Cream at room temperature
4 tbsp Cointreau Orange liqueur
Decoration
A little grated chocolate – milk or orange flavoured
A few coloured sprinkles (optional)
Whipped cream for piping (optional)
Silver balls (optional)

You will need a 23cm (9 in) fluted loose-bottomed flan tin, greased with a little butter. A baking tray to place the flan tin on in the oven. Baking paper and baking beans, for baking the flan pastry blind.

Method

For the pastry; Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl then add the butter, Trex, sugar and orange zest. Rub the fat through the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Now add the egg yolk and with a rounded knife mix this through and the mixture should start to clump together. Bring the clumps into a ball, if the mixture is not coming together add a few drops of ice-cold water, be careful not to add too much you don’t want sticky dough. Too much water makes for a heavy pastry it wont be tender and light. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Lightly sprinkle a work surface with a little flour and unwrap your pastry and roll it out into a circle large enough to fit the flan tin. Roll the pastry up onto your rolling pin carefully, and then gently unroll over the flan tin easing the sides of the pastry in to fit. Roll over the top of the flan ring with your rolling pin; this will give you a neat cut edge. Place the flan tin into the fridge to rest and chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

When the pastry has chilled place the flan tin onto the baking sheet lightly prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Take a large circle of baking paper and place into the flan tin on top of the pastry, and then add the baking beans on top. Place into the oven to bake blind for 25 minutes taking care the pastry does not over brown we are looking for a golden colour.

Remove from the oven and remove the baking paper and baking beans and place back into the oven for about 5 minutes to finish baking. [Take care the pastry doesn’t burn with having sugar added to it.] Leave to cool on a wire rack before removing from the tin onto a serving plate.

To make the chocolate filling; you will need a large heatproof bowl to sit over the top of a saucepan filled with a little water barley simmering. The bowl must not touch the water. Place the chocolate broken into smallish pieces and butter into the bowl to melt, it may take up to 10 minutes, do not stir. When melted take off the heat and with a wooden spoon drizzle in the cream mixing in well then take a hand whisk and whisk through adding the Cointreau lastly to the chocolate mixture. Place the chocolate mixture into the cold pastry case and smooth over with a spatula. Place into the fridge to chill and when chilled enough; lastly decorate with the grated chocolate, sprinkles and piped cream and silver balls if using.

It is quite a rich chocolate pie so hopefully it should cut into 6 – 8 slices.

Note: Any scraps of pastry can be re-rolled into a circle and add a little jam in the centre, then fold into a pastie shape, sealed, egg washed and bake off in the oven on a baking tray – cooks treats!