Monday, February 15, 2010

Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie


My parents recently celebrated their 26th anniversary this past week. My dad always expect something sweet from me, so I had to find something real good for their anniversary this year. I bought the Baked cookbook last year and read it right away marking my favorite recipes I wanted to try. Which was a lot! I went through it again a few weeks ago and remember about the Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie recipe I saw. The way it is described is a cross between a pecan pie and a chocolate chip cookie. Um yum??? Served slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, now that is what I call an awesome dessert! This sort of reminded me of a pizookie dessert. Warm chocolate cookie and ice cream on top. This was my first time making a pie. Meaning I'd have to make my own pie crust and that scared me, at first. Basically like using yeast to make bread rise, I was scared to make a pie crust. So I said as long as the filling is really good, I'll just buy store bought crust. Well I wasn't very happy with the selections I saw, let alone the "scary" ingredient list. I mean butter is what makes a pie crust, not all these chemicals and hydrogenated fats. So I was against pie crust buying and sucked it up to make the own listed in the Baked cookbook. It was very simple to make actually. The dough was sticky but I was able to wrap it up and store for later. I was very proud of myself for making my first pie dough! (FYI, after I had already made my pie crust I noticed Trader Joe's carries frozen pie dough and it was acceptable to me ingredient wise, and I will keep in mind for future pie use.) The Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie called for whiskey and walnuts. Well I didn't have either of those ingredients in the house, and my goal is to always use up what I have and buy fresh when needed. I have plenty of liquor and nuts, so I was going to have to improvise. How about roasted hazelnuts and Frangelico liquor? Winner winner, cookie pie dinner! Okay that was cheesy but I went with hazelnuts for my pie! Best choice EVER. My family is huge fans of hazelnuts and it pairs well with chocolate. Hello nutella!!!


Everything for me was going so well with this pie. The filling came together beautifully and quickly. The smell of the liquor and roasted hazelnuts was phenomenal. I couldn't wait to try this pie. Again as stated earlier, this was my first time making a pie. And if you know me, I like to follow a recipe exactly like it tells me, and make adjustments the next time I make that recipe again if needed. In the cookbook they tell you to roll out the pie crust and work it into a pie dish, then freeze it. Once you have the filling ready, it tells you to pour it into the frozen pie shell and then bake. I was already having my doubts about this, but I went with it. The reputation this cookbook and bakery has, I wasn't going to question their will. After baking for 25 minutes, the pie crust still looked raw but I didn't want to burn it. So I followed the cookbook again and covered the edges of the pie crust to prevent burning. 25 minutes later, I checked back on my pie to see if it was done. I stuck a butter knife in the middle and filling was sticking to the knife. I did this for about another 15 minutes in 5 minute increments till the filling was cooked. Everything was smelling really really good but I noticed my pie crust was still raw. Oh no I thought to myself, what am I to do?? I didn't want to keep cooking the pie because the filling would become over cooked! I thought quickly and decided to cover the filling with tinfoil and bake till that pie crust was cooked. 10 minutes, then 20 minutes the pie crust was finally browning on top but the bottom was raw. I decided to take it out and let it be. If anything we could just scoop the filling out because it like a chocolate chip cookie anyways!

Cooked middle but look at the crust! This was after an hour of being in the oven.


Like my invention? LOL
 
All in all I learned my lesson. I will for now on when I fill an urge of doubt, I will question it and take authority. I really felt like I should of par-baked the crust first then add the filling. Makes more sense. I just don't get why the book explains in the beginning about pie weights and what their use is for to par- bake the crust, but yet all the pie recipes in Baked state to use a frozen pie crust???? I will never understand but that's okay. At the end of the day the filling was amazing, like a nutella cookie and vanilla ice cream, it couldn't get any better then that! At least we "saved" a few calories from taking the crust off. ;) FYI: Make sure you workout extra hard to enjoy a dessert like this, it is very, very rich. ;)  

Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie From Baked, By Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito  
Ingredients 
1 ball of Classic Pie dough (recipe towards bottom), chilled
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes  
1 tablespoon of hazelnut liquor  
2/3 cup of hazelnuts, skinned, roasted and chopped
1 1/4 cups (about 8 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the ball of chilled dough and put it directly on the work surface. Roll out into a 12-inch round. Transfer the dough to a pie dish and carefully work it into the pie dish, folding any overhand under and crimping the edge as you go. Wrap and freeze the crust until firm, about 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and sugars together until combined. Set aside. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs on high speed until foamy, about 3 minutes. Remove the whisk attachment and add the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Turn the mixer to high and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add the butter. Beat the high speed until the mixture is combined. Scrape down the bowl, add the hazelnut liquor, and beat the mixture on high speed for 1 minute. Fold the hazelnuts and 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips into the filling. Pour the filling into the frozen pie shell and spread it out evenly. Top the filling with the remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips.


Bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes, then cover the edges of the crust loosely with aluminum foil and bake for another 25 minutes (this will prevent the crust from browning too quickly). Test the pie by sticking a knife in the center of the filling. If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done. If the knife comes out with clumps of filling sticking to it, bake for another 5 minutes and test again. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool before slicing. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 2 days. To serve, in the book they mention to microwave for 15 seconds to warm the pie slice up and place with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This step is mandatory!

After my tinfoil invention, cooked the top crust but still remained raw on the bottom.

I also microwaved it for 30 seconds.. OOPS. So the pie ended up falling apart and was super HOT!
The chocolate was so melty and oozy. Yum!
 
Classic Pie Dough From Baked, By Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
  Ingredients
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
3/4 cup ice cold water

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss the cubs in the flour mixture to coat. Put the mixture in the bowl of a food processors and pulse in short bursts until the pieces of butter are the size of hazelnuts.

Lots of butter!
While pulsing in quick, 4-second bursts, drizzle the ice water into the food processor through the feed tube. As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, remove it from the food processor and divide it into two equal balls. Flatten to a disk and wrap each disk first in parchment paper and then in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the disks until firm, about 1 hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding with the recipe.) I probably shouldn't post these next 2 pictures because it will just show how much my father and I can eat at times. Definitely felt real sick after eating this. I know I can't handle so much processed sugar anymore and a small slice with a scoop of ice cream would of just been perfect for me. Lesson learned. Sometimes chocolate gets me a little too excited. ;) It was also the season premiere of Survivor Heroes vs. Villains. Which is a BIG deal for my father and I. We LOVE Survivor. So it was a good night but we both felt so sick the next day. Never again!

My bowl. We took the pie crust off and ended up eating it like a smashed up cookie.
My dads in a pasta bowl. LOL Reminds me of a pizookie!
Phew glad this post in finally over! FYI, you can google Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie and read from other blogs that have made it. I notice only 1 person had crust problems and no one else mentioned it. One blog did par-bake their crust. Smart smart!! Don't worry I haven't miss the gym yet and I'm feeling MUCH better from that day. Portion control, portion control!

Have a great week,
Fallon

9 comments:

Shelby said...

For a first pie crust Fallon - it looks purdy darn good! Oh and the pasta bowl pie serving - I'd eat that in a heartbeat! Great post!

Fallon said...

Thank you! I know the pie crust did look really good but unfortunately it didn't perform well.. baking wise like the recipe stated it should do.

Shannon - www.thedailybalance.com said...

i think it looks GREAT! so gooey and delish! yumyumyum!

http://www.thedailybalance.com

Ashley said...

HOLY yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robin said...

I'm a scare-d-cat of crust too and ususally buy the frozen one from trader joe's. The pie still looks excellent and I think it is a great idea to make desset for your parents!

Maria said...

Oh my! what an amazing dessert!

Pam said...

It looks FANTASTIC! Nice crust. What I would give for a big slice of this pie right now.

Fallon said...

Wish you were here then we wouldn't of eaten that whole pie in one day ;)

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Wow - that pie looks SO perfectly cooked! I am impressed!!!!