Dark Chocolate Blackberry Pie with a Pretzel Cookie Crust - For my First Pie Contesthttp://plancast.com/p/3d2m/fourth-annual-brooklyn-pie-contest

It may be the Fourth Annual Brooklyn Pie Contest but its was my first time ever entering  baked goods into anything semi-professional or competitive. I had no idea what to expect and I’m kind of glad I didn’t or I would have been even more nervous.

My friend Marion and I decided to spend the day baking a bunch of pies at our friend’s amazing kitchen and then decided we’d choose our favorite one to enter. Well, if I were to do it again and invent a recipe I might do a test pie and then perfect it to enter.

 There was really a huge crowd, which made it quite intimidating. Only the first 50 pies were accepted into the competition and we stood in the freezing cold for 30 minutes for the opportunity. I’m number 38 if you were wondering. I had no idea what to expect and there were some amazing, like really amazing pies.

The judges were  Renato Polliafito and Eric Wolitsky from Baked NYC, Emily Elsen from Four & Twenty Blackbirds, and Alison Roman from Momofuku Milk Bar. They went and tasted every single pie and rated them. I’m not sure what the criteria was, which I definitely also want to find out. The whole night benefited Growing Chefs and they are very integrated into the Brooklyn baking/cooking community. It took them 4 hours to taste the 50 pies and 45 minutes to announce the winners. We started baking at 11 AM, so by 9 PM, we were VERY exhausted.

And now for my recipe:

Dark Chocolate Blackberry Pie with a Pretzel Cookie Crust.

Crust:

1. *1 Stick Unsalted Butter
2. *1 1/2 cups of coarsely crushed pretzels
3. *3/4 Cups confectioners sugar
4. *1/2 cup all purpose flour
5. *1 Large Egg
6. *2 Ounces of Bittersweet Chocolate

Filling:

1. *12 Ounces Bittersweet Chocolate
2. *1 Cup Heavy Cream
3. *2 Large Eggs
4. *1 Egg
5. *1/4 cup sugar
6. *2 tbsp Flour
   
7. *2 cups of blackberry

Instructions Crust:

1. 1. In a standing mixer w. paddle add butter, 3/4 cups pretzel and sugar until creamy
2. 2. Beat in flour and egg, and then add remaining pretzel
3. 3. Flatten dough between two pieces of plastic wrap for 30 minutes or until chilled
4. 4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. 5. Roll dough between plastic until 12 inches
6. 6. Remove one plastic wrap and drop into tart dish
7. 7. Line with parchment paper and pie weights for 30 minutes
8. 8. Remove parchment paper and cover edges with foil if necessary to keep from getting too brown
9. 9. Brush bottom of tart with melted dark chocolate

Instructions for Filling:

1. 1. Combine milk and chocolate in sauce pan over medium heat and whisk.
2. 2. Remove from heat
3. 3. Mix egg, sugar and flour in a bowl
4. 4. Add in chocolate to the mixture and mix until combined
5. 5. Line the crust with one cup of Blackberries
6. 6. Pour in filling
7. 7. Decorate the top of the tart with remaining Blackberries
8. 8. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until firm

I had trouble with the dough and felt that it needed more flour. I’m going to work on this crust and see if I can find a better solution. It was really sticky and I didn’t need the pie weights but then it was hard to cut. I’d definitely be open to suggestions as I try this crust again.

Strawberry Buttermilk Tart w. Spiced Chocolate Crust

Monday night, I arrived home a little tipsy and decided I wanted to make my office, RJW Collective a treat. And being that I was a little tipsy, I was a bit more bold and decided to construct a tart.

I had made Jacque Torres’ chocolate spice sugar cookies and had about half of them left over. The recipe is on Cookstr.com and had strawberries, so I altered the filling of a buttermilk blueberry tart from Epicurious App. Here goes on the recipe:

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 dozen chocolate spice sugar cookies, recipe: Cookstr.com
1/4 cup of butter (1/2 a stick) melted
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Filling:
1 cup of Buttermilk
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup of granulted Sugar
1 tabelspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tabelspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup (half a stick) of butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tabelspoons of Flour
2 Cups of Sliced strawberries cuisinart

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit . In cuisenart, grind cookies and add butter and cayenne pepper (to add a kick). Line removable tart pan with crust paste. Heat in center of oven for 12 minutes, set aside and cool slightly.

In a cleaned cuisenart add all the filling ingredients (accept strawberries) and blend. Then line the bottom of the crust with strawberries and pour in filling. Be careful not to overfill. Put tart in the oven for 25 minutes or until firm.

Let cool to room temp and serve. Will stay good for 24 hours at room temp.