Posh Pie

This is a very impressive-looking pie.  Not so much this picture, because I have a hard time getting a smooth piece of pie on a plate, but in its full glory, with the shining glaze on top.  Even without the gold leaf, which was just too much for me.

When I first looked at this recipe, I groaned.  I was prepared not to like it.  I grumbled about baking a batch of chocolate wafers just to use for the crust.  Couldn't I just buy some chocolate wafers?

So I include a photo of the dough for the chocolate cookies for the crumb crust just to prove that I made them.

Probably the most pathetically shaped cookies you'll ever see on a baking blog.  Jim ate one.  His first reaction:  "This cookie may break my tooth."  Second reaction:  "This is a really good chocolate cookie.  Can I have another one?"  No broken teeth.  Leftover cookies gone in record time.

I've recently seen the cooks on America's Test Kitchen use the flat bottoms of metal measuring cups as flattening devices, so I was happy to be able to use mine.  No Christopher Kimball in my kitchen to banter with, so I had to banter with Jim, but he wasn't wearing a bow tie.

Once you're done with the crust, it actually gets easier to make the Bavarian Cream part.  Custard melts grated chocolate, which then has meringue and whipping cream folded in.

I realized too late that the bowl with the chocolate custard was too small to easily handle the whipped cream and egg whites being incorporated, but I was too lazy to change the bowls.  There were still a few bits of unincorporated whipped things in the pie, but no one complained.  Being a perfectionist is only fun if you are actually perfect.

All of you who baked through Rose's Heavenly Cakes will remember this magical shiny, smooth glaze.  I can see why Rose thought that it deserved a few pieces of gold leaf.  I don't mind spending money on chocolate or butter, but edible gold leaf?  I just couldn't do it.

The glaze poured very smoothly on top of the chocolate cream, with just the right amount left over for the chocolate cream.

Very pretty and shiny, even without the gold leaf.  And this seems to be a deep-dish pie pan that I claimed not to have when I was baking the pecan pumpkin pie.  I think I need someone like Woody to make a spreadsheet of my baking equipment.  I alternate between running across things I never knew I possessed and searching wildly for things I was sure that I did.

I served this to some women I used to work with.  Wine and conversation were the chief attractions, but nobody minded having the pie.  I was hoping that someone would exclaim, "How posh!"  But they didn't.  Posh doesn't seem to be a word that's used in normal conversations, but it's probably easier to work in than "splodgy."