Pecan Chocolate Pie

In the book, The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, the protagonist weaves funny anecdotes and sometimes poignant memories of his journey from the quirky and dusky balmy town in India to the snow capped, spring smelling Switzerland and finally to the cosmopolitan, ritzy and shimmering lights of Paris, and from being a small, lanky and hopeful Indian boy with big dreams to becoming a French Chef with 3 michelin stars tucked under his belt. 

And in that book, it is said that a dish is only considered good when it stirs happy childhood memories, extracts sweet tastes of (your) past, reminds you of home, and the very core of who you are.

All of these were reenacted when Dara, a former colleague of my little boy, came running to him, with her eyes welling up with tears and her voice lined with emotions and said, "this pecan pie reminds me so much of the pie that my grandmother used to bake in San Francisco when I was a child".

When something like that truly evokes emotions in different folds, when something like that truly impacts someone's life positively and when something like that reconnects the young and the old then  you know you have done the right thing - baking this beautiful pecan pie for the world to see and enjoy.

For your Base/pie shell: click here for the recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 recipe basic crust

2 tbsp plain flour

170g ( 6 oz) light brown sugar

3 large eggs

340g (12 oz) golden syrup

28g (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of salt

200g (7 oz) pecan halves and pieces

35g ( 3/4 oz) unsweetened cocoa

Preheat the oven to 220C. Roll out the pastry dough and line a 23-cm (9-in) pie dish. Crimp the end decoratively, Chill in the refrigerator while making the filling.

Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, golden syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt. Mix in 10Og (3 1/2 oz) of the pecans.

Remove the crust from the refrigerator and pour in the filling. Arrange or sprinkle the remaining pecans on top. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 160C (325F) and bake for another 45 minutes or until set.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool for an hour.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

The one and only Moist Carrot Cake (Dedicated to Ada, Renee, Glenys and all the Leslie Robles' out there)

This is a best seller. Period. It is the one that nobody could resist. (Whether you are a carrot cake lover or not).

Ada (click here to know Ada better) said she never stands in line to buy anything but for this cake she will patiently wait and stand in line. Thank you my dear Ada, but this time you will no longer do that - here is the recipe at your beck and call. Because here I am, divulging the recipe - which is meant to be shared, as it is never mine in the first place; having found this through sleeplessinkl blog. 

Through this cake, I can vicariously live my dream of becoming a baker or patisserie owner. But for now, I am a self-indulgent wannabe. :-)

Ada, and other former colleagues of my little boy's,  Glenys  and Renee would humour me by simply having my creations and providing good feedbacks week in week out. They are part of the group that had pushed me to "rev up" this blog and transcendently inculcated the iota of hope in me that I have in fact the makings of a baker or a chef or a cook. I love these girls to bits and I miss having to cook more for my little boy and for them every week. Renee is extremely conscious of her diet all the time and tries so hard not to have any of my food. I always say, Renee is my benchmark and constant challenge. If she ate a certain creation from my food repertoire, then I did very well. Such is the case of this moist carrot cake. She totally digs it and forgets her diet...

This recipe is also dedicated to Leslie, who is a good friend and school mate from high school. She said, "Ate (big sister) I'm a bit scared to use my oven (and perhaps due to lack of time, she is working girl in UK, mommy and wife rolled into one), I haven't really baked." And so I say to her now, "this is your time to shine, this moist carrot cake recipe is the answer." I have been meaning to send her this recipe. Its so long overdue. Here it is, Les.  And for those baker wannabes like me or those wanting to bake for the first time (like Leslie), this recipe is no fail.  It's high time to shine. Lol!

*Inspired by Moist Carrot Cake from www.sleeplessinkl.com

Ingredients:
•    4 eggs
•    1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
•    1 cup white sugar
•    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•    2 cups all-purpose flour
•    2 teaspoons baking soda
•    2 teaspoons baking powder
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•    3 cups carrots, grated coarsely
•    1 handful walnuts, coarsely chopped
•    1 handful pecans, coarsely chopped
•    1 handful of raisins (I recommend you use golden raisins) and small handful of sultanas


Ingredients for the frosting:

•    1/2 cup butter, softened
•    8 ounces cream cheese, softened (I prefer and use 3/4 of 1 box of philadelphia cheese)
•    2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (conventional oven) or 150 C (fan forced oven). Grease 2 round pans (9 inches) & line sides and bottom of pan with baking paper and grease lightly.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Stir in carrots (use shredder with bigger hole).
Fold in walnuts, pecans, raisins and sultanas.
Pour into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes (if your oven is small and can only take one pan at a time, then bake your carrot cake one pan at a time. Lol!), or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

* If you cant be bothered by two pans, then you can use a 9 inch pan with a baking time of 40-50 minutes. I use two pans as suggested by sleeplessinkl for easy and quick cooking time

To Make Frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
Frost the cooled cake.

Garnish the top of the cake with almond slivers, if desired. You can play up and design your own frosting. For my carrot cake, I used marzipan then rolled my combined red and yellow concentrated food colouring agents through until the color turns into the color of a carrot then stuck some parsley stems on top of the marzipan rolled carrot.