Chocolate Hazelnut Pie

(Alternately: Homemade Chocolate Pudding --the chocolate filling for this pie is also my recipe for homemade chocolate pudding.)

Today is my next installment of the "You want pies with that?" challenge. I never mentioned, but my first attempt last month tied for first place! That's why I love my internet friends--they make me feel good about myself. I tied with Mary's Blueberry Hand Pies, an association I'm proud of since I voted for her! We won the opportunity to name the next challenge- it's gonna be good, but you'll have to wait and see! This month the challenge was named by someone else, and it was to create a pie starring nuts.


The nut that fills some great memories of mine is the hazelnut. Beginning with when my family lived in Germany and we discovered the delicious hazelnut and cocoa spread called Nutella. This began my love for hazelnuts. When I returned to study abroad in Vienna I enjoyed the locally produced Manner Schnitten-- waffle wafers filled with a hazelnut creme. But my favorite thing to do was walk down Kartner Strasse in the afternoon following classes and treat myself to creamy hazelnut ice cream cone.

"Ein Kugel Haselnuss, bitte." I'd say and pay my 2 Euros.

So picking my nut of choice for this challenge was--really--a simple task. I searched around a bit and in the end came up with a pie that is a bit of this, a bit of that, but altogether delicious.

Going with the classic hazelnut pairing with chocolate, here is my:

Chocolate Hazelnut Pie--A chocolate pie in a hazelnut-graham cracker pie crust, topped with hazelnut-coca whipped cream and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts--


Crust recipe:
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (I put the "kitchen elves" in charge of that one)
1/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tbl butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients, stir in the butter, and press into pie plate. Bake at 350* for seven minutes.

Chocolate cream filling recipe:
2 ounces/squares unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups milk
2/3 cup Sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 Tbls butter
2 tsp vanilla

Begin by finely chopping or grating 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate. This means two whole individually wrapped squares, not just square segments. Place this in a small saucepan and pour 1 1/2 cups milk over it. Heat slowly to scald milk and melt chocolate.

In a medium saucepan combine sugar, flour, and salt. Slowly pour in 1/2 cup of cold milk and mix to combine. Pour in the melted chocolate and scalded milk. Bring quickly to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for three minutes.

Temper the egg yolks adding small spoonfuls of the hot liquid to the yolks while stirring quickly. When you've at least doubled the volume of the egg yolk mixture add back into the saucepan. Cook for three minutes. Stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla and allow to cool to lukewarm. Spoon filling into pie crust and place in refrigerator to cool completely.


Whipped cream recipe:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 heaping tablespoon "Nutella" hazelnut-cocoa spread

Beat the heavy cream to soft peaks, add the Nutella for sweetness and flavor and beat until stiff peaks form.

Spoon cream on top of pie filling, sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and garnish with a piece of hazelnut chocolate.

Enjoy!

Carmelized Onion 'n' Pear Pizza

Here's my sister-in-law Carolyn the day she married my brother Logan. This weekend we are celebrating with Carolyn- although from a different state unfortunately. This weekend is Carolyn's fourth-year anniversary of being cancer-free!

Four years ago Logan and Carolyn were hanging out with us in the Burrow (our first apartment--in a basement). They were off being silly on the other "side" of the apartment. Jeremy and I were probably doing something very responsible that necessitated not cleaning our apartment. When Logan and Carolyn reemerged they were smiling and laughing like the twitterpated teenagers that they were, and Logan was showing off Carolyn's hairdo he had just gelled. Her hair was just growing in long enough that she could put a little bit of gel in it and have a cute "pixy" style. That was a happy moment. I was happy for them, and how happy they were together. I was happy for my home that, however messy it was, was perceived as a "safe" environment where others feel comfortable enough to let their hair down--or take their super-cute wig off--and feel at ease. And I was happy for Carolyn, that here was tangible evidence that she was moving along in life, past her cancer.

---We love you Carolyn. Thanks for putting up with Logan ;-) to join our family!---

Carolyn invited us this weekend to join in their tradition of celebrating by eating out at California Pizza Kitchen. Well we don't have one here in Kansas, but we did make it to the CPK while we were out in Salt Lake City this summer. And boy did we have a delicious pizza! Amazingly enough I was going through some old food magazines the other day and found a recipe for basically the same pizza, so here is that scrumptious pizza for you to enjoy!



Caramelized Onion 'n' Pear Pizza
1 large red onion, sliced and separated into rings
3 T butter
3T sugar
2 medium pears, peeled and sliced
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/4 c crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
salad greens
tomato, sliced
blue cheese salad dressing
chopped hazelnuts

In a large skillet saute onion in butter until tender. Add sugar and cook and stir 5-10 minutes until onions are caramelized.

Spread crust with cheeses, onion, and pears. Bake according to pizza crust directions. Top with greens, tomato, dressing and hazelnuts.

We used a medium sized onion and one large pear and made two 9-inch pizzas. Sometime I'll post our new favorite pizza dough recipe, but not today! Meanwhile use your own recipe or a pre-baked shell, this will turn out delicious!