Week 3- Fudge it...

As I thought about a pie for this week, I realized my older daughter  still hadn't tried one of our pies yet.  She doesn't really like lemons and she wasn't digging the idea of a maple pie.  I asked her what she would eat and she said "Chocolate".

So I found this Fudge Pie recipe online and it looked easy.  I showed the Big One pictures of the pie and she gave her assent so fudge pie it was.

Now this week was one of those weeks filled with mild nuisances. To give you an idea:
1. We had a confirmed case of lice in my daughter's class.  Luckily, it wasn't my daughter but it was close enough proximity  to make me buy every lice prevention product on the market.  She now walks around in a cloud of tea tree oil and lavender.

2. Unexpected snow day on Wednesday (which should have been a delayed opening).  And you all know my love of winter.  Good thing I still had enough maple syrup left over to eat with a fantastic batch of pancakes for our unexpected, leisurely breakfast at home. 

3. After we packed the whole family up in the car to run errands yesterday, our car wouldn't start.  And by not start, it wasn't the battery or anything.  The actual key wouldn't turn.  Dealing with that took the greater part of the day.  And I still had a pie to make.

To say, the pie was a rush job was an understatement.  But the recipe was straightforward.  We made a shortening crust superfast.  It's definitely getting easier for us.  I've also learned some things about making pie in this kitchen.  First I think our kitchen is pretty warm, so I've learned to chill everything thoroughly- even going so far as to put ice water and the bowl in the fridge for a while before making my crust.  This time, I stuck the pie crust in the fridge before baking it.

Secondly, although I know technically that glass pie plates are better, crusts in the metal plates seem to work better in my oven.  I've also learned to put my oven rack at the bottom 1/3 of the oven to keep the crusts from browning too much.  And it worked, the crust was delicious this time.

Not so the filling.  I had high hopes since it was really easy to make.  Just eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, chocolate, vanilla extract and a dash of salt. 

I got everything ready and popped the pie in the oven.  The recipe calls for a vague 30-40 minute cook time.  Usually my oven is on the low end for estimated cook times so I always use the shortest time and then keep checking from there.  At 30 minutes I had a nice crust and a lovely chocolately coating to the pie, but when I pulled the pan out I could see that there was some liquid movement underneath.  I put it back in for another 3 minutes.  Still not firm, so I put it back in for 3 minutes.  At the 36 minute point, I could tell the crust was going to be too brown and the filling was going to be too dark on top so I took it out.

The pie looked good, so I figured if we let it cool the filling would settle down.  We sat down to dinner and the Big One was so excited.  She couldn't wait for the pie!  I made her wait 2 hours for the pie to fully cool and then we decided to cut it.

You should have seen the sad look on her face when she saw the filling ooze out.  It was definitely cooked on the bottom and the top, but the middle had never set.  I've seen friend's pictures of the lava at the Hawaiian Volcanoes Park and that's pretty much what this filling looked like. She wouldn't touch it. 

I did try it and in spite of the ooze it was yummy.  More like milk chocolate than fudge- and in my case it was like eating a chocolate bar that you left in the car on a summer day.  And the kicker was the crust.  It was fantastic! Perfect, flaky crust. 

Perfect, flaky crust with a melted candy bar inside!  HA!

I was really upset and ready to throw in the towel on this whole pie project.  I've actually made pie before and while not great pies, they were much better than the last three weeks.  And of course, I decided to write a blog thinking this project would be "easy as pie".  So I called a couple of friends who basically advised me to lie on the blog. Say the pie came out good.

I love you guys but "Hello Lance Armstrong"?  Failure is sort of a fact of life.  It sucks and it doesn't feel good- but it happens. So fudge that idea...

And you know who was my biggest cheerleader?  The kid who's pie I ruined.  When I told her I was thinking of quitting, she told me I couldn't.  She said my blog needed me and there were still so many pies to make.  She told me that even though she hadn't eaten one slice of pie, she was having fun. 

I decided to listen to the advice of a 4 year old and carry on.  I mean if Jennifer Lopez can get through three failed marriages, surely I can make it through 3 failed pies. (Or 52 as the case may be :)

Fudge Pie
Adapted from jodiemo's recipe on Tasty Kitchen
Link to printable Fudge Pie recipe

2 oz semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiardelli)
1 stick butter, cubed
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 dash salt
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 9 inch pie shell, unbaked

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat.

Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and corn syrup together in a separate bowl.  (On this step I used my Kitchen Aid mixer, which my husband contends in the reason the filling wouldn't set.  I'm not sure if that was true, but I would definitely whisk it together if I were to do it again.)

Combine the chocolate and egg mixture, mixing well.

Pour into the pie shell and bake 30-40 minutes in a 375 oven.  (I baked it 36 minutes which was definitely hitting the edge of too long from the color of the crust.)

Ready for the ugly pie of the week?

It doesn't look too bad, right?
 

Until you see the ooze...