Did you know that I have never posted a pie recipe on here before? I have shared cookies, layer cakes, sweet breads, fruit crisps, cupcakes, pastries, and practically every other kind of coma-inducing sugar bomb dessert ever invented. I have even posted one or two savory pies. But not once has a sweet blend of sugar, fruit and/or creamy confection ensconced in a buttery, flaky shell baked to golden-brown perfection made it onto this page. What is, perhaps, even more tragic is the reason that I haven’t shared a recipe for a dessert pie with you is not because I tried a recipe and it flopped, or I forgot to take a picture, or a million and a half other facets of life stepped in and forbade it; no, I haven’t written about pie before because, apparently, I had never made one.
Unless you count the apple pie I made with a friend from the Pillsbury refrigerated crusts back in high school in honor of Pi day.
For the sake of a good story, let’s not.
As it turns out, I think I’ll be attempting a classic pumpkin pie in honor of the big Turkey Day next week, but when I realized this epic culinary oversight on my part, I couldn’t even wait that long to right it. Luckily, I didn’t have to drop everything I was doing and whip up an impromptu dessert, because it just so happens that last week I did, in fact, bake a pie. Kind of. I say kind of because this wasn’t really a pie so much as it was a dessert baked in a pie dish, giving it the iconic shape without really any other overlapping characteristic. Still, pie is in the name, and so I have for you today Floptimism’s Very First Pie.
Does it surprise you that my first pie is actually called a Blondie Brownie Candy Pie, and that it is actually a layer of buttery blondie batter scattered with leftover Halloween candy doused in brownie batter iced with warmed chocolate chips and garnished with miniature m&m’s? No, I didn’t think it would. The chocoholic in me really is making up for all the lost time from when I was a little kid and eschewed all things chocolate unless preceded with the word “white.” I even ate white chocolate peanut butter cups. Yeah, they make them.
But anyway, back to this pie. Blondie. Brownie. Thing. It’s amazing. I mean, really, really good. My stumbling upon the recipe was even more fortuitous than my choosing to bake it just one week before realizing the sad truth of my lack of pie baking experiences. I was trying to find recipes that would use my leftover Halloween candy (how many other people grossly overestimated the amount of trick or treaters they would get? How many other people secretly intentionally did so to have an excuse to have leftovers for yourself? It’s ok, me too.), and I found this bad boy when I wasn’t even sitting down to conduct a formal search. It was just there, waiting for me, saying, “I know that I’m exactly what you’re looking for. You have no excuse.” And so I did the only thing someone in my position could do, really – I baked!
A few notes – I didn’t cut up the butter but as it goes into a pot to be melted, I don’t think that’s much of a problem. I used white whole wheat flour and it did not stop the boys in L’s dorm from devouring it (ok, I absolutely played a heavy hand in that too; I can’t pin it all on the male stomach being a bottomless pit). The blondie batter didn’t fully firm up in the freezer in 10 minutes as the recipe said, so after 12 or 13 I essentially threw in the towel and worked with it, anyway. It wasn’t too difficult. I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave on half power at 30 second intervals , though I tend to encourage avoiding microwaves whenever possible so a double boiler system on the stove would work wonderfully, too. Instead of the snickers bars that the original recipe called for (darn you hydrogenated oils!), I used what I had – a combination of Crunch and Krackle fun bars. I’m sure the pie wound up being less decadent in the end because of that change, but really, when you have something called a “Blondie Brownie Candy Pie” do you need the candy in it to be the most ridiculous thing in the world? It was plenty rich, and I really liked the crunch that the nougat gave. Just use whatever leftover candy you have on hand. You can’t go wrong.
I was worried that I had over-baked it, since I checked after 25 minutes and my toothpick was already clean as a whistle. Still, the pie turned out to be really soft and not overdone at all, so don’t get too concerned if you find the same thing happens to you (but if I were you, I’d check it a little earlier – maybe around 22 minutes – just to be sure). The blondie part on its own was a little bland and certainly won’t be my go-to stand alone blondie recipe, but taken with the rest of the dessert, I just about died and went to heaven. Add a little scoop of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream or pour a shot of Godiva white chocolate liqueur on top, and you’ll have me wrapped around your little finger. It was…phenomenal. And although I can’t really see myself running out and buying candy to use in this recipe again and again, it’s absolutely something I will be coming back to when I find myself with a bowl of leftover candy too big for even me to eat all of it on its own…and on my own.
Blondie Brownie Candy Pie, adapted from Kitchen Daily
Yield: 1 pie (6-8 generous servings)
The Ingredients
½ cup (1 stick) butter
½ cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
13 fun-size candy bars
additional candy, nuts, sprinkles, etc. for garnish1
The Method
Grease a 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray and set aside.
Melt the butter and brown sugar together over medium heat, bringing the mixture to a bubble. Remove from the heat to cool for 10 minutes.
Add 1 egg and the vanilla to the pan and, using a non-metal utensil, mix well. Stir in the flour and baking powder until the batter smooths out. Measure out ¾ cup of the batter and scrape it onto the pie plate without spreading it out. Place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, until firm.
Just before the reserved batter is ready to come out of the freezer, preheat the oven to 350° and melt ½ cup of the chocolate chips. Add the melted chips, remaining egg, and cocoa powder into the batter that was not placed in the freezer. Set aside.
Once the freezer batter is firm, press it into an even layer across the entire plate and halfway up the sides. It’s ok if the layer is extremely thin; as long as no bits of glass show through, it’s enough. Top with your candy bars of choice, and then pour the brownie batter over all of it. Smooth out with a spatula before placing in the oven to bake 24-27 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out with moist crumbs from the center.
Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips, and let it sit for 5 minutes, or until the chocolate chips have softened to a spreadable consistency. Spread the melted chocolate over the pie and top with any desired garnishes. Allow the pie to cool completely before slicing.
Notes:
1I used 2 fun-size packs of m&ms for the garnish and liked the added color, but feel free to be creative with your pie!
I should probably divulge how I became aware of the fact that I had yet to post a recipe about pies. Well, it all came about when I saw a giveaway that involved sharing a pie recipe. Naturally, I went back into my archives to find one, and was shocked and amazed to realize that there wasn’t a single sweet dessert pie in sight! I still wanted to join in on the fun, and with this beauty of a recipe in my to-share file, I knew it had to make it onto these pages over the next week or so. So, here it is, and there you have it!
Come join me at Love the Pie with TidyMom, sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom and Harvard Common Press - either check some of the other wonderful pie recipes people are sharing – or, if you’re so inclined, share one too!
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