Malted Chocolate Pecan Pie: Not Your Mother's Pecan Pie

The other day, I was at Greenlife Grocery here in Asheville. The woman in line behind me asked what  I was making with the barley malt syrup I was buying. I explained that I was using it to make a chocolate pecan pie. She then inquired about whether the recipe called for less sugar than typical pie recipes, or perhaps sugar substitutes. I thought about this and realized that indeed, most of the recipes in the Four and Twenty Blackbirds cook book use a minimal amount of sugar. I consider this to be a positive for those of us trying to exercise and be healthy, but who still enjoy a piece of pie now and then!

This brings me to the most recent pie to be reviewed in this blog: The Malted Chocolate Pecan Pie out of the Elsen sisters' cook book. I decided to make this pie to take to a Memorial Day party. I have made this pie before, enjoyed it, and decided to share it with others. This pie has pecans, of course, as a typical southern pecan pie does, as well as brown sugar, eggs, and spices like cinnamon and ginger. But the while the traditional southern version of this recipe uses "dark Karo syrup", or corn syrup, this updated take on pecan pie uses barley malt syrup. It is not that easy to find barley malt syrup, but I did find it at Greenlife. Another addition that makes this dish interesting is that it includes bittersweet chocolate, which makes most foods taste better, in my opinion! The crust is the usual butter crust that is consistently good. This pie is not very time consuming in terms of assembling the ingredients. Cook time is about 1 1/2 hours counting the partly pre-baked crust.

One thing about the pie is that you have to be careful not to over cook or under cook it. The cook book authors warn that overcooking can cause the filling to harden too much. I tend to err on the side of cooking a little less and this has worked well, as the pie continues to cook once removed from the oven. However,the pie is a little messy to cut, even after several hours out of the oven. I actually placed the pie in the freezer for about an hour and then cut it and that appears to be the best way to handle the cutting dilemma.

The pie really is tasty, but is not the ultra sweet pecan pie that many of us grew up with. I always loved my Mother's pecan pie, but at times, even I thought it overly sweet. The Malted Chocolate Pecan Pie has just the right level of sweet flavor, and the chocolate makes it truly special. There was only one slice left to take home, and my husband I and will have to agree on splitting it. I will continue to make this very different pecan pie, knowing that my mother would hardily approve!