Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. And happy almost-Derby Day! Yep, this Saturday is the first leg of the Triple Crown, and everyone not already in bluegrass country should be hoisting a mint julep and warbling through "My Old Kentucky Home." And, of course, because no festive occasion should lack its own pie, here's a recipe for the ever-popular Derby pie, a variation of Southern chess pie gussied up with chocolate, nuts and bourbon. A Kentucky company called Kern's Kitchen owns the trademark to the name "Derby Pie" (they do a bang-up mail order business to homesick Kentuckians, too) so we'll call it Chocolate-Bourbon Pie. Or maybe, in honor of my own old New Jersey home--the place where I first aquired a taste for both horseracing and homemade pie--we'll call it South Derby Road Pie.
4 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup light brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted
3 TB bourbon
1 TB vanilla
1 TB flour
6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup toasted pecan or walnut pieces
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell (I would blind-bake this briefly, until just set but not browned)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat together eggs, corn syrup, sugar and 1butter. Add bourbon, vanilla and flour, then stir in chocolate and nuts. Pour into pie shell and bake for 50-60 minutes.
And they're off! Me, I'm going to bake one of these and see if it gets me any free drinks over at Floyd (on Atlantic Ave between Clinton and Henry Sts in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill), a Kentuckian-owned bar that's doing an all-day Derby party on Saturday: mint juleps, the Cobble Hillbillies, TV coverage of the race. As they say, it's Bluegrasstastic!
Food, recipes, and tasty musings from a piecurious writer.
About Me
- Stephanie J. Rosenbaum
- I'm a freelance food and travel writer, restaurant reviewer, author, editor, and pie-baking gal.
3 comments:
There's a company in Louisville that mail-orders them, and (as I said) owns the name Derby Pie. I don't know if they actually "invented" it, or just did some savvy trademarking. But it's delicious. And as for bourbon whipped cream, you bet I do. Anytime, anywhere!
Stephanie:
Just wanted to tell u that I have used this Derby Pie recipe over and over since you posted it! I finally figured I should let u know it always gets seriously GREAT feedback. Don't ever delete your blog cuz for some reason I have never written it down - just keep comin back to the site to find it.. ?!
As a fellow nostalgic new jerseyan I would like to propose the following commemorative pies to honor the beautiful garden state that we simply call "the homeland". Turnpike plaza pie (featuring all the ingredients of a whopper baked in a pie). The ever popular ikea pie (featuring meatballs and lingonberries baked right in and topped with a small flat packed entertainment console made of pastry dough).
Alicia
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