Hi All :)
I'm reposting here a recipe that I wrote for my job's journal a few months ago. They asked me to write a recipe for Valentine's day, and nothing can be more appropriate than a decadent chocolate pie full of fresh strawberries. A Dear friend of mine, who also has an amazing food blog has posted my recipe at his blog once, and I decided to transfer it to here. All the photos have been taken by Lester Chung. (Thank you dear <3 )
2 1/2 cups of Graham crackers crumbs
3/4 cup of room temperature margarine
1box of fresh strawberries
300gr chocolate melted. *
4 tablespoons of lime juice
1 large pie pan with removable bottom
Combine the crackers crumbs with the margarine, and mix it with your hands until it become a ball of dough. If you notice the dough being too flaky, you can add and extra half or a full tablespoon of margarine. Once mixed well, place it in a large (12″) and tall pie pan with removable bottom for easy removal. Starting from the bottom of the pan, press the dough with your fingers till it covers all the corners of the pan, then start to gently pull the pie dough over to the sides of the pan. After all the dough is placed, you should have about 2 to 3 inches of crust on the sides, that are about 5mm thick. Now with a fork, make holes in the entire dough at about half an inch apart, including the corners and sides of it. This allow the dough to breath in the oven and avoid those bubbles, so be generous. Once everything is ready, preheat your oven at 356F or 180C and bake the pie crust for 10 to 15 minutes or till the edges start to become slightly golden. Once it is done take it out of the oven and let it cool down.
* For the melted chocolate, you can have two easy options:
- Place it in large bowl and put the microwave for about 2 minutes, mixing it every 30 seconds till it’s completely melted. This is the easiest way however it is also very easy to burn the chocolate, so please be careful when melting chocolate in the microwave!
- Place your chocolate bowl inside a large pot filled with water and cook it in a medium heat till your chocolate is completely melted. If you are using a small bowl please be careful to not let the water in your bowl.
In a bowl mix a half cup of milk, heavy cream and cornstarch until dissolved. Grab a separate bowl slightly beat the egg yolks. In a large bowl, add in all the mixtures you made excluding the melted chocolate and start cooking it in low heat, mix well with a whisk during the entire process. Once your mixture is hot, you can add the melted chocolate and keep mixing on medium heat until the consistency is like thick cream. It should take about 30 to 40 minutes. Once you have hit the right consistency, let it cool down for 10 minutes and pour over the pie crust. Set it aside and let it cool down completely.
Once the pie is cool, slice the strawberries in small cubes and spread them on top of the chocolate cream. It’s important that the pie is completely cold before you do this step, to avoid cooking the strawberries.
In a mixer, add the egg whites and the lime juice and beat at medium speed till it becomes thick fluffy cream (should be about 15 minutes). While you are still mixing, stiff the icing sugar and add it slowly to the mixture. Lastly add a total of 2 tablespoon of hot water in the mixture but add them one tablespoon at a time with at least 30 seconds gap.
Once that is complete you may now cover the pie with the icing using a spatula or a icing bag and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.
