Thursday 12 June 2008

Chocolate Pye

Ingredients for the crust:
175g (6ozs) ground almonds

1 egg white

55g (2ozs) caster sugar


Work the above ingreds. into a paste and knead into a ball. On a sugared surface, roll out to a round of approx. 20cm. (8") - for a non-stick flan tin. Roll to about 1/4" thick, and leave to dry for approx. 30 mins.

Then place it carefully into the tin and decorate the edges with the finger/thumb technique.
Line the crust, just with foil, and bake blind in a preheated oven for 20-25 mins at 180 deg.C.
Watch carefully to avoid scorching.


Ingredients for the filling:

225g (8ozs) good plain chocolate - grated

300 ml. (1/2pt) double cream


Melt the choc. in a bowl set over hot water, then mix in the cream - stirring all the time to prevent splitting.

Remove from the heat and as the choc. starts to set, beat the mixture to a light foam. Allow to cool for a minute or two before pouring into the cooled crackling crust.
Leave to set. Decorate with toasted almonds (and rose petals).

If this crust seems too fiddly - try a thickish layer of finely crushed chocolate digestive biscuits - with some melted butter to bind. Leave a few minutes to set, then pour the filling over.
Probably not quite as good - but you never know ............. !


This is an 18th century recipe - c/o the Two Fat Ladies - Clarissa Dickson Wright and (the late) Jennifer Paterson. Especially for those who hate making pastry, but like pyes : (although the crust still needs rolling out.)

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