Two Cups of Flour: Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Oh my. Oh my god. Where has this pie been all my life? It sounds like such an unlikely combination; cookie and pie, but it works. It works really, really well. This pie is just the perfect combination of structure and dense, chewy goodness and I have no doubt anybody it is served to will love it. Because who doesn't love cookie or pie? It can only get better when you combine the two.

When I first came across the inspiration for this recipe (here and here), I was a little baffled. How exactly did it work? Was it just a giant cookie? What on earth? You see, I'd never heard of a chocolate chip cookie pie - we're rather deprived when it comes to sweet pies out here in New Zealand. I've already explained that here, pie means meat and pastry. So finding new sweet pie recipes is always a revelation and exceedingly exciting. Anyway, despite my misgivings, I plowed on. And it was kind of a little scary, but once I figured out just what was happening, and let the oven do it's thing, everything went very smoothly. When I first put this pie into the oven, the filling promptly dissolved, because it has a lot of sugar in it. I freaked out and wondered what on earth I'd done wrong, before I remembered sugar + heat = duh! So I let it cook further, and lo and behold; the flour and eggs did their job. This pie, it appears, is supposed to be very moist and dense - which makes sense, given the amount of heavy ingredients (pecans and chocolate) and butter in the recipe. So maybe this is a recipe you don't want to make if you're convinced every baking endeavour you under take will flop. In saying that, this pie actually isn't complicated. It just requires a little leap of faith at certain points. I am convinced that any baked good I make succeeds because I refuse to think that it won't work, somehow. It can always be salvaged, right? Lets just cut off the burnt bits! (Kidding! I don't really burn things now days). Nobody has any idea how often things I make don't turn out how I intended, but they work well just the same.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Pie Crust
1 1/2 cup flour
120 g butter, melted
1/4 c caster sugar
1 egg yolk

1. In a bowl, chuck all your ingredients and blend. What you should come out with is a loose dough that has formed into lots of little balls.

See what I mean?

2. Press it into a tin. Make sure it is very well greased. For this pie, you want it to be relatively deep, so a nine inch pan with high sides is best. I only had a spring-loaded cake pan, so I used that, and just stopped the crust about an inch from the top.

3. Cover with baking paper and weight down with baking beans (I use haricott, you can use other dried beans, or rice. Just anything that won't burn when you put it in the oven). Let cook for five minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celcius, then remove from the oven and let cool. While cooling, make up your filling.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Filling
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
150g butter, softened but not melted
1 cup chocolate buttons (I pefer milk)
1 cup roughly chopped pecans

1. Beat your eggs well, until they are frothy, at least a minute, preferably two.

2. Combine the flour and sugars with the egg.

3. Slowly add in your butter, chocolate and pecans, making sure that everything is well combined (no butter pools/slicks).

4. Fill your semi-cooked pie crust, and then put into the oven (which should already be heated to 180 degrees celcius from cooking the pie) to cook for roughly 35 - 45 minutes.