Happy Pie day: Mississippi Mud Pie

This is my first blog post... I literally can't believe it..

Life is a continuous series of adventures. We never know what it might bring next. If someone had told me five years that I'd be starting a food blog, I would have laughed in their face and called them nuts. Why? Well let's just say that my cooking skills at that time consisted of knowing how to make two recipes: scrambled eggs and macaroni & cheese.

I like to think that I've come a long way since then. Yes i have a baking addiction and am not ashamed to admit it. I don't bake just your regular vanilla pound cake, which by the way is where anyone who wants to learn to bake should start, i like to bake more complicated goods, rising the notch a bit with every new recipe and aiming to learn a new skill every once in a while.

Anyway, yesterday morning I woke up thinking: its PIEEEEE day. No not the boring Pi(e), as in the mathematical formula pie day but THE pie day. The one foodies like me await so they can have an excuse to bake a pie.

Appearances can be deceiving. This may look like a labor intensive kinda pie, but I’ll tell you a secret. It’s not. It was super easy to make and assemble.

Given that I had a full day ahead of me and little time to bake, I decided to make a simple pie that wouldn’t take hours to assemble and practically bakes itself while I ran around the house finishing chores that’s been piling up all week. I knew there is only one pie that can be this simple and quick. So I rushed to my Mary Berry’s Baking Bible Book flipped through couple of pages and started to bake. 

As it turns out, I made the right choice. This recipe was easy to follow and more importantly, did not leave my kitchen like a hurricane area.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Adapted from The Baking Bible by Mary Berry

Needed:

For the base:

100 g (7 pcs) Crushed digestive biscuits,
50 g (3.5 tbsp) Melted butter,
25 g (2.5 tbsp) Dark brown sugar,

For the filling:

200 g (1 cup) good quality chocolate (at least39% cocoa),
100 g (½ cup) Butter,
1 tablespoon Instant Coffee (like Nescafe),
1 tablespoon boiling water,
300 ml (1¼ cup) whipping cream,
175 g (1 cup) dark brown sugar,
6 Large eggs,

For Decoration:

150 ml (2/3 cup) whipping cream,
1 tablespoon Cocoa powder for dusting,

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180°C /350 °F / Fan 160°C  /Gas mark 4.
Butter a  9" springform cake pan.

For the crust:

1. First make the base by mixing the biscuits, butter & sugar (you can use a food processor for that),
2. Press the biscuit mixture into the cake pan  evenly.

For the filling:

1. Roughly chop the chocolate into medium size pieces,
2. Put the chocolate, butter, coffee power and water in a sauce pan over low heat,stirring occasionally until melted,
3. Once completely melted remove from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes,
4. Using a hand whisk, beat in the whipping cream then the sugar, then the eggs,
5. Slowly,poor the mixture into the biscuit crust,
6. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes or brown and set. You’ll notice the pie will puff up like a soufflé,but upon cooling it will sink back to the sides,
7. Remove from the oven; place the cake pan on a wire rack to cool for few minutes.
8. Invert the cake and leave to cool completely before decorating.

To Decorate:

1. Using the stand mixer fitted with the whipping attachment, whip the whipping cream and place it in spoonfuls on top of the cooled cake to create a mud like effect,
2. Dust with cocoa & enjoy.

Have fun baking...

 

P.S. I use the metric conversions system(grams) while baking. If you choose to use the imperial system (cups), please remember not to mix both systems,I’ve only included the measurements in cups in case you don’t own a scale.