My investment in a Food Network Magazine subscription has paid off again. You know the little insert they always include in the magazine — the one with 50 free recipes? Well, this month it features pie, and out of all 50 the one I chose first was S’mores Pie.
If you don’t have access to a Food Network magazine, you can grab all 50 pie recipes off their website. Because of space issues, they wrote them in such a way where they say take crust “x” and fill it with all or half of filling “y” and top it with topping “z”. For convenience, I went ahead and just wrote out the recipe as I made it. I used a slightly different graham cracker crust and added vanilla to the marshmallow topping, which I have to admit was pretty interesting. It’s not a 7-Minute Icing nor is it a meringue, but rather this mixture of hot egg whites beaten with cream of tartar and dissolved confectioners sugar. On paper it looks like kind of a pain, but it’s actually really simple. All you need is a hand-held mixer. Here it is before I took out the torch and burnt it.
If you don’t have a torch, you can use the broiler. But buy a torch! They’re so fun! Plus you can make creme brulee.
- 1 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
- 3-4 oz semi-sweet chocolate (for brushing over the crust)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large egg yolks(reserve the whites for topping)
- 1 tablespoon brewed coffee, cooled
- 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press mixture into a greased 9 inch glass deep dish pie plate and bake for about 7 minutes. Let cool.
- When cool, melt about 3 to 4 ounces of chocolate in the microwave using 50% power and stirring every 30 seconds. Brush over cooled crust. Let cool and set, then chill so that it's very cold (if it's cold, there's less chance of it melting if you put a slightly warm filling over it).
- Heat the milk in a large saucepan until very hot. Meanwhile, mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in the egg yolks and coffee Whisk half of the hot milk into the egg mixture until smooth, then gradually whisk the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining milk. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until melted. Whisk in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl and cool slightly, stirring a few times to prevent a skin from forming. I let it cool just to a point where I felt it wouldn't melt the shell of chocolate I'd brushed over the crust. Pour the filling into the crust; press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and chill until set.
- Make the marshmallow "ish" topping. Beat the three egg whites, cream of tartar and confectioners' sugar in a metal bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water with a mixer until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and beat until stiff. Beat in the vanilla. Spread or drop in dollops across top of the pie and keep chilled until ready to serve.
- Before serving, grab a torch and torch the top.
Hi Gretchen,
I think torching it ahead of time would be okay. I tend to do it at the last minute, but I don’t see why it would hurt to do it ahead. Good luck! Hope you like the pie.
You mention that the top shouldn’t be torched until right before serving . .does this mean that once it’s torched it cannot be refrigerated? I just finished making miniature version of this for a party later today and would like to get the torching out of the way while still at home. Thoughts?
Thanks for the recipe.
What a beautiful and delicious looking pie!! I would love a slice right now myself!!! Was the filling a bit like rich chocolate pudding?
This is probably out of context here but I don’t see a link to email direct. Just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for making my baking decisions so much easier. 4-5 times a year I fill up the freezer for my widowed FIL who has a MAJOR sweet tooth especially for pies and cookies. Since my cravings tend to go for hot or sour I always am at a dilemma to bake for him. When asked I always get anything, whatever is easiest but if you don’t like sweets thats hard. So as of late I find whats on your blog and BAKE, just got done with the peanut butter, cchip, toffee ones. Thanks
I love smores. So simple and easy but soooo good. The pie looks fantastic. Just imagining the texture and the flavour is making me drool, which is kind of bad at 9:30pm :).
Wow. I am loving this!
I pulled that insert out of my FNM, but hadn’t looked through it yet. I do want some pie though–and that does look like a great one to start with.
After making that Baked Alaska, I SO wanted a torch. Now, I will put it on my b-day list, since it’s only a few weeks away!
Oh goodness that looks amazing!
i saw that section in the magazine and had a strong urge to make a pie(s) 🙂
this would be a recipe to use in the middle of a snowstorm, you know when the carb cravings are very high. lol
This would be a hard recipe to skip!
Man oh man does that look good. My mom would love it. I have to admit though, I’m a little afraid of a kitchen torch.
Karen, that one looks a little rich for me.
Sue, the topping was great. It wasn’t as sticky and sweet as marshmallows nor was it as eggy as meringue.
I made a smores pie over the summer from this recipe howsweeteats /2011/02/smores-pie
and it was really easy and really good. But I like the idea of the soft meringue topping on this one.
My goodness this looks fantastic! I’m really interested in that topping.