Chocolate Chess Pie Pops

Last night, I was working on an order for some pie pop samples, and I happened upon this wonderful discovery: chocolate chess pie makes a bombass pie pop. It can be majorly sweet, so it balances out the crust heaviness of the pop.

How do you do it? All you have to do is quarter a recipe for chocolate chess pie and use it in the recipe I posted a few months back. How does one quarter a recipe for chocolate chess pie? See below. Thank me later.

Recipe for a Teeny Tiny Batch of Chocolate Chess Pie (yields about two dozen pie pops)

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 tbsp)

1/2 oz. of semisweet chocolate (that is half of one of those Baker's chocolate squares, which is what I prefer to use), chopped into chunks for easier melting

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg (you'll use half for the batter and the other half for an egg wash over the pops)

1/4 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

Directions

1. Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. Once the butter is melted, immediately turn off the burner and drop in the chocolate. Don't stir. Just swirl the chocolate around until it melts into the butter. 

2. While the chocolate is melting, place the sugar in a small bowl and whisk in HALF of an egg. Just approximate. You don't have to be too crazy about it. Whisk together until blended. Whisk in the vanilla and sea salt. 

3. When the chocolate has melted, whisk it into the sugar mixture. 

4. Place this in the fridge and let it harden a bit (1+ hours). It will be much easier to work with. 

5. Preheat the oven to 325F and bake for about 20 minutes, but otherwise follow all the instructions for making pie pops. I like to use an egg wash and then generously sprinkle granulated sugar on top. 

Note: It's best to bake these near the bottom of the oven so the filling doesn't bubble out. If it does, it isn't the end of the world. You can clean them up after. 

Totally Optional: dip half the pie pop in caramel sauce and top with a few flakes of sea salt. Again, optional, but it will make you a badass.

Happy National Pie Day: I Ate All the Pie!

In commemoration of this monumental national holiday, I baked myself an individual pie in a ramekin and then I ate all of it. Because I can. Hey, the holiday doesn't give me the day off of work, so I earned my own mini-vacation in pie form.

What kind of a pie do I eat if left to my own devices? Chocolate chess pie, of course. It's intoxicating when it's fresh out of the oven. Then I warm up some caramel sauce, drizzle it on top, and sprinkle with flakes of sea salt. My second choice would be banana cream pie, but I prefer to leave my banana cream pies overnight in the fridge before I eat them. And we all know I wasn't going to let this pie sit overnight. It had to be consumed immediately. See the evidence below.

Before stuffing it in my face.

Middle of stuffing it in my face.

The last bite. I eated all of it. And I regret none of it.

National Pie Day has me thinking about some new goals for my pie project in the coming months:

• Get my online store up and running. I've run into some obstacles with this, but I just need to bite the bullet and go one way or the other. I've started with Payvment, but it's pretty limited in terms of turning on and off shipping for individual items, so if anyone has suggestions of better online Facebook shop platforms, I'm all ears. 
• Dream up my spring menu. I can't wait for all the wonderful fruit that spring brings with it: 
• Apricots (only perfect honey-sweet ones though, like the ones I read about in Lucky Peach Vol. 2. That article killed me. David Chang and the whole gang continually prove themselves geniuses.)
• Kiwis
• Early cherries
• The best of Meyer lemons, limes
• Juice-filled, blood red, homegrown strawberries
• Start taking more seasonal subscribers. I'm planning to open up orders for cookie boxes, pie boxes, candy and southern treat boxes (for local customers) and any combination thereof.
• Take more photos and share more recipes!
• Go to more events at 18 Reasons. And by more events, I mean start going to events because I've never been, and that is a damn shame. Like these DIY Dessert events that happen every so often. Caaaake.

So that is what has been on my mind in this long break from substantial blogging. I love the blog, but I want to grow myself and this little project of mine in a lot of different directions, so it's been secondary to other things for a bit. But I promise to check in often. As always, keep in touch! E-mail me, Tweet me, Facebook me for anything your heart desires!