Bourbon Pecan Pie with Dark Chocolate

I have two superhero skills.  Two!  So good, really… that I’m tempted to call them skillzzzz.

My two superhero skills are: catching things that are falling (anything really, it’s cat-like agility) and making PIES!  Sometimes you’re just endowed with talents beyond your ability to learn them.  That last sentence I totally made up and it can’t possible be true.  Suffice it to say, I can catch a falling wine glass without spilling a drop, and I can whip up a rich chocolate pecan pie in the blink of an eye.  Do not, however, throw a baseball my way (I can’t catch that!!!) or ask me to make you croissants (not in my superhero wheelhouse!!!).

What’s your superhero skill?  If your answer is ‘long division’, I’m super impressed.  Maybe your answer is ‘dish washing like a ninja’, in which case please come over, flex your skills and eat this pie.

Maybe your superhero skill is ‘not eating all the cookie dough before it’s baked’.  That really would be something.

Maybe your superhero skill can be pie baking.  I really think it should be.  It’s just butter+flour, pecans+eggs.  Rub it together.  Whisk it up.  Be a pie ninja.  It’s all so very possible.

Let’s make this Bourbon Pecan Pie with Dark Chocolate.  We’re showing off for the Kentucky Derby.  Flexin’ because we can.

I like where this pie starts.

Pecans and chocolate.  To chop and to snack profusely upon.  Eggs are the large variety, and here in New Orleans they sweat.  Melted butter meets sugar meets dark corn syrup.  A good butter and buttermilk pie crust.  Bourbon, for always.

Some people think corn syrup is a naughty word(s).  It’s got a reputation it can’t shake.

When paired with eggs, pecans, and chocolate… I think corn syrup (especially the dark variety) is elevated out of its unfortunate reputation.

Eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, and bourbon are whisked together into a… goop (for lack of a better word).  Sweet and sticky (super delicious) pie filling goop.  Don’t tell Gwyneth Paltrow.

This Bourbon Pecan Pie is a single crust pie.

Here’s the oldest trick in the book:  when making one pie crust from scratch… just make two.

Cutting butter into flour for two crusts is just as easy as it is for one.  Use one crust… and then be the kind of baker that has an extra homemade pie crust just hanging out in the freezer for when, you know… you need to just whip up a random pie.

Chopped pecans and lots of dark chocolate are sprinkled across the bottom of the unbaked pie crust.  It’s pretty.

Sweet and thick pie filling is poured over the chocolate and pecans.  Yes it is.

Pecan pie is sweet and thick.  The filling is like a soft, sweet, sugar pudding… without the cream.  The chocolate adds a nice, smooth bitterness.  The pecans add a big, toasty crunch.

I enjoy this pie two times a year, during the Winter holidays and on Kentucky Derby day.  Here’s to our super hero skills paying off, and here’s to hoping our measly horse bets pay off too!