The Birth of a Pie Recipe: It Started With a Kiss

“How do you think up the recipes?” That’s a question food writers hear frequently. But the usual answer, “Well, it depends,” doesn’t help much. But it’s true. So in the interest of greater understanding, here’s the story on today’s offering, a chocolate hazelnut pie. The recipe began at a benefit community supper climaxed by a ravishing display of pie--a 3-foot-wide, 16-foot-long stretch paved with row after row of strawberry, rhubarb, apple, cherry, lemon chiffon, lemon meringue, chocolate fudge, chocolate mousse, banana cream, coconut custard, pecan, apple crumb . . . 17 flavors in all, not counting the cheesecakes.

I’ve had pie on my mind ever since. But what kind of pie? Surely the world needs no more recipes for classic fruit pies. (What we need in that department are people willing to make them.) I finally decided the pie should be chocolate; all the people I know and love and make pie for are chocolate fans.

And one of the people I love the best is a man who has a special weakness for Baci (kisses): bite-size Italian confections that combine bittersweet chocolate with roasted hazelnuts in a way that Hershey’s would do very well to learn from.

OK, Baci pie it is. But how to make it? None of my favorite chocolate mousse fillings can be published now that uncooked eggs are on the out list, so the creamy chocolate part will have to come from baked custard and whipped cream. The nut layer should be nougat-like, so it’s derived from the almond tart that Lindsey Shere perfected for Berkeley’s renowned Chez Panisse restaurant.

The crust is basically old-fashioned flaky piecrust, but it’s made even richer and flakier by being bound with sour cream instead of water, an idea that comes from the “counterfeit puff pastry” given in Maida Heatter’s “Book of Great Desserts.”

All of this is absolutely typical. You get an idea, then you go with what you know, borrowing a little here and a little there. Then, if what you’re making is Baci pie, you eat nothing else for about three days so the calories in a single slice don’t rise up and kill you dead.

BACI PIE

8 ounces hazelnuts (filberts), scant 2 cups

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups whipping cream, preferably not ultra-pasteurized

2 teaspoons Frangelico or other hazelnut liqueur

Crust

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

3 egg yolks

Chocolate Cream

Spread hazelnuts on shallow pan and toast at 350 degrees 15 minutes or until golden. Cool, then rub between palms to remove as much skin as possible. Grind nuts into coarse crumbs and set aside.

Combine sugar with 3/4 cup whipping cream in heavy, non-reactive saucepan. Simmer over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture thickens to texture of light cream sauce, about 15 minutes.

Stir in nuts and liqueur. Pour warm filling into Crust, increase oven heat to 400 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until filling is lightly browned and almost set. (Will bubble up and then subside.)

Grind or chop chocolate into fine crumbs, then stir in egg yolks. Heat remaining 3/4 cup cream just to boiling point. Pour over chocolate, stirring until mixture is smooth. Gently pour chocolate mixture onto pie filling, return to oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake another 12 to 15 minutes or until chocolate layer is just set. Cool on rack and chill thoroughly.

Completely cover top of pie with Chocolate Cream, putting cream through pastry tube or swirling decoratively with back of spoon. Serve at once. Makes 1 (9-inch) pie, or 9 to 12 servings.

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons lard or solid shortening

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup sour cream

Combine flour, salt and sugar in bowl. Rub in lard with fingers (or use food processor) until mixture resembles meal. Cut or process in butter only until large lumps about size of baby lima beans form. Add sour cream and stir or process as briefly as possible, until dough holds together.

Form dough into round cake, about 1-inch thick, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill 3 to 24 hours.

Roll dough between 2 sheets wax paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Chill. Line oven bottom with foil to catch any drips. Press foil onto 9-inch pie pan, shiny side down, to obtain shape of pan. Remove foil and set aside.

Peel wax paper from dough, fit pastry into pan and cover with pre-shaped foil, pressing so foil is snug all around. Bake at 375 degrees 20 minutes or until set, then remove foil and continue baking until shell is lightly browned, about 20 minutes longer. Makes 1 (9-inch) crust.

Chocolate Cream

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3/4 cup whipping cream, preferably not ultra-pasteurized

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon Frangelico or other hazelnut liqueur

Place cocoa in small, deep bowl and very slowly stir in 1/2 cup whipping cream. Cover and chill. At serving time, whip chocolate cream until stiff, then fold in sugar and Frangelico.