The World Table

An interactive culinary compendium: recipes, lexicon and study

Kentucky · Dessert

Kentucky Derby Pie

  • Intermediate
  • 80 min
  • roughly 2 of 4 for cost
  • Vegetarian

rich · floral · sweet-edged · earthy Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a floral thread lifting the aroma, settling low and earthy.

Ingredients

  • 1 unbaked 23cm pie shell
  • 150g pecans, chopped
  • 150g chocolate chips
  • 3 eggs
  • 150g sugar
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 115g butter, melted
  • 50g flour
  • 3 tbsp bourbon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt

The skills inside

The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts · alcohol

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Scatter the pecans and chocolate chips in the shell.
  2. Whisk the eggs, both sugars, melted butter, flour, bourbon, vanilla, and salt until smooth.
  3. Pour over the nuts and chocolate.
  4. Bake at 175C for 45-50 min until set at the edges with a slight wobble at the center. 50 min
  5. Cool completely before slicing so the chocolate re-sets.

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake 135 recipes

  • Tested at the true centre and the thickest point, not at the convenient edge: the edge is done long before the answer is.
  • The skewer comes out as the recipe describes, clean and dry or carrying the stated moist crumb, and it does the same on a second test in a different spot.
  • The wobble is read in motion: nudged, the centre moves as one set mass with a faint tremble, rather than a liquid ripple travelling across the surface.
  • The other signs agree with the test: risen and just shrinking from the sides, the top set and dry to a light touch with no wet gloss on it.
  • Pressed lightly at the middle it springs back and leaves no lasting dent.

Where it goes wrong It was judged on the clock and on how the edges looked, so a centre still liquid went to the rack and sank as it cooled, a dense wet seam under a perfectly browned top.

At the Table

The Pour
Banyuls or Ruby Port
Also Right
PX Sherry
From the Taps
Imperial stout
Zero-Proof
Espresso

Chocolate wants fortified sweetness or roast-bitter contrast: the wine must out-sweet the plate, or oppose it entirely.

Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.

Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Kentucky Derby Pie Search YouTube: J. Kenji López-Alt on Kentucky Derby Pie A YouTube search for J. Kenji López-Alt and this dish. No affiliation.