Week Four - Chocolate Chip Walnut Pie

Who can resist the temptation of a giant chocolate chip cookie?  I made this one at my wife's request since we both love chocolate chip cookies.  Once again we also made this one for Sunday dinner with my family.  Members of my family have a general distaste for cooked fruit (or fruit in general) so I thought this one might be a little more popular with them.  They liked it, but now that I know just how good traditional pies taste (since I am now an expert), I would prefer to eat my cookies in cookie form. 

Pie Crust

1/2 c butter

1/3 c lard
1/3 cup shortening
1 T sugar
1/2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 T Nonfat dry milk
3 c flour
1/2 c cold water

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut the lard, butter, and shortening into the flour mix.  Set aside.  Mix the nonfat dry milk into the water and slowly add to the other mixture until just blended.  Refridgerate for 15 minutes.  Separate into 2-3 chunks.  Roll out dough chunks on a floured surface.  Fold the dough over your hand and slide onto pie pan.  Knock the pan on the counter a few times to help set the dough into the pan.  Use the palm of your hand to press the dough against the sides of the pie tin, cutting off the excess dough.  Makes 2-3 shells.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Pie

2 Eggs
1/2 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
3/4 c softened butter
1 c chocolate chips
1 c walnuts (way too many walnuts)

The ingredients list seemed simple enough - I started thinking that maybe this should have been my first pie.

Beat eggs until foamy.  Add flour and sugars and mix well.  Stir in butter and fold in chocolate chip and walnuts.  Pour into unbake pie shell.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until golden brown and set in the middle.  The key here is the part that states "set in the middle."  As mentioned before, my oven typically cooks very quickly so I took the pie out after 40 minutes.  It looked a little soft in the middle, but I thought it was done enough.  It wasn't done enough.  I ended up cooking it for another 15 minutes after the pie had cooled just so that it was solid enough to cut.  It still tasted pretty good, but be warned if you decide to make this one..."set in the middle" really means "set in the middle."  That may have been the reason that the walnuts and chocolate chips seemed to all sink to the bottom of the pie...we'll never know.