12monthsofcooking.com

First step – what is créme fraîche anyway ? Bon appetit cheerily mentions in a footnote – “sold in some supermarkets”. Of course – mine wasn’t one of them ( please write if you have suggestions in the Seattle area). Looks like there are a bunch of recipes on the internet many of which involve leaving out cream and buttermilk/sour-cream at room temperature to culture. Honestly – I’m  a little nervous about this, too many stories of food-poisioning in the back of my mind. The “Joy of Cooking” has a recipe involving warming cream and buttermilk and then leaving in the refigerator. I try this out on a Friday morning, using sour cream instead of the buttermilk and by that evening looks like I have my own  créme fraîche. It’s a cream something in between sour-cream and cream, with a wonderful nutty taste as described.

Next the topping. I pull out the kitchen-aid, add the ingredients and go. After a few minutes I have a wonderful creamy topping… is whipped cream really this easy ? I spoon it onto the pie and it looks picture-perfect.

Chocolate curls. I’ve never done this before – but the december issue had a description. I microwave a bar of Ghiradelli chocolate ( absolutely the best for baking – bar none) in 5 second increments until it is soft enough. At first I try using a butter curler, but I have the best luck with a potato peeler on the edge of the chocolate. There’s a bit of art to this – if you curl too much you get a “pigtail”, the trick is to do a shorter curl. Definitely a fun thing to do. The pie looks great ! 

So now for the nitty-gritty – how did it taste ? I got my wife, and her friend Liana to try it. My wife’s first words – “wow!” Liana  - “the pie is awesome!” Definitely rave-reviews. I think it’s pretty good, and the presentation is great. The contrast and texture of the foamy topping, the pudding, the chocolate layer and the crunchy chocolate topping is great and really a bit different.

Now – if I was going to be a bit critical – I’d say the chocolate was a mite overpowering. I’m a huge fan of dark-chocolate, but this was a little intense even for me. When I do it again I’ll perhaps try with semi-sweet chocolate on the layer between the crust and the filling. But still a great pie.

I’m glad I did this desert, it was a lot of fun, and I learnt something new. All in all it wasn’t that difficult, looks and tastes great ! Here are some other pictures…