Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie

Our Baked Sunday Morning challenge this weekend was a Frozen Swiss Chocolate Pie, in honor of National Grandparents' Day. I had no idea there was such a day, but I'm fairly certain my grandparents would have loved this dessert. I'm also not sure what specifically makes this pie a Swiss Chocolate Pie, rather than a regular Chocolate Pie (or any other nationality pie, for that matter). It really doesn't matter, because this pie is delicious! It's intensely chocolatey, silky, incredibly rich, and just balanced by the nut crust. It's also a huge mess to make, to clean up after, and to serve, so it's a pretty good thing it's as delicious as it is.

I cheated a little by looking ahead at our baking schedule for Baked Sunday Mornings and made this frozen Swiss chocolate pie for the same dinner party I hosted for the Salted Caramel Souffles. Similarly to the souffles, this didn't really seem like the kind of dessert I could bring to work and set out for people to take whenever.

Since we've been making what feels like a surprisingly large number of desserts involving walnuts, I found myself out of them when I started making Matt and Renato's frozen Swiss chocolate pie. Undeterred, I opted to use roasted, unsalted peanuts in the crust instead of the walnuts, because who doesn't love the combination of chocolate and peanuts? I used the called-for amount of nuts by weight (200 g), which came to just under 2 cups of peanuts, rather than the cup amount, which was 2 full cups. In hindsight, I wish I had used more peanuts, possibly making one-and-a-half or double the crust, because I would have liked this pie even more with a better crust-to-chocolate ratio.

Making the crust was really simple, just roast the nuts, let them cool, finely chop them with a food processor, then add the sugar and combine. Melted butter is stirred into the nut-sugar mixture, this is then transferred to a pre-buttered deep-dish pie plate, pressed evenly to form a crust, and refrigerated while the filling is made.

Making the filling is where you're going to dirty virtually every baking-related implement in your kitchen. It's worth it, but be forewarned. I found juggling making the various components rather challenging, and my kitchen isn't even that small. I had to pause partway through to do some dishes so that I could finish making the pie, which was rather unexpected. Maybe I should have read the recipe more closely.... it seemed so simple at first glance.

The first step is melting 12 oz of quality dark chocolate. For my chocolate, I used Belgian Dark Chocolate from TJ's, which is surprisingly delicious and certainly the best deal on quality dark chocolate. We're instructed to melt this over a double boiler, but since I don't have one, I took the lazy way out and melted mine in 30-second increments, stirring in-between, in the microwave at full power. Once melted, sprinkle the instant espresso powder in, stir to incorporate, then continue stirring about another minute (I use Williams-Sonoma branded espresso powder because my King Arthur Flour espresso powder hardened into a rock shortly after purchasing it).

Using the bowl of a stand mixer, the next step is beating together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cream until combined. After a couple minutes on medium, the cooled chocolate is added and mixed in for a brief 10 seconds. Unless you have a spare mixer bowl, or a handheld mixer and compatible bowl, you're going to need to transfer this mixture to a different large-sized bowl, and clean your mixer bowl now, because you'll be needing it shortly.

Now using a third bowl, you'll need to whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until warm. Without a double boiler, this is a little more complicated, but I made it work using a 4-qt saucepan of simmering water and a big stainless steel bowl held over top of it with a potholder protecting my hand from the steam. It took about 3-5 minutes for the egg white-sugar concoction to heat to warm (as judged by the inside of my wrist). Now you have a few options: using either a handheld beater with whisk attachments or your own amazing arm strength, whisk the egg white-sugar mixture until stiff peaks form. Alternately, transfer the mixture to your freshly-cleaned mixer bowl, and use the whisk attachment with your stand mixer to whisk until stiff peaks form.

Aren't you glad you transferred the chocolate mixture to a large bowl? You need all that room, because you have to fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture now with a rubber spatula and you need to get the egg whites out of your mixer bowl because you're about to need it, cleaned and dry, one final time. The last bowl-dirtying step: whisk together cream until soft peaks form, then drizzle in ¼ cup of whiskey. I used TJ's 10-year single malt and somewhat disappointingly (or happily, if you don't like alcohol in your dessert) I couldn't taste it at all in the finished pie. This whiskey cream is whisked until stiff peaks form (about 4-5 minutes), then folded into your chocolate mixture until just combined. Again, aren't you glad you transferred the chocolate mixture to a large bowl? All that room is so necessary for gently folding the filling together, and you'll still wind up with plenty of the filling on your hands to taste-test. Because obviously, it's pretty critical to make sure the filling is going to taste okay.

Finally, we've come to the end of generating a pile of dishes. The filling is poured into the crust you previously refrigerated, likely close to an hour ago now. Smooth the top of the filling with a spatula, then scatter chopped nuts (the same as what you used for your crust) across the top. I didn't do this, because it was really late and I was tired, but I seriously regretted not doing so. Those extra nuts would have offered a better nut-to-chocolate ratio than the crust alone provided. Gently cover your pie with parchment paper, then foil, and freeze it for at least 4 hours. 

The recipe notes that this pie can be stored for up to 1 week in the freezer. Honestly, I stored mine for several weeks, and it was still absolutely fabulous at the end of that time. I also drove it 4 hours, starting from frozen and placed in an insulted bag with some other cold goodies, and it was the perfect temperature and consistency when I arrived, so it's a lot more portable than I originally expected.

The serving instructions state that it should be set out for 20 minutes at room temperature before serving; I had mine out for close to two hours and it was still quite frozen and difficult to cut. Like, incredibly difficult to cut. Getting the first slice out was a complicated process. I even tried using a knife dipped in hot water, as recommended, and didn't really make a big difference. Beyond the frozen chocolate, which did not defrost uniformly, getting the crust out was even more difficult. I thought I'd buttered my pie dish well, but I wish I had used about double the butter so my crust came away more easily. That first slice looked like a total disaster, but it was still chocolate-y and delicious, so no one minded. The previous sentence makes it sound like the other slices looked okay, which is kind of a lie. The first one was a complete wreck, every other piece was just messy. Upon cutting, the chocolate pie filling shattered and made a huge mess of my dining room table. I wish I had made whipped cream and hot fudge sauce to serve with this, but I didn't because at the time I thought they would be extraneous to all the glorious chocolate. I was wrong to feel that way - they would have helped balance the huge slab of chocolate with a somewhat thin peanut crust generated from cutting this pie. They also would have helped hide my mangled slicing attempts.

This post ran away from me, and I've written a lot more about the challenges of making this pie, and serving it, than I have about how terrific Matt and Renato's frozen Swiss chocolate pie was. Everyone loved this pie. And recall, I served it alongside the salted caramel souffles, which people also adored. A friend pronounced this his new favorite dessert of all time. Another friend called me a devil for serving it, and proceeded to happily devour some. It's excellent, and after making it once, I feel much more confident about planning ahead and making it again. I highly encourage everyone to learn from my attempts and try it themselves. You can find the recipe on Baked Sunday Mornings and see what the other bakers thought.

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