S’more Pie

Just the other day I thought to myself, and said: “Self, we need to up our game. We need to take this whole making a mess in the kitchen to newer and broader levels.” Well being the kind hearted gentleman that I am, I obviously obliged. And with out further ado, I bring you s’more pie.

As I’m sure you can guess, s’more pie is nothing more than graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallows, but in pie form, sounds simple enough right? Well yeah, but that was before I decided to try my hand at making my own marshmallow topping for this. Why, you ask? Well, because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone It, people like me, that’s why.

Ok, a word on marshmallows. Marshmallow actually derives from the mallow plant which grew in marshes, and the roots of the plant were very mucilaginous (yeah, that’s an actual word, at least according to spell check, that means: contains mucilage, I hope), and was used to make different stuff varying from medicinal substances (is it me, or does the word “medicinal” all of a sudden sound illegal), to candy making. And no I’m not making this all up, although I wouldn’t put it past me. Anyway, fast forward a couple thousand years, and instead of using the marshmallow plant to make marshmallows, we now use gelatin.

Gelatin is basically a protein derived from connective tissue in animals, that when heated up is a liquid, but when cool, is a solid, thus providing strength, integrity, and ethical decision making to our marshmallows (and p’cha/galeh if you’re into that sort of stuff…I’m not). Traditionally, gelatin was extracted from wherever there is connective tissue (I’ll spare you the details, but for the most part, it’s not necessarily stuff you would eat per se), and then combined with whatever and cooled. Like in our p’cha example, it’s pretty much combined with garlic, and made into what I like to call, garlic Jell-o, which to me is nauseating. Nowadays, they mass make gelatin, so you don’t have to think about where they come from. All you have to do is combine the gelatin with warm water, and allow it to cool so it can set up. To specifically make marshmallows, you basically take a sugary syrup, froth it up by whipping it, add gelatin, and allow it to cool and set up.

By the way in regards to kosher gelatin, I was under the impression that it was made out of fish, but apparently after reading the side of the gelatin box, it said “100% bovine gelatin” which in layman’s terms means: cow parts. But as always, for all your kosher/halachik/general Jewish queries please direct your attention to any of our in house residence orthodox rabbis, our very own –Rabbi Phoenix Fresser, or R’ Baruch Fogel, aka Big Brother. As we say here in kosher gastronome headquarters, our orthodox rabbis, are always your local orthodox rabbis. Catchy no?

The rest of the pie, is as easy as, well pie. The base is a graham cracker crust, which happens to be, is one of those things that is so crazy stupid easy to make, that it kills me to even think about buying it…nevertheless, I don’t do all the shopping here, and for some reason we had a few graham cracker crusts lying around, and it would just be a waste to not use it. Anyway, take your cream (parve if you want), and bring it to a boil, and pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and let it sit for four minutes to melt the chocolate, and whisk it smooth. That right there is what we cool people call a ganache, which is French for – expensive sounding chocolate. Then add an egg, whisk it all up, pour it into the pie crust, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

To make the marshmallow layer, combine the gelatin with cold water in your mixing bowl, and let it “bloom” for about a minute.

In a pot, combine sugar, water, and corn syrup and heat it up until it reaches 260 degrees on your candy thermometer.

Once the sugar syrup is finished, attach the whisk, and start whisking the gelatin, and slowly add the syrup to the mixing bowl, being careful to pour the syrup into the bowl, and not on the whisk itself.

So you know how candy is hard? Like super annoying hard, and sticky? Well, remember how I said that this was all about making a huge mess…do you see where I’m going with this? Well if not, lemmesplain…That syrupy sugar thingy, is essentially liquid “candy” and when it cooled, you know what it did?? Yeah, it made a mess, how’d you know? That’s why you wanna pour it directly into the bowl, and not on the whisk, because it will literally throw these tiny hard strands of candy everywhere, trust me.

Ok, I might be painting a grimmer picture than it was, and yeah, with a little warm water it will all come out, but it’s a little annoying nonetheless.

That right there was pretty annoying to take off.

Anyway, whip up the whole shebang until it’s tripled in volume, about 5 minutes, add the vanilla, and stir to combine.

Then pour it over the chocolate, and let it sit for at least 4 hours, or overnight, in the fridge. You’re going to want to pour it right away, before it starts to set up.

After 4 hours, pre-heat the boiler, and broil until the top is just browned. Since my broiler stinks, it pretty much burnt it in some areas, and made it look pretty ugly and shnasty. However, it was still pretty darn tasty, and even though it sounds like a huge pain in the tushy, and turned out looking like the pie was some sort of alien monster that forgot to put on sun tan lotion, while tanning on the sun, I would still do it again, because it was awesome, and what’s the point of cooking if not to make your loved one clean up after you, ammiright?

Not the prettiest of pictures, and to be honest most of you will walk away from reading this (assuming any one actually is reading this) never wanting to ever make this, but you know what? Confucius once said – Frankly I don’t give a darn.

adapted from Just A Taste

Ingredients:

• one 9-inch pre-made graham cracker pie crust
• 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream, or parve creamer
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• ½ cup cold water, divided
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. For the chocolate filling: Bring the cream to a boil, and pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate in a large bowl, and let it sit for 4 minute.
3. Whisk together the chocolate and heavy cream until it’s thoroughly incorporated and smooth.
4. Gently whisk in the egg and a pinch of salt until combined then pour the mixture into the prepared pie crust, and bake the pie for 20 to 25 minutes, just until the chocolate is mostly set but slightly jiggly in the center.
5. Allow the pie to cool on a rack for one hour while you make the marshmallow topping.
6. For the marshmallow topping: add ¼ cup cold water to the bowl of a heat-proof stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it stand until firm, about 1 minute.
7. Stir together the sugar, corn syrup, a pinch of salt, and remaining ¼ cup water in a heavy saucepan and bring it to a boil over moderate heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Boil it until a candy thermometer registers 260ºF, about 6 minutes.
8. Begin beating the gelatin mixture on medium speed, then very carefully pour in the hot sugar syrup in a slow stream. Try your best to avoid the whisk.
9. Once all the syrup has been added, continue beating it on medium speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and is thick and glossy, about 5 minutes.
10. Add the vanilla and beat it just until combined and then immediately pour the marshmallow topping over the pie. It will be loose enough to spread. Refrigerate the pie for one hour, uncovered, then cover it with plastic wrap that has been coated lightly in vegetable oil and chill it for 3 more hours.
11. Preheat the broiler.
12. Place the pie on a cookie sheet and very carefully rotate the pie under the burner, about 3 to 4 inches away from the flame, just until the top is evenly browed, about 3 minutes.
13. Let the pie cool for 10 minutes before slicing it