Chocolate Apple Pie

  
Hello, World – meet my friend, Chocolate Apple Pie. 

This pie is my brainchild, my baby.  A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend on the phone. She told me she was going to bake an apple pie for her husband, and I oohed with delight.  She, on the other hand, wasn’t as excited.  “I’m not really an apple pie person,” she explained, “He loves apple pie, but I prefer chocolate.”  I sat there for a few seconds before realizing that my brain was sending me a very excited telegram. Apple pie… you love apple pie… chocolate… you love chocolate.  Hello-oh… apple… plus, chocolate… plus, pie.  What does that give you.  Put it together.  Put it together, right now.  I literally shouted, right then and there, into the phone, “Chocolate Apple Pie!”  And then I was on a roll.  How come I’d never heard of this?  I asked people I knew, friends, family, and no one had ever heard of a chocolate apple pie.  By golly, I was going to make one!  But, where to start?

I searched the internet and found one recipe for chocolate apple pie.  One.  One, on the whole world wide web!  Could it be?  The end result looked delicious, but the recipe looked quite complicated.  If you know anything about me, you know that’s not my style.  However, I was not deterred.  The rarity of this pie only added fuel to my excitement.  I felt like I was discovering ancient Roman gold, or fossils, or [insert something really cool here].  I thought about this pie every day for weeks, while drinking coffee, riding the L, crossing the street, walking to the grocery store.  I daydreamed about pies.  I had so many questions.  How much chocolate should I use?  What kind?  I didn’t want it to overpower the apples.  What kind of consistency should the chocolate be?  I didn’t want the chocolate to harden into chunks – it needed to blend – how would I achieve that?  What kind of chocolate should I use?  Should I fill the pie in layers or mix it all together?  The possibilities!  I was a woman obsessed.  

Over brunch with my sister and her gentleman friend, I shared my pie idea and sought their educated advice.  My sister is about to graduate from culinary school, and he is a professional cook.  I told them my concerns and he suggested that I make a chocolate ganache.  That sounded intriguing to me, so I looked up a bunch of recipes and settled on one.  My sister, mom, dad, and grandparents would serve as my tasting panel. 

Normally, I won’t publish first recipes, but I’m so excited about this that I’ve just got to share it. I’m not 100% satisfied, but for my first pie (ever), it turned out very well.  I have some solid ideas as to how to I want to tweak this recipe (for one thing, I realized that I’m more of an apple pie girl than a chocolate pie girl), but I’m happy with this initial effort.  Everyone on the tasting panel gave it a thumbs up.  Oh my goodness, just you wait until Chocolate Apple Pie #2 comes out.  I’m already scheming as to how I’m going to bake it!  Until then, if you want a good,chocolate-y apple pie, this recipe is for you. 

I recommend using a 9" metal pie pan.  The darker the pan, the darker the crust will be.  

So, these instructions are just for the filling.  I used Gala apples and Ghirardelli chocolate chips.  You can use any type of apples you like.  As for the chocolate, I highly recommend Ghirardelli or any brand of chocolate chips that you personally like.  If you don’t like the taste of the chocolate chip, you’re not going to like the taste of the pie. 

A priceless tip for the crust that I learned from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (see end of post for a link): use an egg, and separate the egg white from the yolk.  I brushed the bottom crust with egg white.  This creates a protective layer of protein that prevents the crust from soaking up the filling and getting soggy.  I brushed the top crust with the egg yolk.  This gives the crust that lovely toasty brown color.  
 

 I love watching cream and chocolate chips turn into that lovely dark chocolate color. YUM.

Apples… pie shell… pouring the chocolte ganache over the apples… getting ready to bake!