Nutella brownie pie
Ingredients:
Chocolate pie crust
1⅓ all-purpose flour (165g)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder (18g)
3½ Tbsp sugar (45g)
¼ tsp salt
7 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (100g)
3 Tbsp vegetable shortening, chilled (40g)
2 Tbsp ice water (30ml)
½ tsp vanilla extract
Nutella brownies
½ cup unsalted butter (115g)
¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
¼ cup brown sugar (55g)
1 cup Nutella (135g)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp cocoa powder (6g)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
½ all-purpose flour (65g)
Directions:
1. Blend flour and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Place 2/3 of the flour-cocoa mixture, sugar and salt in the bowl of the food processor and pulse twice to mix. Distribute butter and shortening evenly on top and process with 1-second pulses until dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps and no dry flour remains, about 25 pulses.
Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around blade, add the remaining flour-cocoa mixture and pulse 4 to 5 times until flour is evenly distributed.
2. Transfer dough to a large bowl. Mix vanilla and ice water together and sprinkle over the dough. With a rubber spatula, fold liquid into dough until dough is moist enough to hold together. If the dough is too dry, add more ice water. Shape dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours before rolling.
3. Remove dough from the fridge and place it on a well-floured piece of parchment paper. Flour the dough lightly and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Roll dough to an even thickness into a 12-inch circle. Remove the top paper and transfer dough to pie plate, paper side up. Remove parchment paper and gently press dough into form of plate. Trim any excess dough around the edge, cover with plastic wrap and place back into the fridge to rest until you’re ready to assemble the pie.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. To make the brownies: melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add white sugar and brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes (do not let the mixture boil). Remove from heat, add Nutella and mix until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add cocoa powder, eggs, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt and beat until fully incorporated. Gently fold in the flour to the brownie batter until just combined – do not over mix.
5. Remove crust from fridge and crimp the edges decoratively, if desired.
Scrape the brownie batter into the pie crust (fill no more than 2/3 full, closer to half full is even better). Bake pie in the lower third of the oven, at 425 degrees F, for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 340 degrees F (do not remove pie from oven) and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes. When you think the pie is done (a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs attached), move the pie off the rack and cook it 5 more minutes directly on the floor of the oven with the oven door slightly open.
6. Remove the pie from the oven and let cool on a wire rack before cutting and serving, about 2 hours. Serve as is, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.
Tip: To ensure that the crust stays crisp, you can blind bake (pre-bake) the pie crust before adding the filling or you can bake your pie on a preheated baking stone.
(Pie crust recipe adapted from: serious eats & Nutella brownies adapted from: Ricardo cuisine)