Mix up your holiday pie offerings with this German Chocolate Pecan Pie - a perfect union of German Chocolate Cake and Pecan Pie!
Thanksgiving is not the only time we eat pie. What kind of pies are you serving this Christmas? I bet many of you will have the traditional pumpkin or pecan pies. Maybe a buttermilk pie or an apple pie? How about giving this German Chocolate Pecan Pie a try? Despite what you think, it's not difficult to make.
My father-in-law's favorite cake is German Chocolate Cake, so I made him a great recipe from David Lebovitz a few years ago. That recipe dirtied about every pan and bowl I owned! It was a marvelous cake, though. Because of that experience, I reserved the idea of this German Chocolate Pecan Pie to a day when I would have many available bowls and a lot of time, thinking it would be as involved as the cake. I was TOTALLY wrong!
This comes together pretty swiftly! And, if you use a store-bought ready made pie crust, it's even that much faster. I like to make my own pie dough, so I included it in the recipe below. If you use store-bought, follow the recipe starting where you place the crust into the pie plate.
(I wanted to share some of the slices with our neighbors, but somehow the pie disappeared before I had the chance.) 😉
Recipe Card
German Chocolate Pecan Pie
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- ¼ cup ice water
For the filling:
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- 2 ½ cups pecan halves , chopped
- ¾ cup shredded sweetened coconut
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
For the crust:
- In a food processor, pulse the flour with the salt. Add the cold diced butter and pulse until it forms coarse crumbs. Open the top and drizzle in the ice water. Cover and pulse until a dough forms. Do not over mix. Remove dough from the bowl and wrap tightly in plastic wrap; flatten into a disk. Chill in the fridge until firm, about 20 minutes.
- On a floured work surface, gently roll the dough into a 12-inch round. Flipping once to re-flour the surface and top of dough to keep from sticking. Use the rolling pin to carefully transfer dough to a 9-inch pie plate. Cut off the excess dough, leaving a ½-inch overhang; crimp the edge. Use a fork to prick the bottom of the crust, refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line the pie shell with foil and add pie weights (or dry beans if you do not have pie weights). Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and weights, lower the temperature to 375ºF and bake for another 12 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
For the filling:
- Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the 5 tablespoons butter, salt, brown sugar and corn syrup. Heat over medium heat until smooth. In a thin and slow stream, pour the warm mixture into the bowl with the beaten eggs, constantly whisking. Stir in the pecans and coconut.
- Spread the chocolate chips evenly in the baked pie shell. Pour the filling overtop and bake at 375°F until set, about 25 minutes. Allow the pie to cool completely before slicing.
- Recipe Source: Rachael Ray Magazine, Special Collector's Issue, Holiday 2008
