Thursday, October 02, 2008

Maple Hazelnut Pie

After acquiring the mother lode of hazelnuts earlier on this month, I've been actively seeking out ways in which to use them. So far, I've used them as decoration for some cookies, and I used them in yesterday's chocolate chip cookies from Giada's Family Dinners, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the October 2008 issue of Bon Appetit had an entire section of hazelnut recipes in it, including one for Maple Hazelnut Pie. Monday night, I served it with my Giada dinner, and it was a huge success. Four of us wolfed down the whole pie, with a small sliver left over for my roommate.

I initially thought I had enough maple syrup on hand to make the pie as per the recipe, but when I went to measure, I found I was mistaken and only had half of what was required. I made up the missing volume with corn syrup, but the pie was still mapley enough. I also didn't add the bourbon, since I don't have that kind of booze around. I added some extra vanilla instead. In the end, I still got a great pie, and it tasted amazing. The texture of the filling was silky on the tongue and rich in flavour despite my substitutions. The hazelnuts, which got extra toasting during the baking process, lent the pie a more subtle nuttiness than your typical pecan would.

As for the pastry, I've found this recipe from Gourmet to be completely fool proof, and I've never had it fail once. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that pastry has been tricky for me in the past, and I've never had much success with the usual flakey pastry recipes one sees on the back of Crisco or other shortening boxes. I'm not a fan at all of vegetable shortening, and I've never made a successful pastry dough using shortening. This recipe has always worked smashingly for me, and I use all butter instead of the stipulated part butter, part vegetable shortening.

I served the pie with whipped cream, and away it went in a matter of minutes! Definitely a recipe I'll keep around!

9 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That pie is gorgeous! A delightful combination!

cheers,

Rosa

Emily Rose said...

This really would be a great substitute for a pecan pie- I need to bookmark this as a possible Thanksgiving recipe. We always travel to Tennessee for Thanksgiving to visit my in-laws and I'm always trying to think of a recipe that would hold up if I made it on Tuesday night and then served it on Thursday at lunch. Do you think this would make it through the 8 hour drive?

Meg said...

You had me hooked at "maple"! This is an awesome recipe!

Wandering Coyote said...

Thanks Rosa!

Emily Rose: absolutely this pie will travel well. Wrap it well in saran wrap and away you go!

Meg: thanks! Definitely a keeper recipe in my books.

A said...

changed my blog. thought i'd let you know.

and omg that looks amazing

Wandering Coyote said...

Got it - thanks Alyse.

Cherie said...

This pie look fantastic! We have a filbert farm near our house that lets us glean filberts after the farmer's have gone through and harvested. We end up with tons of them, too. THIS PIE is the perfect thing. Thanks, WC. Tom will go nuts - oops, pardon the pun.

The chocolate chip cookies, the roast beef, and all the rest have got my creative juices flowing. To the kitchen I go. First, to make chocolate hazelnut biscotti - yes, one of Giada's recipes. Love her, too!

Thanks for keeping me motivated to try new things in the kitchen, WC. I sure appreciate your posts and photos.

Wandering Coyote said...

Cherie: you're so welcome. I'm glad you find so much abundance in this little blog! And filberts and hazelnuts are, depending on what source you read, either the same nut or very similar. Let me know if you make the pie!

Cherie said...

I made the biscotti last evening and am going to make the pie now. I'll let you know how it turns out!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin