Growing up in a family where both sides are from Kentucky, you would think the first Saturday in May was a national holiday. We would often have derby parties, and I can remember when we were younger we would draw a horse's name from a bowl and that was your horse to cheer for (and hopefully it would win you the pot of money). My grandmother would always get us a derby glass, and this tradition has been carried on through my mom and my aunt. My mom says I have a collection stashed away, but I bet my brother has hoarded all of them.On to the food portion of this post, Derby day isn't Derby day without Derby Pie! This sparks many memories, and really was my favorite part of the whole day. Derby pie is a delicious dessert that basically tastes like a chocolate chip cookie (with nuts) in a pie crust. Now if you know me, you will know that I am not a big nut fan, and of course I managed to find myself a husband who is allergic so I just use that as my excuse now. I can remember begging my mom to make the pie without nuts, and after a few rounds of her saying no, she usually caved. Some years she would have tart shells and make us individual pies, but mostly it was just one pie. Well now I can make things to my own liking, so my pies are definitely nut free. I tried to make my own mini derby pies (I am liking mini versions of things these days) and we shall see how they taste. I couldn't find the pre-made tart shells, so I bought the Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough and cut it into circles to fit into a muffin pan and made mine that way. I will have to wait until Kris tries it to see if they are any good.
Derby Pie
(My mom swears our recipe is the "real" derby pie recipe, so if this post disappears you know somebody hunted me down and I committed some sort of infringement)
Ingredients:
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
3 eggs
1 stick butter (melted)
2 T bourbon (I use vanilla instead)
6 oz chocolate chips
1 c broken pecans
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Beat eggs. Add in sugars and mix.
3. Add in remaining ingredients and combine well.
4. Divide between 2 pie shells
5. Bake for 1 hour - cover with foil if the pies start to brown, because a top layer will develop before the whole pie is set
6. If you want to make mini pies, bake for 30 min.
Oops - as I am typing up this recipe I realized I forgot to put the vanilla in my batch. Hope the pies are still yummy!
Posts
Be careful since the "Derby Pie" folks get very upset if you are using the original recipe!! I agree it is better without the nuts and since I don't like bourbon I like it with vanilla instead.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I always accused of stealing everything?
ReplyDeleteYour brother
Sorry I didn't get you the Julep recipe in time...oh well, I'll post it next year. If you end up making a whole pie as opposed to the mini ones, you may want to take a picture of a slice...as your picture doesn't really do the pie justice. Other than that great post!
ReplyDeleteTo Emily's Readers:
I know a big portion of you are either from Kentucky or know our family well enough to have eaten Derby pie...you can ignore this. But everyone else, if you don't try any of Emily's other recipes, do yourself a favor and try this one. With or without pecans/bourbon (though I'm most certainly a big fan of including both), this is one awesome pie. If this pie were to have become famous in another time or place I could easily see it being called Cookie Dough Pie..and I don't know anybody that doesn't like cookie dough!