Blackberry Dark Chocolate Petite Pies

Blackberry Dark Chocolate Petite Pies

This is one of those recipes that happened as a result of left over ingredients, and it was magnificent!  I often find desserts too sweet, especially if I’ve baked them myself (not sure why).  These, however, err on the side of bitter, complimented perfectly by Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. (On a side note: you’ll need a muffin tin.)

PS.  I’m considering buying an ice cream maker.. uh oh.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp butter
• 40 grams Dark Baking Chocolate
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 tbsp chocolate mousse powder
• 5 tbsp chocolate cake mix (I told you it was random)
• 2 large egg whites, separate 2 tsp
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1  1kg package puff pastry squares, cut in halves (you probably won’t need the whole thing)
• 3 cups frozen blackberries
• 3 tbsp caster sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325F/176C

Melt butter and dark chocolate over medium heat.  Slowly whisk in milk.  Remove from heat.  Whisk in mousse mix, whisk in chocolate cake mix.  Return to heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, allow to cool briefly, then pop it in the freezer while you prepare your next step.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (minus the two tsp, set those aside). Whisk in powdered sugar.

Check your chocolate.  If it’s cooled to or below room temperature, loosely stir egg whites in.  Chocolate should be streaked with white.

Grease a muffin tin.

Fold pastry triangles into muffin tin divots.  It’s awkward, I know, but the beauty of this recipe is, the uglier it is, the prettier it is, so don’t sweat it! Wet the edges of your pastry with egg whites.  Place one  heaping tbsp choc mix in centre of pastry triangle.  Now, this is where you’re going to need to play around yourself (hence my suggesting that you might not use all the pastry).  You need to figure out how many berries you can fit into your pastry, and still successfully pinch it shut.  Pull the corners together, pinch, and then twist slightly. It’s important that you’re firm with the dough, that it’s well sealed, as you don’t want your filling to leak out.  If you need to trim bits off one part to help seal another, you wouldn’t be alone! I had to, as well.

Once you’ve done this enough times to fill your tins/run out of stuff, sprinkle half your caster sugar generously over the tops.

Bake at 325F/176C for 15 minutes, or until tops of pies are golden.  Sprinkle remaining caster sugar over top. Serve immediately, a la mode.

Wine Pairing Suggestion: You can really go either way (dry or sweet) with this one, but I’d actually pair it with a lighter, fruity Pinot Noir, slightly chilled, to highlight the berry flavour.