The GFCF Recipe Experience: Chocolate Meringue Pie

It's party time! Or, more specifically, it's pie party time!

Shauna Ahern, aka Gluten Free Girl, had a great idea to host a pie party today on both Facebook and Twitter. The "invitation" was simple - make a pie. And then share a picture and/or blog about it. Over 1000 people signed up for the party on Facebook - you can check out everyone's creations here. Or, if you are on Twitter, just search #pieparty. Fruit pies, pizza pies, even drinks ike martinis and wine coolers - all are being shared!

Here is my contribution - a GFCF chocolate meringue pie.

This pie is based on the recipe for Margaret's Southern Chocolate Pie at www.allrecipes.com. The crust is my adaptation of Carol Fenster's pie crust recipe in her 1000 Gluten Free Recipes cookbook, which you can find here.

One of the pie ingredients in the original recipe is evaporated milk. I have to admit I am not familiar with a commercially available GFCF evaporated milk. But no matter - it's easy to make your own. Just heat some CF milk (I used almond milk in this case) in a saucepan over medium to medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the volume is reduced by half. And that's it!

Admittedly, the texture on the pie was a little runny, and I need to figure out a way to make the pie firmer next time. But the flavor was spot on, at least in the eyes of my children, who proclaimed it was the best pie ever.

It always feels good to satisfy my harshest and most important critics!

CHOCOLATE MERINGUE PIE
Adapted from an allrecipes.com recipe

Ingredients

1 prepared 9 inch pie shell (click here for recipe)

1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup GF all purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
12 oz. CF evaporated milk (see narrative above for directions)
3 tbsp CF butter (I used Earthbalance Buttery Sticks)
6 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Place 1 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder and GF flour in a medium saucepan. Combine the egg yolks and the evaporated milk and add to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until melted and combined. Pour into the prepared pie shell.

Preheat the oven to 325°.

The make the meringue topping, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar and cream of tartar and beat until combined. Spread the meringue over the top of the chocolate filling.

Bake at 325° until the meringue peaks are browned.