This recipe makes 32-36 mini muffin-sized pies or about 10 standard muffin-sized pies. If you want to make a full size pie instead, make 1x the crust and 2x the filling, and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour.
Yield: 32 mini pies
Cook Time: 30 minutesminutes
Total Time: 2 hourshours
Ingredients
For Crust:
1 ½cups/ 188gall-purpose flour
⅓cup/ 40gpowdered sugar
¼teaspoonfine sea salt
½cup/ 113g(1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
6tablespoons/ 85g(3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
½cup/ 110gpacked light brown sugar
¼cup/ 50ggranulated sugar
1tablespoonDutch-process cocoa powder
¼teaspoonfine sea salt
2large eggs, at room temperature
3tablespoons/ 45gbourbon*
Instructions
To prepare crust, combine flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and pulse until butter is broken up into lentil-sized pieces. Add lightly beaten egg and pulse a few times until evenly incorporated. The dough will be very crumbly looking, but should stick together if you pinch some between your fingers.
Dump the dough out on a piece of plastic wrap and gather it together until it forms a rough ball. Wrap it very tightly, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or more to allow the flour to fully absorb the water molecules. You can also make the dough a day ahead of time and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface or pastry cloth. Cut out rounds of dough (3.25-inch for minis, 4.25-inch for standard muffin size). You can reroll the scraps and cut out more rounds again. You can either ease the rounds into your muffin tin, accepting the rustic folds as is, you can also crimp the edges to make the crust fit inside the cup (not unlike a dumpling). Alternatively, cut out three wedges from the round (printable template here) and ease the crust down into the cup, overlapping the edges and pressing slightly to seal. Place the entire pan in the freezer for at least 15 minutes to firm up.
Line the frozen crusts with small pieces of parchment paper or small paper candy cups (slightly smaller than mini muffin size, ideally). Fill with rice or pie weights. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until puffed and edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, until cool enough to remove the paper and weights from the crusts.
To make filling, gently melt chocolate and butter together in a double boiler or in the microwave, heating in 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring after each interval, until melted and smooth.
In a bowl, whisk together sugars, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until smooth. Whisk in bourbon, followed by chocolate mixture, until smooth.
Pour or spoon into baked crusts, filling not quite to the top as the filling will puff as it bakes. For minis that's about a scant tablespoon or 1 small cookie scoop, for standard size muffins it's a generous 3 tablespoons or 1 large cookie scoop.
Bake for 10 to 14 minutes for minis, or 16 to 20 minutes for standard size pies, or until crust is golden and pie is puffed around the edges and the center is a bit less so but not raw looking. If you prefer a firmer pie (more like a fudgy brownie) you can bake the pie slightly longer.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool before removing from the muffin tin. Serve at room temperature topped with a dollop of whipped cream.
Pies (sans whipped cream) will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days (though the crust will lose some of its crispness). Let come to room temperature before serving. Pies can also be frozen for up to 1 month, thaw overnight in the fridge, then pop in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes to refresh the crust a bit before serving.
Notes
*Feel free to swap for another liquor instead, such as rum, amaretto, or even Bailey's or Kahlúa. Or, if you'd rather leave it out entirely, simply replace with 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.