Shopping list:
48 oz pitted sour cherries*
24 oz chestnuts (shiny, firm, heavy)*
2 packets gelatin
quart half and half
pint cream
1 C whole milk
1 C butter
1 C dark rum
6 eggs
cake flour
AP flour
sugar
powdered sugar
non-instant clearjel
salt
vanilla
*original recipe uses 8 oz cherries and 4 oz chestnuts.
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Schedule:
Everything done on day 4 must be done on one day; the rest is flexible.
Day 1: gather ingredients, soak chestnuts
Day 2: make pie crust dough, make chestnut purée
Day 3: roll and freeze crust, candy cherries
No need to hurry here; everything keeps for weeks.
Day 4: bake crust, line with chocolate, fill with chiboust
Day 5: decorate with ganache & whipped cream, serve
If attempting to do this in one day with friends,
By 8:00,
ingredients gathered
By 09:00,
chestnuts scored and soaking
cherries candying in oven
By 09:30,
pie crust doughs resting in fridge
By 11:30,
candied cherries finished in fridge
By 12:30,
chestnut purée finished in blender
pie crusts shaped in freezer
By 15:00,
pie crusts blind baked together
pie crusts lined with chocolate
pie crusts cooled in a clean dishes
By 17:00,
anglaise finished
meringue finished
chiboust finished
pies filled and cooling
By 19:00
pies set & decorated
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113 g cake flour113 g AP flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 C cold butter
4 oz or 115 g ice cold water
6 oz dark chocolate
48 oz pitted sour cherries
400 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
400 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
1/4 C powdered sugar
1/4 C clearjel
24 oz chestnuts
100 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
100 g sugar
2 packets gelatin
1/2 t salt
6 egg yolks (whites used below)
1 C whole milk
3 C half & half
1/4 C dark rum
135 g sugar
6 egg whites
1 t vanilla
3 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 C cream
1 3/4 C cream
1/2 t vanilla or almond extract
50 g powdered sugar
Prepare 2 pie crusts: (4 hours)
Combine flours, sugar, and salt.
Cut in cold butter.
Knead in ice water just until crumbs are no longer dry.
While still cool and crumbly, book fold dough.
Cut in two, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Shape dough in pie pans and freeze at least 30 mins.
Fill with foil and baking beans.
Blind bake on lowest oven rack at 375° for about 50 mins.
Let cool a few mins and transfer to a clean pie dish.
(Discarding excess butter for cold pies gives a cleaner cut).
Coat interior with melted chocolate.
Prepare the macerated cherries: (3 hours)
In a large saucepan, combine cherries, sugar, and rum.
Cook over med-low heat, stirring every 5 mins.
If the mixture starts to boil, turn down the heat.
Cherries are ready when dark red syrup is clear; about 15 mins.
Preheat the oven to 200°.
Strain cherries and save syrup (about 4 C) for cocktails.
In a mixing bowl, cover cherries with powdered sugar and clearjel.
Spread cherries out on a baking sheet and bake 2 hours.
Cherries will darken, dry out slightly, and become sticky.
If starchy, add a little extra syrup.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Syrup will keep in the fridge for up to one month.
Prepare chestnut purée: (3 hours)
Chestnuts are dry/difficult to peel when over or undercooked.
24 oz chestnuts are about 30 medium/large chestnuts.
They should yield about 20 oz cooked, peeled chestnuts.
With 2 oz rum and 3.5 oz sugar, that's about 25 oz purée.
Phara says:
"Crack them like they're your enemy,
peel them like you're a brain surgeon."
Wash chestnuts; discard moldy or dried out chestnuts.
Cut an "x" in each chestnut deeply enough to cut membrane.
(I do have a gadget for this and recommend it!)
Soak in water 2-24 hours; 2 works just as well as more.
Preheat air fryer to 400.
Roast 12 mins.
Remove burst chestnuts.
If any chestnuts have not burst, let them roast for up to 5 more mins.
Place roasted chestnuts in a bowl lined and topped with a clean towel.
Keep all chestnuts warm in towel when not being peeled.
One at a time, peel away shells and membranes.
Perfectly cooked chestnuts have a yellow, waxy exterior.
If not using purée soon, food process with sugar and rum and freeze.
If using soon, blend with rum and sugar.
Continue blending with milk and half and half from the anglaise.
Prepare stabilized chestnut crème anglaise: (1 hour)
Place a medium mixing bowl in an ice bath.
In a large saucepan, combine sugar, gelatin, and salt.
Off heat, whisk in yolks, chestnut purée, milk, and half & half.
Cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping constantly.
Begin immersion blending, which creates an insulating top layer of foam.
Immersion blend every 5 mins or so.
Cook until crème anglaise reaches 180°; mixture will have thickened.
If you want an ultra smooth texture, strain at this point.
Pour into cold bowl in ice bath and add rum.
Immersion blend; foam will disappear as anglaise cools.
Begin making Italian meringue.
Continue immersion blending every 5 mins or so.
Crème anglaise is ready once chilled and thickened, about 30 mins.
Should pass trace and become slightly gloopy; this will suspend cherries.
Refresh ice in ice bath as needed.
This cannot be made in advance, because if it gets too cold, it will set.
Prepare Italian meringue: (half hour)
In a small pot, drizzle about 3 T water over outer edges of sugar.
Heat over very low heat to get a clear syrup.
Stir on occasion carefully, wetting edges with water on a pastry brush.
Meanwhile, place egg whites into a clean stand mixer bowl.
Syrup must be clear and glossy.
Once syrup is at 230, beat whites on medium.
When syrup reaches 240, increase to high.
Pour hot syrup into beating whites and beat in vanilla.
Beat only until meringue is medium stiff and silky.
Do not overbeat, or meringue will become foamy.
Prepare stabilized chestnut chiboust: (half hour)
(Chiboust is traditionally made with crème pat instead of anglaise)
Wait until anglaise is cold and stand mixer bowl has cooled.
Set aside 3/4 Italian meringue.
Pour chestnut anglaise into stand mixer bowl with 1/4 meringue.
Mix slowly until smooth.
Fold together with remaining meringue.
Assemble pies: (4 hours)
Set aside decorating macerated cherries.
Layer some plain chiboust into each of two pie crusts.
Sprinkle remaining macerated cherries in along the way.
If wanting a smooth top, make sure cherry generously early.
Refrigerate 1-4 hours or until set.
Cold chiboust sets very quickly!
Prepare chocolate ganache and whipped cream: (1 hour)
Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in small bowl.
Heat cream until edges bubble.
Pour cream over chocolate, cover for 5 mins, and whisk well.
Let cool to thicken before piping (this can take a while).
Fit in a piping bag with tip 4.
In a cold stand mixer bowl, combine cream and extracts.
Whip, incorporating sifted powdered sugar.
Beat until voluminous but still very smooth.
Fit in a piping bag with a medium sized star tip.
Decorate pies: (half hour)
Decorate pies with a crisscross pattern.
Pipe decorative whipped cream mounds along outer edges.
Can pipe 12 of these and 1 in the middle.
Top mounds with remaining cherries.
Best if eaten within two days.
Adapted from
"Pie for Everyone" by Petra Paredez
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