Dessert of the Week: Chocolate Pecan Pie

More commonly known as Derby Pie to Kentuckians and Run for the Roses enthusiasts, my first chocolate pecan pie was a gallopping success (pun shamelessly intended):

1/2 c butter, melted
3/4 c white sugar
1/2 c all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 Tbsp bourbon (which I didn't have and used brandy instead)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c chocolate chips (I used chunks of leftover Lindt dark and milk chocolate which made it extra rich)
1 c chopped pecans
1 9 in. pie crust

Preheat oven to 350. Spread chocolate chips and nuts in bottom of crust. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Mix in eggs, then flour. Stir in bourbon and vanilla. Pour filling over chips and nuts in pie shell. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

The butter/sugar/etc mixture looks like cake batter and almost looks like a second crust on top of the pie. For the undercrust I used an all butter pie crust in an effort to find an alternative to shortening based-pies. This one worked fine though not quite as flaky as shortening. Maybe a half and half approach would be a good compromise.

Serve warm with a scoop of whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream and share with good friends.