Run For The Roses Pie I

This was the recipe I was looking for--remembered "Derby Pie" from my youth in KY as being like this, but the recipes I've always found have been more like a chocolate chip cookie and less like a pecan pie in consistency. This one was really good, but I did need to cook it a bit longer to keep it from being too runny. I would probably also reduce the amount of chocolate chips by about 1/4.

My family always called this Dixie Pie...this is a good, simple recipe. I had enough filling for two regular pie shells, but spread chocolate chips in the bottom of each shell first, as they tend to sink anyway. I also omitted the bourbon and soaked the walnuts in a little vanilla flavoring instead. 35 minutes seemed to be plenty of baking time. I have had problems using recipes for this pie in the past where I had problems with the pie setting up and not being too runny. That just seems to be a general problem with this pie; it was a bit runny with this recipe, too. Perhaps it needed to be baked longer…? However, it tasted delicious!

Good taste, but I couldn't get it to be a little more solid even after cooking it a full 1/2 hour longer than suggested and decreasing the quantity of chips as recommended. Maybe I'll try refrigerating it before serving to firm it up, but overall it was received well at our Derby Party. Very rich...could have done with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to cut the richness.

I made these pies in advance for the Kentucky Derby Party. Because I was making multiple pies, I sprinkled the chocolate chips and nuts on the bottom of each pie, then poured the corn syrup mixture over each. Otherwise it’s difficult to get even amounts of chips and nuts in each pie. If you are making one pie, that wouldn’t matter. I’m not sure it wouldn’t be better to cream the butter and sugar together first. I will try that next time. The pies freeze well when baked in advance. I received many compliments last year. We will see how we do this year when the derby day arrives.

This pie is very buttery and very rich. It came out perfect. The one thing I would do different is before pouring the batter into the crusts, stir it one more time. I took 30 seconds out to adjust the pie plates on my cookie sheet and in that time the chocolate morsels had sunk to the bottom of the mixing bowl and the walnut stayed on top. I ended up with one pie that was chocolate heavy and one pie that was walnut heavy. Otherwise, this recipe worked out perfectly.