Pecan Pie-Why Mess with a Good Thing?

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     When we were working on our pie book and developing new recipes, one of my friends asked me if we made Chocolate Pecan Pie. She hadn't seen a recipe for it, but was thinking that the combination of flavors sounded good.  I told her that I would give it a try and bring her one if it was successful.  So, I started scouring Pinterest for the many versions of Chocolate Pecan Pie available.  

One of my first tries.

     Most of the recipes I found simply added chocolate chips to the pie, along with the pecans.  So, I tried a version of that idea.  It seemed promising. The pie looks really delicious, right?  Well, my husband was unimpressed with the flavor.  I have to admit that I was as well.  I feel like the best part of the Pecan Pie is the custard below the pecans.  In this case, the chocolate overpowered that creamy texture and rich flavor.  Not to mention that as the chocolate chips cooled and rehardened, it made the pie difficult to slice! So, I checked off the chocolate chip method as a fail. 

     One of the beauties of Pecan Pie is that it is really super easy to whip up.  A lot of the recipes I found made the process so much more difficult, so I gave those a hard pass.  One day I was discussing the Chocolate Pecan Pie idea with Maddy and she suggested I toast and candy the pecans with brown sugar and cocoa powder to see if that would give the hint of chocolate that we wanted.  I thought, "Genius!"  So, I gave it a try.  The pecans came out really tasty after I toasted them in a skillet with butter, brown sugar and cocoa powder.  And, the crumbs from the toasting left a sort of chocolate swirl through the custard part of the pie.  But, when it was baked all together, the flavor of the chocolate really didn't come through at all. I still liked this idea though, and may explore it further.

     To make a long story short, the Chocolate Pecan Pie didn't make it into the ebook and my friend hasn't received her pie.  A couple of other suggestions I may try are:

• Add chocolate syrup or cocoa to the custard mix.
• Simply bake the pie in a chocolate crust.
• Just drizzle chocolate syrup over the pie after it is baked! 

     But really, I think the moral of this story is that not every really good thing has to be chocolate!  I know, I know, unbelievable! But I have tweaked my Pecan Pie recipe over the years until it is a family favorite, with the perfect balance between the amount of pecans and the custard below them.  My husband is firmly in the camp of not messing with the Pecan Pie at all! It is his all time favorite! Sometimes you just don't mess with a good thing.