Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fazer Pie

When I was living in Lithuania as a missionary, we used to make what we called Fazer Pie. It was made from Fazer milk chocolate (from Finland). I remember the pie being delectably delightful, so I recently tracked down a recipe. I got it from David Beck, who said he got it from Eric Frandsen. Although, I'm quite certain the recipe isn't Frandsen's original, I still appreciate his holding onto it, and being willing to share. Thanks David and Eric.

Last week my lovely wife, Lisa, and I tried making the pie using Dove Milk chocolates (I think the Dove chocolate we used had the word "Silk" on the package somewhere--probably not too important, but it was the "good stuff"). It turned out to be quite delicious. In fact, Lisa said there's nothing that she has had that tastes more like Marie Calendar's Chocolate Satin Pie (Lisa's Fav.) than what we made with the Dove chocolate. So, I'm flattered to have been able to make it for her.

We were eating some of the Dove Chocolate pie w/ my brother, Wade, and I told him I think it would be even better with the original Fazer chocolate we had on the mission. Wade told me how there was this chocolate that he just loved on his mission (in Argentina), but when he came back and tried it several years after the mission, he found it to be really quite nasty. He then told me of his idea that the Lord must bless missionaries to feel that really crappy stuff is great--or delicious--sometimes.

I certainly don't discount the "special taste buds" gift of the Spirit that Wade may have experienced (and I'm sure I experienced it too with that Pork Intestine I somehow managed to gag down--and probably those little sausage pirageliai weren't as good as I remember them); however, I recently went online and ordered two 200-gram bars of Fazer original milk chocolate, ($13 in shipping! ouch!!!). When the chocolate got here and I tried it, I found it to be distinctly delicious--just as I had remembered! I guess Finnish chocolate has a "genuine appeal" to American taste buds (at least mine) as opposed to Argentine chocolate with it's "blessed appeal" for missionaries' taste buds. -ha! :)

Well, as Lisa slept today (she's got something messing w/ her sinuses--poor thing), I went ahead and melted down the chocolate and made the real Fazer Pie. (Except, I can't seem to find the original Fazer Domino cookies we used on the mission, so I had to substitute Oreos. I found out that Fazer sold their Dominos product line, and they are now made by a Finnish company called "LU". Unfortunately, I can't find anyone who has them, online or otherwise. I think, though, that I'd probably actually prefer Oreos in a side-by-side taste test.)
So, anyway. . . here's the recipe and instructions:
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Fazer Pie

Crust Ingredients:
- 2 boxes Fazer Dominos (substitute 2/3 pack of Oreos), crushed;
- 1/4 cup butter, melted.




Crust Instructions:
- Mix crushed cookies and melted butter together
- press mixture evenly into 10-inch pie pan
- freeze the crust until you put the filling in




Filling Ingredients:
- 2 Fazer original milk chocolate bars (200g each), melted (substitute 400g your favorite milk chocolate)
- 1 to 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons Vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon baking cocoa
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 pint whipping cream


Filling Instructions:
- Separate 2 egg whites (save yolks), and whip until peaks form.
- Whip 1/2 pint whipping cream
- Melt the chocolate
- temper 1 egg and the 2 saved egg yolks with warm chocolate
- add the tempered egg and 2 yolks to the chocolate
- add the vanilla and cocoa to the chocolate/egg mixture
- mix well
- Remove chocolate mixture from heat, and let it cool slightly
- Fold in whipped cream
- Fold in whipped eggs
- combine until it's a uniform color (brown, like pie filling)


Final Instructions:
- Pour cool filling into frozen pie crust
- Freeze for at least 4 hours
- Serve with milk, or with whipped cream on top

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Now, here are the pictures and details (or hints) on how I went through these steps. Doing everything in order can make it easy to get everything done while concentrating appropriately on each task. Otherwise, you might stress about burning the chocolate and messing up everything else. I'm sure this is all stuff an experienced cook would just do naturally, but I have wasted a lot of good ingredients on messing some of this up. So here's my tips.


First--and quite possibly the very most important step of all--I neatly arranged the ingredients into a photographic little masterpiece.




Actually, here's the real first step: I chopped the cookies to a fine powder.





I used the food processor for the cookie crushing. Goes much quicker, and the results are just as good or better than hand crushing.




Next, I added the melted butter to the crushed cookies, mixed it all up so the cookies were nice and "wet", then I put the butter/cookie mix in the pie pan. I went a little "generous" on the 1/4 cup of butter. I like to be sure to have enough butter to stick the whole crust together.




Don't worry, I washed my hands thoroughly before this.



After some good pressing, I got it looking like a solid cookie crumb pie crust.



After I got it ready, I put it in the freezer to wait until the filling was ready.



The next step was melting the chocolate. Yummmm. Looks SOOO Good!



You gotta be careful that the chocolate is fully melted (without burning it) before adding anything. If you put the cocoa and vanilla in too early, it turns to fudge, and you gotta start over.



While I was waiting for the chocolate to melt, I got the whipped cream and the whipped egg whites ready. On the egg whites, beat them until peaks form. Thinking to myself, "they're both 'whipped' items," I beat the eggs after the whipped cream, but before cleaning off the beaters. They didn't work out. I don't know if it was because I didn't clean the beaters, or because I accidentally dripped in some yolk when separating them, or because I beat them on too high of a speed. . . but for some reason, they didn't whip into peaks on the first try. So, I had to do a second set of egg whites. Again, I'm sure real cooks know how to do this just fine.



Once the chocolate is all melted, you temper the one egg plus two egg yolks. This means you dowse the eggs with some of the warm chocolate, and mix it up in the egg bowl, so that the eggs get warm without cooking right in the mix. I also put the cocoa and the vanilla in with the eggs and mixed up the whole mixture before dumping it in with the chocolate. I'm not sure this is necessary, but it worked for me.




Next, you take the mixture off the heat, and let it cool for a little while. I didn't wait very long--maybe a minute or two. It might be better for it to cool a bit longer than I did, so it doesn't turn the whipped cream and egg whites into soup. But I was afraid of it setting up as chocolate again, so I didn't wait long. I don't know what's best here. Either way, after giving it a second to cool, you fold in the egg whites and whipped cream until it becomes a lighter brown chocolate pie filling-like mixture.


Once you have it all folded in, you pour the mixture into the pie crust.





Keep pouring. . . almost there. . .





That's it. There's your Fazer Pie. Now you just pop it in the fridge (or freezer) for several hours, and serve it up. Between the fridge and freezer, I'm not sure which is best. I put it in the fridge for an hour or two, then put it in the freezer for a few more hours. Like the tradition of cutting the ends off the roast because grandma's pan was too short to fit the whole thing in, I don't know that there's any actual merit to this method.





It's really a rich (and delicious) pie, so serving it with some fresh whipped cream and/or a tall glass of milk is VERY advisable.

Enjoy!

10 comments:

Andrea said...

I am very impressed...

1. That you made a pie.
2. That you could take pictures while making such pie.

And last but certainly not least.

3. That you paid $13 for shipping chocolate. Only a true chocolate lover would do such things, I am proud to know you!

Kam said...

Wow. Looks delicious!! Also looks like you have some time on your hands, eh? You should start a Lithuanian/Finnish cooking show. Er, maybe the Fazer pie might just be a one-hit-wonder?

Gotta try Fazer chocolate now. I personally feel that any and all European chocolate is bound to be superior. Just a fact. Next time you could try the German Milka bars... they sell them over here a lot more frequently.

Wade Hone said...

Wow! the Dove Chocolate pie was AWESOME, they both look delicious! Thanks Blaine and Lisa for letting me stay, StarTrek and Pie and Family! who could ask for more ya know?

WAde -out.

Lhone said...

Truly an awesome pie. The two pies are distinct. Both good in their own ways. The Fazer pie is a smooth, creamy pie that you can enjoy a bigger piece because its not so rich. I think it would appeal to more people. Whereas, the Dove pie was so rich that the true chocoholics go ga-ga over, but most people can't handle too much of. But, since we don't normally spend 13 on our afternoon treats, I guess we'll have to stick with the dove!

Lhone said...

oh, and kam, you can add the holiday baba to the list of one-hit wonders. So, now we're up to two.

Hey, wait, I also like cepalinai, and the other thing like cepalinai that we used to make a lot. if it wasn't sunday, I would run out and buy the ingredients to make that to go WITH our pie.

Wade Hone said...

I went through this again... those pictures were great! this looks very professional!

W. H.

Karen, the Mom said...

Dear Blaine--

I've been checking your Blog regularly and I find that you still have the "Fazer Pie" write-up on here without posting anything NEW. Evidently, you are waiting for your MOM to make a comment on what she thinks about her son's culinary artistic abilities, eh??

Well, I think they're MARVELOUS!! I'm still rather astounded at the fact that you paid $13.00 for SHIPPING--but your finished product was evidently WORTH it, so good for you!! It's hard to believe that you are attempting such gourmet delicacies, but I'm really proud of you for your well-rounded interests!

I'm normally not a chocolate-pie-liker, but this particular pie looks and sounds VERY enticing, and I think I might be tempted to TRY it if I ever have the opportunity sometime. (Meanwhile I'll just be content with my Marie Calendar's Lemon Meringue Pie, I guess!) :) (I can get TWO for $13.00!!) :) Lots of Love to you, from Mom

Ann Garrett said...

Thank you for this recipe, photos, and detailed instructions! I searched Google for Chocolate Satin Pie from Marie Callender's and this was on the third page of results. Our MC closed in Waco a couple of years ago and now the grocery stores here don't carry this pie. I'm going to make it for my husband for Thanksgiving. He will be thrilled! THANK YOU!

BlaineUSA said...

Best of luck, Ann. Let me know how it turns out for you. --especially regarding my wife's assessment that it really does taste like the Marie Callender's Chocolate Satin Pie. The comparison between the Dove chocolate and the Fazer chocolate really opened my eyes to the fact that the chocolate makes a REAL difference in the flavor of the pie. Again. . . I hear "real cooks" everywhere saying, "duh!" ;)

Hope your Thanksgiving's great!

Ryan said...

Blaine, I just Googled "Fazer Pie" for kicks and this came up. The idea actually came from the group I was with in Estonia for much of my mission (well, they stole it from some cook book). Ryan Romney and Kirk Parks were the first to make it on the mission. Jared Jepson, Ryan Barzee, Ammon Madsen and I used to make it every other week or so. When we all scattered throughout the mission, I'm sure the recipe did as well. Great to hear it was alive and well after we left!

-Ryan Pattee