And a back issue of SAVEUR magazine comes through again!
Today is Pi Day!! And because we’re still in the “Grey Zone, we decided we needed major comfort. It is now exactly one year from the day of my first (of too many) “cancelled due to pandemic” dress rehearsal and concert….
From the days when SAVEUR Magazine was still an exciting magazine to read:
The front of Marlow & Sons consists of an assemblage of display cases and shelves stocked with fresh baked goods, artisanal soda pop and potato chips, and culinary curios. Baguettes poke out from a chipped enameled-metal bin labeled BREAD. A chalkboard advertising the day’s specials hangs next to a pegboard holding antique knives. Separated from the shop by a wood-paneled doorway, the dining room is a sort of cross between a cabin in Alaska and a Parisian bistro. Wall sconces cast a soft yellow light over wood benches and mismatched tables and chairs, and oysters on the half shell glisten on ice behind a bar at one end of the room.
Many of the customers huddle over plates of house-made charcuterie and pâté, cheese, and olives, but every time I visit, which is often, I direct my attention to the specials board. The last time I was there, it listed a flat irons steak with herb butter; crostini of black-eyed pea purée, marinated radicchio, and golden raisins; black bass over clams, chickpeas, escarole, and chorizo; and a chocolate caramel tart sprinkled with seas salt. It is honestly curated homemade fare, and always delicious.
-Todd Coleman, SAVEUR Magazine No.119, “Restaurants that Matter: No9 Marlow & Sons”, April 2009, p.84
The recipe for the pie is on page 102 of the magazine. Happily, unlike the article that went with it, the recipe is also available online.
But, a word of caution: make just HALF the amount of caramel. You may want to ignore SAVEUR’s instruction to bring it to 340°F. That’s too high!! Totton went to 240°F (next time, he’ll bump it to 245°F) because we didn’t want the caramel to be at hard-crack stage!
Chocolate Caramel Tart
- SAVEUR magazine:
» Chocolate Caramel Tart recipe- Other Caramel Recipes:
» Sally’s Baking Addiction: Homemade Salted Caramel Recipe
» Broma Bakery: How to Make Homemade Caramel
» Joy of Baking: Stages of Cooked Sugar
» Fine Cooking Magazine: The Science of Caramel
» Taste of Home: This Is What Every Stage of Making Caramel Looks Like and
10 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Caramel- recipes from OUR kitchen:
» blog recipes index
» main index
pie plate
The SAVEUR recipe calls for using a “9″ fluted tart pan with a removable bottom“. We do have one of those, and T used it. But the crust was too much for the pan and he had to – with difficulty – move it after it was cooked into one of our regular pie plates before adding the filling. Otherwise the filling would have completely overflowed.
This is the problem with SAVEUR recipes. They have terrific ideas, but sometimes I get the impression that they aren’t really tested by actual people who have never made the recipe before. 
fancy salts
SAVEUR’s recipe calls for “Gray sea salt, for garnish“. We have all kinds of fancy salt in the cupboard, including gray sea salt. We also have fleur de sel from the Camargue. But we used Himalayan pink salt instead. We thought the pink salt would look pretty on the chocolate….
Happy Pi Day!
Π Day […] Below are some tips on making this day (celebrated on March 14 at 1:59pm) memorable to one and all. […] Eat ‘pi’ foods. Many creative ways exist to do this. First, there’s the punny approach, like eating pineapple, pizza, or pine nuts and drinking pina coladas or pineapple juice. Second, there’s the shape approach, like making cookies or pancakes shaped like pi or making a pie with a pi cut out of the center of the crust. Of course, whatever you do, Pi Day is simply incomplete without eating pie, even if you don’t feel artistic enough to carve the pi symbol out of the top.
– excerpt from “How to Celebrate Pi Day”
- About Pi Day:
Π piday.org the official web site for March 14th (3.14)
Π How to Celebrate Pi Day
- Related:
» mmm… cherry strudel
» peach strudel is good too!
» apple pie with olive oil pastry (Π Day)
» Boston Cream Pie
» gluten-free corn bread for Π Day
» Fabulous Lemon Pie
» It’s Pie Day – does you know wear you’re mittens are?
» Plum Hamantaschen
» Two kinds of Cherry Snowballs: which one is your favourite?
“Potato chips” caught my eye when I first paged down in your post. My mind immediately decided that this recipe probably contained potato chips, maybe in the crust.
I see that it doesn’t actually have potato chips, just salt on top. But yours still looks amazing! The official version looks ok, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as decadent as yours.
“Bittersweet chocolate ganache” … oh my. Mmm.
edit 16 March 2021, 09:03: Not “just” salt on top, Barbara – it’s Himalayan Pink Salt.
Ha! I had forgotten that Todd Coleman even mentioned potato chips in his article about Marlow & Sons! (Thinking about it, I kind of like the idea of sprinkling the top of chocolate ganache with potato chips….) The ganache – and the caramel – and the dark chocolate crust are the best parts of this riciculously decadent pie. – Elizabeth)