Eat humble pie

You erred; you wish you hadn’t said something; you created a fuse which blew up and then what? … Do you feel sorry for it?

One of the most difficult characteristic which rarely comes naturally to a person unless he / she is thoroughly genuine; its one of those words which when uttered fizzle down the situation from a bulbous bursting to a deflated balloon – yes, people, I speak of the one word ‘sorry’

I have seen people steam up, react explosively, distract, walk away, get puffy eyed, tear up, but when a person does not want to acknowledge his mistake, it comes out in one of the emotions mentioned or something much worse. To eat humble pie, is one of the most important lesson a human can hone, understand and utilize in situations usually created by him/her-self.

As kids we snapped / broke / vehemently destroyed something and were severely made to standup for our doing and made to apologize. A situation which could get quite embarrassing depending on the number of people staring down at you at the time of your meek apology; some of us would huff and probably hold their breaths till we turned blue, but in the end were successfully coerced into saying the magic word. No matter what the reaction, every good parent made sure the word ‘sorry’ (apart from ‘thank you’) was imbibed with super glue in our system. Did the glue loosen up as we grew up, or was it a perpetual case of amnesia? I really don’t understand why it’s so difficult to admit your mistakes when the time comes to do so, is it a self obsessing thing or is it egoistical? I guess its just plain stupidity and nothing else.

Learn to buckle down sometimes and humble up, as there’s no better way to live correctly than to ensure these little things make up a part of your personality. It does make you a better person.

Eating pies of a different kind can be rewarding in a way, I am back to food and got motivated to make a pie this day. An online invite came to me the other day saying 5th July was pie day (don’t know if its true or not) but it was inspiring enough to know that over a thousand people had signed up for it, world over, and at the same time, people were making pies. I am not much of a dessert person, if I do make dessert it’s usually quick or something whipped up in a jiffy with ingredients such as fruits, chocolate and cream. This time I was pretty jived up to go the whole nine yards and make up a baked goodie and what better pie than Rich Chocolate Mud Pie with a high shot of the good stuff.

Jack Daniels Chocolate Molten Mud Pie

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base

• 150gms Digestive Biscuits
• 1 tablsp Cocoa Powder
• ½ cup Unsalted Butter
• ½ cup Chopped Dark Chocolate

For the Jack Daniels Chocolate Filling

• 1 cup Dark Chocolate
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Cream
• 1 cup Muscovado Sugar (you may substitute it with Brown Sugar)
• 2 large Eggs
• 3 tablsp Jack Daniels
• 1 tsp Hazelnut Syrup (optional)

Preheat the oven to 210C with the shorter grill / lower rack in place, before you start preparing the pie.

For the biscuit base, prepare a spring form pan or a glass oven proof dish by spreading a little butter on the bottom and the sides.

Place the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag and close the bag. With a rolling pin or a heavy vessel, bash the bag with the biscuits till its well powdered (this can get quite therapeutic).

In a double boiler (a large pot with boiling water and a smaller vessel for the contents to be melted, on a low flame), melt the chocolate and butter for the biscuit base, once melted remove from heat and add the powdered digestive biscuits, mixing well, till you get a coarse but slightly wet mixture. At this point if you feel the mixture has dried up and still powdered you can add a few dollops of butter to moisten it up.

Proceed by spooning in the biscuit base into the pan and pressing it down in a thin layer with the back of the spoon. Ensure you cover the sides too right till the very top. Place the pan in the freezer while you prepare the filling

For the filling, in a double boiler melt the butter and chocolate and keep aside when you have a homogenous mixture. Beat the eggs and sugar with a wire whisk till you get a smooth paste. Slowly add the cream, hazelnut syrup and Jack Daniels and continue whipping till you get a thick mixture (you may use a electric hand blender to get faster results).

Keep beating while adding the chocolate butter mixture, once all the ingredients are well whipped and beaten, pour the filling into the (now) cold biscuit base pan. Pop in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or till you see the mixture puffing up and having a smooth bald surface.

Do not remove once the time is up but keep the door of the oven ajar for a bout 15 minutes (this is important as the mixture is subjected to extreme heat for a long time and getting it out in room temperature would disturb the pie).

Remove and cool but do not unhinge the spring form pan till properly cooled (the filling will still be a thick liquid and on cooling shall harden from the outside by a few inches). The perfectly smooth surface might crack and deflate a little, but don’t worry. Unhinge and serve or slice straight from the pan once cooled enough. You will be surprised that your knife cuts through well from the first few inches from the outside by the moment you touch the middle, it spews forth the thick molten chocolate which compliments the pie perfectly.

Enjoy a slice, slightly warmed up in the microwave with a scoop of nutty ice-cream and hot fudge sauce.