Pecan pie with chocolate chips and Kentucky bourbon: It’s a Derby thing

The Kentucky Derby is next Saturday — it’s always the first Saturday in May — and as a genuine Kentucky Colonel (I have a certificate from the governor to prove it), I feel a certain obligation to preserve and promote the rich traditions and heritage of the commonwealth of Kentucky.

So, I’m sharing my family recipe for what is generically known as chocolate pecan pie with bourbon.

It’s similar to a pie that’s sold commercially as Derby-Pie, but we can’t call it that, because Derby-Pie is a registered trademark of Kern’s Kitchen of Louisville, and they don’t like it when someone uses their trademark generically. I don’t blame them.

Whatever you call it, if you’re having a Derby party, you really should serve this.

Ingredients

  • 9-inch deep-dish pie crust
  • 1 stick of butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 3/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/4 cup bourbon
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips, more or less (I use a more)
  • 1 cup pecan halves, more or less (I use a more)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. With a mixer, whip the butter, sugar, corn syrup, eggs, vanilla and bourbon together until frothy
  3. Spread the chocolate chips and pecans evenly on the bottom of the pie shell
  4. Pour the mixed ingredients into pie crust and back at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until set
  5. Let cool 30 minutes before serving (it’s good with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream)

Photo by gregoirvedb via Flickr

About these ads

21 thoughts on “Pecan pie with chocolate chips and Kentucky bourbon: It’s a Derby thing

    • I’ll bet it would still be pretty good without the pecans. (I’m assuming you’re allergic to walnuts, too.) I mean, you’d still have sugar, chocolate and bourbon. Tell me there’s a bad ingredient there.

  1. This looks so delicious!! My hubs is a huge fan of horseracing, and I have always sworn that one day I would take him to the Kentucky Derby for his birthday, which always falls somewhere around Derby day. Maybe if I make the pie and he watches it on TV it will be like the next best thing??

    Btw, if you have an in for me on that derby thing, feel free to let me know! :)

  2. I can’t eat nuts — period. Still, I’m a big fan of pecan pie (yep, I pick out all the pecans, just like a little kid!). I’m thinking this one of yours sounds delightful — what’s not to like about all that butter, chocolate, and bourbon?! Thanks for sharing!

  3. Go figure, I’m catching up on your blog when you’re talking about MY FAVORITE DESSERT! The local creamerie chops up Derby Pie, Kern’s crust and all , and sticks in bourbon infused vanilla ice cream. Talk about a dream come true. Happy Derby Week!

  4. My local book club is reading a Silas House book for this Sunday. Generally we try out foods from the book is from, so I have volunteered to make your Derby Pie recipe. We will have a little Kentucky in Massachusetts!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s