This warm sweet and salty cookie pie is perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
This is just one of those posts where I’m going to cringe looking at the pictures, but the recipe is too good not to share and frankly, sometimes the most UN-photogenic desserts are the tastiest.
Way back on our first Valentine’s Day together (2004!), Matt took me to dinner at Murphy’s in Atlanta. Pretty much everyone who went to Emory has gone there at least once (likely during a parental visit where there was a rental car and someone else’s credit card involved). This was actually my second date at the restaurant but I don’t think I told that fact to Matt that night… Anyway, our meal involved some delicious food (to this day Matt still talks about the grouper he had) and ended on a sweet note with Toll House Pie. I had no idea that this was a thing at the time, but apparently it was and anyone who went to Murphy’s had to have it (a sign that my first date there was definitely not meant to be). When the server brought out the warm slice of pie oozing with melted chocolate and topped with creamy vanilla ice cream melting away, we were in dessert heaven. Way back then I was a bit on the stricter side (ahem, very strict) when it came to indulging, but you better believe I ate my fair share of that pie.
Since then I’ve made the traditional version once (sans nuts), but this time around I wanted to make it sweet and salty. Swapping out the chopped nuts for pretzel pieces and loading it with big milk chocolate chunks was a good move. As was the sprinkling of smoked sea salt on top!
- 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie crust dough, cold* (I used
- Audra’s pie crust recipe– so flaky!)
- 100g (~2 large) whole eggs
- 10 milliliters / 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 235g (~1 cup packed) light brown sugar
- 170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 64g (~1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
- 2 ½g (½ teaspoon) salt
- 150g (~1 cup) milk chocolate, roughly chopped
- 40g (~1 cup) broken salted pretzel pieces
- 2g (1 teaspoon) flaky sea salt, preferably smoked
- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
- Roll out pie crust and press into a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie-plate; set aside
- In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt; set aside
- In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs and vanilla on medium-high speed for several minutes until light and foamy
- Beat in sugar and butter on medium-high speed until well-combined; use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl
- Put mixer on low and slowly add in flour mix
- Stir in chocolate and pretzels but do not overmix
- Carefully spread filling into pie shell; top with flaky sea salt
- Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from side of pie, center should still be moist
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving warm with ice cream
