The Great American Pie Tour

As Easy as Eating Pie

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As presented in Grafton's Valley Messenger. Read Latest Edition

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For two weeks starting the 3rd August 2022 Cold Brew Cafe 53 Armidale St., (Armidale St. and Cambridge St.) South Grafton, NSW

For those of you just joining, here’s a recap: One of our regular customers confided he longs to drive across the United States, stop at diners along the road and order all the different pies along the way. Oh boy, what a great trip that would be! But, we thought, why go all the way to the States when we could do that right here in South Grafton! This is a tour of America’s most beloved food: pie.

Black Bottom Pie

So good they’re singing and dancing about it!

An angel walks into a diner and orders… pie of course!

Who can forget the beautiful Andie MacDowell singing, I Love Pie from the movie Michael (1996):
‘Pie, pie, me oh my,
Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry,
all at once – oh, well it’s pie.
Apple, pumpkin, mince and BLACK BOTTOM,
I’ll come to your place every day if you’ve got ’em.
Pie, me oh my, I love piiiiieeeeeee!’

Me oh my, we love pie, too! Especially black bottom pie! Black bottom pie is akin to our previous Boston cream pie but without the cake, but its origin is significantly more difficult to trace. Of one thing we are certain, Monroe Boston Strause did not create black bottom pie in 1940. We don’t care what the inter webs say! We will discuss him in the next edition.

This pie is thought to have originated in the South sometime in the 1920s; the "black bottom" refers to the murky, marshy lowlands of the Mississippi River. During that same time, a lot of things were called "black bottom."

The Black Bottom was a dance that was even more popular than the Charleston in1927! There was a hot jazz number called, The Black Bottom Stomp, by Jelly Roll Morton in 1926. And Ma Rainey, the mother of the Blues sang a song called, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom! She sang out: I want to see the dance you call the black bottom I want to learn that dance Come on and show that dance you call your big black bottom It puts you in a trance…

One thing we do know, this pie will put you in a trance! Black Bottom Pie is on the menu at Cold Brew Café for the next two weeks. We hope you’ll come and enjoy a piece and a cuppa! We’ll even sing The Pie Song for you upon request! We’re open from 7am - 2pm Monday thru Friday and 7am - 12pm on Saturdays.

You can find posts of our recipe progress, "tips and secrets” and other updates on our Facebook page @coldbrewcafeaustralia. Search #greatamericanpietour to find our past posts and pies on the Great American Pie Tour and look for the final Black Bottom Pie recipe in the next printing of the Valley Messenger.

Black Bottom Pie Recipe

What a popular pie the Black Bottom pie has been! Chocolate pudding on the bottom, pastry cream in the middle and pure whip cream on top! Yum. Yum. And yum! We haven’t, as yet, been asked us to sing the I Love Pie Song, can you believe it? But, you still have time! We’re always game to sing that sweet little tune—just ask!

We’re especially happy with the ease of making the Black Bottom Pie! The chocolate pudding and pastry cream are as easy as putting almost everything in the pot and making it thick and hot. And to reiterate—use good chocolate in the chocolate pudding. We only use Belgian Chocolate at the Cold Brew Cafe but get the best you can. And don’t be afraid to double that recipe! You can have warm pudding while you’re waiting for the pie to chill!

We hope you’ll enjoy making this delicious pie on your own, but if you can’t be bothered making it yourself, we will be delighted to serve it up for you! This pie is available at Cold Brew Café until Wednesday, when we will phase it out for the next Great American Pie! “What?” you ask, “Are there really more pies to try?” “Oh, yes,” we say, “Yes, indeed!”

Nice Biscuit Crust

1 packet Arnott's Nice Biscuits
¼ teaspoon salt
125g melted butter

Method:

Put broken biscuits and salt in the food processor. Grind until fine. Add melted butter and pulse until combined. Pour into a bowl and make sure butter is evenly distributed.
Pour into pie dish and use a flat-bottomed measuring cup to compact the buttery crumb evenly into the bottom and up the sides. Use your finger at the top to compact the edge.
Cover with parchment and use beans or pie weights to hold up sides while blind baking. Bake in preheated 180 ℃ oven for 15 - 20 minutes. There should be good structure to the crust. Remove from oven and let cool. If it looks a little soggy, take the pie weights out and cook for another 5 minutes or so.

Chocolate Pudding Bottom

40g sugar (double batch 80g)
15g corn flour (double batch 30g)
1 tablespoons coco powder (double batch 2 T or 16g)
Pinch of salt (double batch ¼ t salt)
1 ½ cups milk (double batch 3 cups milk)
85g bittersweet chocolate (double batch 170g chocolate)
1 ½ tablespoons butter (double batch 56g butter)
1 teaspoons vanilla (double batch 2 t)

Method:

Whisk together sugar, corn flour, coco powder, and salt into a sauce pan off heat. Whisk in part of the milk to make smooth paste and then add the rest of the milk. Place pan on medium high heat and bring to a simmer whisking constantly. Cook for 1 minute whisking until pudding thickens. Take off the heat. Add butter and whisk until melted.
Add vanilla and whisk until incorporated.
Pour pudding into Nice crust. It is ok if the crust is still warm. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent skin from forming.

Pastry Cream

¼ cup (50g) white sugar
2 ½ tablespoons corn flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolks
1cups whole milk
2 tablespoons (30g) cold unsalted butter, cubed

Method:

Off the heat, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, egg, egg yolks, and milk in a saucepan; whisk until well combined.
Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom surface of the pan, until thick, about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and whisk to release some steam. Add butter and keep stirring until melted. Add vanilla and whisk until incorporated. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 to 3 hours. Stir until creamy again and place onto of the pudding in pie shell.

Pure cream topping

¾ cups pure cream
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons crème fraiche or sour cream
Whip until very stiff. Heap in middle and easy out to edge of pie.
We used a micro plane to shave chocolate on top of the topping.

Enjoy!

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