Derby Pie

This was my personal FAVORITE pie from Pies & Tarts night, and not just because I made it!  I talked to Dave the morning of Dessert Club and told him the pies I was making.  He had made his pear-raspberry pie the night before and had it with him at work, but he wished he had had time to make this Derby Pie as well.  I told him to send me the recipe; if I had all the ingredients I could make a crust ahead of time and we could make the pie together when he came over after work, a few hours before Dessert Club.

Here's the story of how Dave got the recipe, in his own words:

So my friend John Alexander has been searching lo these many years for the perfect pecan pie. He has tried many recipes, but none quite measured up to what he wanted the pie to taste like. One day the story of his pie quest came up within hearing of Anne. Now Anne is Kentucky born and raised, and she came into his office and said to John "Have you tried Derby Pie"?  John's eyebrows raised, and he picked up his phone and called me into his office. Upon hearing that it was not only a pecan pie but a Chocolate pecan pie, together we pressured Anne into agreeing to make us a Derby Pie, which she did, and John's long search for the perfect pecan-based pie was over. Of course, the week following Anne's pie, we pressured John into making it and so got to enjoy it all over again.  A few months later John was on vacation in Utah (from England - backwards, right?) and emailed me in desperation - "Do you have the Derby Pie recipe? I really want to make it but I don't have it on my email that I can get to from here!" - I put him in touch with Anne's husband on Facebook so John could introduce Derby Pie into his native Utah.   My price for hooking him up in his hour of need? You guessed it - my own copy of the Derby Pie recipe.   That's the story of our pie.   I'm sure Anne could tell you a better story about its Kentucky heritage or whatever, but that's how it came to me.

Luckily, VGP and Dessert Club are non-profit situations, or else we could get sued for using the name, "Derby Pie."  Apparently it is a registered trademark of Kern's Kitchen in Prospect, Kentucky, and they have sued to protect its copyright at least 25 times since 1968.  See here. 

I think it's a catchy name but I don't really care what we call it.  "Slice of Heaven" works for me.  It smells like chocolate chip cookies while baking, probably because it has all the best ingredients from those - brown sugar, chocolate, nuts and vanilla.  I never cared for pecan pie when I was younger.  Then I went to Canada and discovered sugar pie and butter tarts, which are basically pecan pie without pecans.  Then my palate matured and I started to like pecans.  And of course chocolate makes everything better.  I don't know about you folks, but thanks to Kern's Kitchen and Dave's friends Anne and John, I have now got a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Derby Pie (print recipe)
One unbaked 9-inch pie shell
4 eggs1 stick melted butter
1 tablespoon flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white corn syrup (Karo)1 cup pecans
1 cup chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk eggs. In a small bowl or pan (whatever you melted the butter in), mix the flour and melted butter with a fork until there are no lumps. 

2.  Into the whisked eggs, stir in sugars, vanilla, syrup, and butter-flour mixture. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into an uncooked 9" pie crust.  Try to spread the chocolate chips evenly around the pie; the pecans will take care of themselves. Once they float to the top, if it looks like there are lots of empty spots, you could add more pecans so the top is covered well. Just make sure you get the pecans completely coated with the filling mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and 20 minutes, or until the pie doesn't jiggle like jello when you shake it.


Recipe from Anne from Kentucky