Learning to cook from my children

It's funny. As I mom, I spent years teaching my children how to navigate around a kitchen, how to poach an egg, how to set a table, how to bake a cheesecake, how to throw dinner together from whatever is in the refrigerator or in the garden. Today, they are all excellent cooks and I find myself learning from them.

Mary was home this weekend and offered to bake a pie that is often served on the first Saturday in May in Kentucky. I can't call it a Derby Pie as that name is trademarked, but if you are from Kentucky, you know what pie I'm talking about. It's nutty, chocolately, and bourbony. It is excellent served warm with some whipped cream and even better served cold the next day for breakfast.

We've been making this pie around our home for years. The recipe originally came from Alice Stravolemos, the mother of Evelyn, my best friend growing up.

Mary set to making the pie as I puttered around the kitchen pulling the rest of dinner together. She said she didn't need to see the recipe as she had it memorized. She casually mentioned that she had tweaked the recipe a bit: adding a pinch of salt, an extra quarter cup of chocolate morsels – often using a combination of both bittersweet and semi-sweet morsels – reducing the sugar a bit and finally switching the oven to broil for one minute at the end so that pie is nicely browned on top without over-cooking the insides. She also admitted adding a splash of bourbon to the whipped cream for an added boozy flavor.

I was impressed. It was the best D_ _ _ _ Pie I had ever tasted. So good, that I replicated her recipe today when Ed's cousins: Darla, Marilyn and Carolyn came for lunch. We all scrapped our dessert plates clean.

So here's the recipe, tweaked by Mary Galloway.

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Alice Stravolemos' Kentucky D____ Pie

ingredients

1 unbaked pie shell

2 eggs

1 stick of butter, melted and cooled (113 g)

1/2 cup flour (64 g) I used 1/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup sorghum flour for a gluten-free version

1 cup sugar minus 2 Tablespoons (175 g)

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans (120 g)

1-1/4 cup chocolate chips – combination of semi-sweet and bitter-sweet (210g)

1 jigger of bourbon (45 ml)

preparation

Beat eggs. Add cooled melted butter. Mix in sugar and flour and salt. Add vanilla. Blend in nuts and chocolate chips. Add bourbon. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Broil for 1 minute to brown the top. Watch carefully as it burns easily. Serve warm with bourbon-laced whipped cream or vanilla ice cream,  or cold, straight from the refrigerator.