I absolutely love Marie Callender’s (a western U.S. restaurant & bakery chain) black bottom pie (basically a chocolate cream pie with an extra layer of rum pie filling that is to die for!), but, of course, it is a no-no with all the sugar. I finally had the time to “perfect” this LC version. It does take some time, but is well worth it. It’s perfect for a special occasion if you don’t have the time to make it for an every day dessert. It is awesome, if I do say so myself!

BLACK BOTTOM PIE- Low Carb

Crust (ECC)
½ c. Atkins Bake Mix (6)
2 ½ T butter, softened (0)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened (4)
1 T sour cream (.5)
2 T Splenda, granulated (3)
sub-total 13.5

“Black” (chocolate) Layer
1 ½ c. heavy cream, divided (11.76)
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate (8)
¼ c. water (0)
1 t vanilla extract (.5)
2 T sugar free chocolate pudding mix (Jello brand) (9)
Davinci sugar free vanilla syrup- sweeten to taste (0)
sub-total 29.26

Rum Layer
1 ½ c. heavy cream (11.76)
1 t vanilla extract (.5)
2 T sugar free vanilla pudding mix (Jello brand) (9)
2 t Rum extract (1 [est.])
Davinci sugar free butter rum or vanilla syrup- sweeten to taste (0)
sub-total 22.26

Topping
1 c. heavy cream (7.84)
½ t gelatin and 1T cold water (0)
2 T Davinci sugar free vanilla syrup- sweeten to taste (0)
sub-total 7.84

Small square of sugar-free chocolate bar, grated (optional) (0)

TOTAL FOR RECIPE: 72.86
8 SERVINGS: 9.1 each


To make crust:
Preheat oven to 375F

In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients just until combined with electric mixer. Briefly knead with hands to fully combine all ingredients. Flatten dough into disk, place in plastic bag, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Spray bottom of 9 ½” glass pie dish with Pam or similar. Roll chilled dough between two pieces of plastic (or wax) wrap to make it approx. the diameter of the pie dish. Carefully pull off one layer of the plastic wrap. (If dough is still too sticky, place it—plastic/wax wrap and all—in the freezer for a few minutes.) Invert into pie dish. Carefully remove other layer of plastic wrap. Use fingers to mold pie crust to bottom and up sides of dish and fix any cracks and/or sparse areas. There won’t be enough to crimp the edges, so just get the crust up the sides of the dish. Do your best to make sure the crust is evenly spread so there aren’t any overly thick or thin spots, if possible. This recipe should cover a 9 ½” pie dish just fine. Lightly prick (with a fork) the bottom and sides of crust to prevent bubbling.

Take aluminum foil and crimp/mold it so it lightly covers the top edge of the crust around the entire pie pan to avoid burning (the top edge will cook faster than the rest). Bake crust in oven for approx. 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. It’s okay if it browns slightly. When bottom looks lightly browned, remove foil and bake another 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow crust to cool completely. It may appear slightly doughy still, but it will harden after it cools. Make sure crust is completely cooled (at room temp) before putting in pie fillings.

To make chocolate layer:
In double boiler, melt chocolate with the ¼ c. water. After it is fully melted, add the vanilla extract. After chocolate, water, and vanilla are well combined, immediately remove chocolate mixture from the boiler and scoop it onto a paper plate or other surface to cool. It should spread kind of like thick butter. Spread it out well so it will cool quickly. Set aside.

After chocolate is cooled, in a medium mixing bowl whip ½ c. of the heavy cream with a few splashes of the SF Davinci vanilla syrup until almost stiff with electric mixer. Scrape the completely cooled chocolate into this mixture. Use electric mixer until well combined. Add more of the SF Davinci vanilla syrup to sweeten to your preference. Add it a few tablespoons at a time, mix again, then taste until it is as sweet as you like. This is the time to get the unsweetened chocolate mixture to desired sweetness. After you add it to the rest of the mixture that makes up the entire chocolate portion of the pie, it will be too late to add but the smallest amount. So add it now. It is okay if this mixture “falls” a little. We are mixing it separate from the rest so the end product chocolate portion doesn’t fall. Set aside.

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, use electric mixer to combine the remaining 1 c. of heavy cream, the powdered SF chocolate pudding mix, and a few splashes of SF Davinci vanilla syrup. Beat until stiff. Fold the chocolate mixture into this bowl carefully. We don’t want this mixture to fall (e.g. lose its stiffness). If you have to (in order to fully combine the two chocolate mixtures), very briefly (like for 5 seconds) use the electric mixer. (I had to do this and it was fine—it didn’t fall.) Continue to fold everything together with a plastic spatula by hand, just until well combined. Don’t over mix! If you have add a little more SF Davinci vanilla syrup at this point to get it sweeter, do so very carefully (fold in gingerly) so it won’t fall. Once all is well combined and at desired sweetness, pour it into the cooled pie crust and refrigerate. The Rum layer is much easier!!


To make rum layer:
In a clean bowl with clean beaters mix until stiff the heavy cream, vanilla extract, SF vanilla powered pudding mix, rum extract, and a few splashes of the SF Davinci butter rum (best!) to the desired “rumness” and sweetness (or SF Davinci vanilla syrup if you don’t have their butter rum—also, you may have to use more rum extract to get a strong rum flavor if you don’t have the Davinci butter rum). Refrigerate in the mixing bowl for approx. 2 hours.

After the two hours, the chocolate layer should be well set. Using a plastic spatula or similar, spread the rum layer on top of the chocolate until evenly spread. Place pie back in refrigerator.


To make topping:

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then microwave it in 5 second increments until it’s melted. Let it cool.

Whip the cream and Davinci syrup in mixing bowl with electric mixer. Just before it gets stiff, add the gelatin mixture. Whip until barely stiff. (Reminded me of a mousse-like consistency.)

Spread on top of pie or use a decorating bag to make stars or other designs on pie.

Grate a very small piece of SF chocolate bar on top of whipped cream for a more finished look.

Keep pie refrigerated.



Notes:

Crust: This is Atkins’ recipe for pie crust. If you prefer, you can make a cheesecake-type crust instead (bottom-of-pie-only crust) with almond flour, butter, and granulated Splenda. However, I wanted to have a “traditional” white crust for this pie, in keeping with the crust normally used for fruit and cream pies.

Chocolate layer: The trick here is to not have the finished product “fall.” Follow the directions above exactly, and you should be fine. Be careful not to over mix. The fresher the cream, the better it held up for me; cream that was nearer to its expiration date didn’t do as well. (I suppose I could have used unsweetened baking cocoa instead of the unsweetened baking chocolate bars, but I think the taste would suffer some—it wouldn’t be as rich.)

Topping: This is Karen’s recipe (except I added some sweetener). The reason I used it instead of just whipping some cream with some Davinci or Splenda is because, depending upon how long it stays in your fridge (e.g. how fast your family devours it), you don’t want the whipped cream topping to get runny. Karen’s awesome method assures it won’t.

Misc.: By using Davinci sugar free syrups instead of granular Splenda in the pie fillings, you save enormous carbs as the Davinci has absolutely zero carbs (they use liquid Splenda—I called them and verified this a while back)! But being a liquid, the Davinci can cause the heavy cream pie filling mixtures to fall, so add only as much as you need for desired sweetness. It works best if the Davinci is added to cream mixtures before they get too stiff.

I have a photo (JPEG) of my finished product if anyone wants to see it. Here is the link. Be sure to check out the comments under the second photo... I wanted to be sure to mention the comments, because, otherwise, they are very small font and you might not see them.

http://community.webshots.com/album/74165213WyNEPc

If you are wondering why I didn’t just use SF Jello Pudding mixes for the layers, it is because they are WAY to high in carbs for just the dry mix, without even adding a milk or cream to it! It takes a lot more work to do it this way (e.g. my recipe), but is worth it in, not only taste, but the ECC per slice is still pretty low.

ENJOY!!!!

Jill in Phoenix, AZ