hazelnut & chocolate pie

Winter is here, y'all! It is my favourite season in Sydney - it is sunny and crisp and I love it. The chilly air will inevitably make you feel like eating pie. So I thought I'd help you out and give you a delicious pie recipe that you should most definitely make for dessert tonight.

When I think of hazelnut & chocolate together I immediately think 'nutella', and while I love nutella, this pie really doesn't taste much like it. Instead it is a fudgey chocolate filling, with chunks of crunchy hazelnuts inside a short hazelnut crust that is flaky and buttery. Sounds great, right? You'll forgive the not-nutellaness of it, I promise.

Click on for the recipe!

Hazelnut & Chocolate Pie

Hazelnut crust
140g butter
100g caster sugar
225g plain flour
50g ground hazelnuts / hazelnut meal
1 egg

Chocolate filling: 
250g softened butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
220g dark chocolate
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup hazelnut

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Begin with the hazelnut crust, by creaming together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then mix in the flour and the ground hazelnuts.

3. Chill the dough for about 20 minutes before rolling it out and fitting it into a pie dish. Shape the edges however you like and If you get any tears just patch them up with some of the excess pastry. Return it to the fridge to chill for another half an hour.

4. Once chilled, line the pastry with a square of baking paper and fill with the hazelnuts for the filling. You'll use the hazelnuts as a pastry weight whilst roasting them at the same time - multitasking win!

5. Bake the pastry for 10 minutes, until it just starts to brown.

6. To prepare the filling, use a small saucepan combine the chocolate, sugar and water over a low heat. Stir until silky and smooth.

7. Using an electric mixer or kitchen aid, cream the butter, vanilla and eggs. Once they are fluffy and well combined, slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate mixture. It should look like chocolate mousse at this stage - do your best not to eat it here and now.

8. Remove the roasted hazelnuts from the pie shell and blitz half of them in a food processor*. Stir both the ground and whole hazelnuts through the chocolate mixture.
*If you don't have a food processor, you can get away with just chopping up the whole lot of hazelnuts. It will have a less consistent texture but will still be delicious.

9. Pour into the pie shell and bake for another 35-40 minutes. Watch the crusts, if they get too brown before the filling looks ready, you'll need to coat them in foil. Have a look at how they do that here.

Serve it at room temperature with cream or ice cream. It will keep in the fridge for a few days if it lasts that long!