Molly O'Neill is our Food Editor. She is the former food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. O'Neill is the author of three cookbooks, including the best-selling New York Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1992), A Well Seasoned Appetite (Penguin, 1997), and The Pleasure of Your Company (Viking, 1997). She was the host of the PBS series Great Food, and edited the critically acclaimed anthology American Food Writing (Library of America, 2007). Her latest work, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (Scribner, 2006), recounts her childhood of growing up in a Major-League baseball family.
On an article page, you can save the article to your Favorites, print it out, send it to a friend, leave a comment, add it to a site like Digg or Del.icio.us or rate it.
This recipe makes two fudge pies because the Byrd family believes that it would be nothing short of insanity to make only one fudge pie. They serve the pie with vanilla ice cream, but whipped cream is nice as well.
For the Crust:
1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup fine chopped pecans
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
For the Fudge Filling:
12 ounces high-quality semi-sweet chocolate nibs, such as Ghirardelli
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (real, not imitation)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. To make the crust, combine all the ingredients. Press into two 9-inch pie pans and set aside.
2. To make the filling, melt butter and chocolate together in a saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar and the flour. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking between each addition. Add the vanilla and whisk. Add the pecans and stir well. Divide the mixture between the two pie pans and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
