How to Turn a Cocktail Into a Pie
Both dessert and cocktails come after dinner, but combining them is really a challenge. The best alcoholic desserts clearly distinguish between sweet treats and nightcaps; the worst is indistinguishable from mild physical abuse. Unfortunately, the latter is much more common than the former, but it is not necessary.
With my money, pies are the best dessert for a drink. A splash of liquor unmistakably flavors the pie filling without compromising its structural integrity – which cannot be said for cakes, cookies, ice cream or even buttercream frosting. Last week, the first hints of spring and my birthday came up, which served as an excuse for me to finally make Negroni Pie .
Making Negroni Pie couldn’t be simpler: Add the equivalent of two Negroni (one ounce gin, campari, and sweet vermouth each) to four egg yolks and a can of condensed milk (with optional red food coloring), bake as usual. – Cook the crust until solid, chill overnight and sprinkle with whipped cream and orange zest. That’s all.
It’s always the Negroni season in my soul , so it’s no surprise that the pie was a discovery for me – and it made me think about how to make a drunk pie that prompts your guests to ask, “What’s in it ?” bewilderment rather than barely suppressed disgust. Based on Negroni Pie and my own experience, I have come up with six tricks for truly successful booze pies that will help you plan your pies for spring and more.
Use a very light hand
In baked goods, alcohol can act as a solvent or strong flavoring agent. Deciding what function you want is crucially important, but whatever you choose, drink as little booze as possible.
Alcohol, especially hard substances such as liquor, dissolves a wider range of aromatic compounds than water alone and can dissolve both water-soluble and fat-soluble compounds. This means it enhances the flavor while simultaneously emulsifying and stabilizing a heterogeneous mixture like custard. Adding half a teaspoon of neutral alcohol to the lemon curd base brightens the lemon, softens the sweetness, and keeps the texture silky smooth – no shouting “This is vodka!”
Giving a dessert that special alcoholic flavor is much more fun, but it takes grace. Choosing an alcohol with a strong, distinct flavor helps — there is no such thing as a “hint” of vodka — but spirits will overwhelm almost any flavor you pair them with. Restraint is the key to success: Use a teaspoon, not a measuring can, to measure out your booze, start small and try often. You can always add more liquor.
Be simpler, but not too easy
Get inspired by simple cocktails, not mixed drinks; blended drinks contain spirit, and good cocktails are more than just the sum of their parts. If you love gin, make a gimbal pie, French 75 or Tom Collins, not gin and tonic. Likewise, Manhattan or the Boulevard can be a good source of inspiration for a bourbon pie; Jack and Coca Cola, not much. And don’t even think about the Adiós pie , the bastard – vile above all; second, there are too many moving parts to deal with.
Play Matchmaker
Once you’ve settled on your cocktail, you need to choose the right vehicle. Technically, there are no rules, but some spiked seals are better than others. Try to choose a filling style that doesn’t clash with the ingredients in your cocktail.
Custard tarts support just about any flavor you add to them, so they’re the perfect starting point for experimentation. Grasshopper pie is already a thing, but there is no limit: a pineapple and coconut cream pie with a little good spiced rum would be great, as would a white Russian buttermilk pie with kalua added. For a truly delicious drink, use plain egg yolk and condensed milk; they can be flavored with anything from gin, campari and vermouth to bourbon, orange peel and bitters. Citrus cocktails can be a fun addition to classic lemon or lime fillings, but I’d prefer cachaça, pisco, or tequila rum. (Have you ever chewed a shot of Jell-O tequila? I’m afraid this is what a margarita pie will taste like.)
As far as fruit tarts go, I can’t think of one that doesn’t get better with a splash of bourbon: cherries are an obvious choice for Easy Mode, but trust me when I say apple , peach, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry … as well as rhubarb. and even cranberry pie. I suppose this expands the concept of cocktail pie to its upper limit, but if you mix any fruit with simple syrup and mint and add bourbon, you have a cocktail, so it doesn’t bother me too much.
Take it easy with sugar
The only thing worse than an overly strong cocktail is that it is both too strong and too sweet. Keep this in mind when making a pie with alcoholic beverages.
I understand that “take it easy on sugar” without specific examples does not help much. Each cake is different, but here are some general guidelines to illustrate the point:
- Avoid meringues. Meringue pies should have a very sharp base so they don’t tip over and get toothache. If that harshness comes from acid, great, but if it comes even partly from alcohol, your pie might evoke memories of freshman vodka sprites. Whipped cream is the best choice. Speaking of which …
- Sweeten the whipped cream lightly . Whether your pie is covered in whipped cream or served with a spoon on the side, lightly sweetening it – or not sweetening it at all – will help reduce the sweetness of the alcoholic pie.
- Salt is your friend. Bitterness and sweetness need salt to balance, so use the salted butter in the crust (trust me Linda) and double the amount you need for the filling.
My Negroni cake turned out great in part because I did it all; The original recipe doesn’t require adding meringues, but I thought about using it to use up the egg whites left over from the filling. I’m so glad I didn’t do that and sweeten the whipped cream. It would be overkill.
Sleep on this
Baking a pie with alcoholic additives burns off most of the alcohol, but resting overnight is the key to softening any unwanted pungent aromas. As a bonus, leave the pie overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature to completely freeze the filling, which means your slices will be nicely spicy.
My final tip: Pair your booze pie with anything other than the cocktail of the same name. I’m a serious artist, so I made a Negroni to go next to my Negroni cake for photos, and oh god how they taste terrible together. The pie itself is a delicious mix of sweet, spicy and creamy, but the cocktail has all the spice and no subtlety. It rolled right over the pie – and worse, I swear, I could feel the cocktail rolling up the whipped cream left on my tongue. Gross. For love of God, serve your alcoholic pie with carefully selected dessert wine, strong coffee, or goddamn seltzer; your guests will be grateful to you.