Great Minds Eat Alike: CakeSpy’s Brownie Pie

We started our Great Minds Eat Alike series in order to mix up the usual BGSK offerings with interviews and submissions by cooks and eaters whose mentality towards cooking and eating meshes with ours. Today we are incredibly excited to bring you a super sweet dessert from none other than super sweets expert, CakeSpy.

Cakespy.com is a Dessert Detective Agency dedicated to seeking sweetness (literally) in everyday life. We do this by writing about bakeries, conducting baking experiments, and picking the brains of bakers and food artists, and finding awesome products for lovers of baked goods.

The Cakespy crew is headed up by Head Spy Jessie Oleson. Jessie O is a freelance writer and illustrator, whose writing appears on DailyCandy.com and Serious Eats. Recently, she opened a retail CakeSpy Shop at 415 E. Pine Street in Capitol Hill, Seattle-your source for the sweetest art and gifts around. To shop online for Jessie’s artwork, click here; to shop the other artists available in the gallery, click here. There is also a CakeSpy book coming out in fall of 2011, called CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. If the brownie pie Jessie’s contributing today is indication of the sweetness of the book, we know we can’t wait for it!

–Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

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Time to get fat! Further evidence of my lifelong mantra that if some is good, More Is Better, this Brownie Pie packs so much chocolaty punch that you will probably need a recovery period after eating it. You’re welcome. It is one of many recipes in my upcoming book, CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life.

Love, CakeSpy.

Brownies. Pie.

Relegated to separate quadrants of the baked goods world, always on separate shelves in bakery cases.

But why, when they’re so much better together? In the spirit of sweet unity, I’d like to present the Brownie Pie. Comprised of a chocolate cookie crust; rich, fudgy brownie filling; and a topping of copious amounts of luxuriant cocoa buttercream frosting and a festive array of malt balls, this baby weighs about the same as (if not more than) a newborn. Of course, it’s a good thing it’s not actually a baby—otherwise you might be coming closer to understanding why some species eat their young.

**Recipe**

Brownie Pie
Makes 1 pie

CakeSpy Note: Make sure that the frosting is of an easily spreadable consistency. Because brownies have a flaky texture on top, you want to be sure that the frosting spreads with ease and won’t bring up too many of the crumbs (that just looks messy!).

Ingredients
one 9-inch chocolate cookie piecrust
1 batch of your favorite brownie recipe, homemade or from a mix
4 cups Cocoa Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)
Malted milk balls or chocolate candies, to garnish (optional)

Prepare the piecrust: either bake it yourself or remove the plastic from your store-bought version.

Prepare the brownie batter according to the directions in your recipe. But at the point where you would normally put the batter in a pan, instead pour it into the piecrust. Fill the piecrust about two-thirds full, spreading the batter to the edges. You might have extra brownie batter.

Place the pie on top of a baking sheet (just in case of overflow) at the temperature specified in your recipe; test the doneness by inserting a toothpick or skewer into the center and making sure it comes out mostly clean. Remove the brownie pie from the oven, and let it cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

Spread the frosting on top of the brownie pie, leaving a little bit of the brownie showing along the edges. If desired, garnish with malted milk balls or other chocolate candies.

Cocoa Buttercream Frosting
Makes 4 cups

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 to 6 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter. With the machine set at its lowest speed, add the cocoa powder and mix well. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar, starting with 4 cups and adding more until the frosting is easily spreadable, almost like the consistency of whipped butter.