Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie - Hummingbird High

Day 1: Make the Pie Dough and Prep for Blind Baking

In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the water and vinegar. Add the ice and whisk. Refrigerate while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and place them in a small bowl. Freeze while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour, sugar, and salt. Beat on low until just combined, about 15 seconds. Add the butter all at once and beat on low until the mixture has the texture of coarse meal, with pea-sized pieces of butter throughout, about 3 minutes.
Remove the ice water mixture from the refrigerator. With the mixer on low, add 6 tablespoons of liquid from the ice water mixture. Beat on low for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the dough clumps around the paddle and/or the sides of the bowl. If the dough seems too dry, add more liquid from the ice water mixture 1 teaspoon at a time.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured counter with a rubber spatula. Quickly knead the dough into a rough ball. Divide the dough into a ¾ portion (around 16.5 ounces) and a ¼ portion (around 5.5 ounces). Wrap each portion tightly in plastic wrap and flatten into a small disc. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove the larger portion of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap, and place on a lightly floured counter. Give the dough a feel. Workable pie dough in disc form feels like slightly-colder-than-room-temperature butter—it’s still pretty solid but gives a little when poked. If you find your dough feels like a rock, it’s too cold. But we can fix this! Give it a few whacks with a rolling pin, rotating the disc after every whack to ensure it’s flattening evenly. Let it sit for a minute or two, then test it again. If it’s still too solid, keep whacking it until you’re able to roll it out with some resistance against your rolling pin (you want the dough to feel a little bit like saltwater taffy when you roll it out). If it’s too warm, the dough will start sticking to the counter—if this happens, try dusting the dough and counter with more flour. If that doesn’t help, refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes, then try again.
Roll out the dough, starting with your rolling pin in the center of the disc and moving outward. Rotate the dough with every other roll until you have an even circle 2 to 3 inches larger than your pie pan. Transfer the rolled out dough onto the pie pan—you should have at least 2 inches of dough overhanging over the edge of the pie pan. Fold the overhanging dough onto itself, aligning the edge of the dough to the inner edge of the pie pan. Pinch along the fold all the way around to create a firm edge. Don’t worry if it looks big; the crust will shrink a little bit in the oven, so bigger is better in this case.
Dust your fingers with Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour. Take your thumb and press it into the folded overhang, using your thumb and index finger on the opposite hand to pinch around your thumb to create your first crimp. Repeat, crimping the dough around the entire pan, flouring your hands as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking.
Once the border is crimped, use a fork to prick holes across the bottom and sides of the pie crust. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.
Remove the smaller portion of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap, and place on a lightly floured counter. Follow the instructions above to soften and roll out the dough into a slab around ¼ inch thick—the shape and the size of the slab doesn’t matter since you’ll be using this dough to stamp out cookies. Scoot the slab onto a sheet of parchment paper.
Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes, placing the cookies at least 1 ½ inches apart on a parchment-lined half sheet pan. The dough should still be cool and firm to the touch; if you find the cookies sticking to the counter, place the pie dough slab in the freezer for 10 minutes before cutting out more shapes, using the parchment paper as handles to help transfer the slab into the freezer.
Cover the sheet pan with the cookies loosely with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

Day 2: Blind Bake the Pie, Make the Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie Filling, and Bake Again!

First, blind bake the pie: position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place the frozen crust in the center of the pan. Cover the crust with foil, making sure the crimped edges are completely covered and that there are no gaps between the foil and the crust. Fill with pie weights and spread them out so they are more concentrated around the edges of the crust.
Bake for 35 minutes. While the crust is in the oven, make the egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, water, and salt.
Remove the sheet pan from the oven, keeping the oven on. Carefully lift out the pie weights and foil. Use a pastry brush to coat the bottom and sides of the pie crust (but not the crimped border) with a thin layer of egg wash. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before you make the pie filling.
Next, make the ganache layer: place the dark chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream just to a heavy boil over medium heat in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Remove from heat and immediately pour over the chocolate, then place a heatproof plate over the bowl to create a makeshift lid. Let sit, undisturbed, for 5 minutes.
Remove the plate. Whisk slowly but steadily until the ganache is thick, smooth, and shiny. Scrape the ganache into the cooled pie shell and spread evenly over its bottom and sides with an offset spatula. Place the shell in the freezer to set the ganache while making the filling.
Position two racks in the oven, placing one in the upper third and the second in the lower third of the oven. Preheat to 350°F.
Next, make the oatmeal filling: in a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, ginger, and salt. Add the corn syrup, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla, whisking to combine. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Use a rubber spatula to mix in the Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Rolled Oats.
Place the ganache-coated pie shell on a parchment-lined half sheet pan and pour in the filling. Place the sheet pan with the pie on the lower third rack, and the sheet pan with the pie crust cookies on the upper third rack (yep—you’ll be baking the cookies straight from the fridge!). Bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the sheet pan with the cookies (the cookies will be golden brown) and place on a wire rack. Transfer the sheet pan with the pie to the upper third rack and bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until the edges are set and the center is slightly firm to the touch but still wobbles ever so slightly in the center. Cool completely on the wire rack before garnishing with the pie crust cookies; serve slightly warm or at room temperature. The pie will keep refrigerated for 3 days or at room temperature for 2 days.

Get the Recipe: Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie

Ingredients

For the Stand Mixer All-Butter Pie Dough

Assembly

For the Black Bottom Oatmeal Filling

Instructions

Day 1: Make the Pie Dough and Prep for Blind Baking

Day 2: Blind Bake the Pie, Make the Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie Filling, and Bake Again!