Strawberry and Chocolate Pie

It's Women's Day tomorrow and I am sharing this beautiful Strawberry and Chocolate Pie recipe to celebrate. Chocolate and strawberry mingle together to create a gorgeous treat. I love nicely decorated pie and I am always on the look out for new pie design. I came up with the idea with rose topping inspired by "Golap Pitha" of Bangladesh. Golap Pitha means Rose Pie which is deep fried rose shaped sweetened flower dough. 

This beautiful pie is totally hand made. No fancy tools required. I have used homemade fillings and all ingredients are vegan in this recipe. It doesn't have to vegan though. Use dairy butter, store bought jam and semi sweet or dark chocolate morsels instead. Brush with beaten egg for shiny golden color if desired. I always semi bake my pie crust to avoid soggy bottom crust. Usually I don't bake top crust. But rose shape dough is bit thicker than other top crust so I semi baked roses too. Pie came out from the oven without breaking the crust and oozing all over when sliced because strawberries were cooked till thickened. It's a good tasting pie!

Ingredients for the crust~
3 1/2 cup unbleached flour
1  1/2 cup dairy free buttery spread + 2 tsp.
1/4 tsp. salt
4tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. ice water

For the home made filling~
1 lb. strawberry cut into small pieces
1/2 cup raw or white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened coco powder
1/2 cup raw or regular sugar 
1/3 coconut milk or cream
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

For the store bought filling~
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels 
1 tsp coconut oil
1 cup strawberry jam

Method~
For the strawberry mixture, in a medium saucepan add strawberry and sugar. Bring to a  boil over medium heat and cook for about 20 minutes or until it is jam consistency. Turn off the flame and let it cool.

For the cocoa mixture, combine sugar with coconut oil and coconut cream in a pan on a low flame. Stir until sugar dissolve. Add in coco powder and vanilla extract. Turn off the heat and stir until well combined. Melt chocolate morsels with coconut oil in the microwave if using. 

For the crust,Keep ingredients as cold as possible. Mix the first 3 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add in the butter and using finger tips blend butter and flour mixture until mixture becomes coarse meal. Now pour 1 tbsp. cold water at a time until dough starts to stick together. Dough should be not too sticky or tough but firm.  

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Try to make round firm ball, then flatten to form a disk. Wrap up the dough Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half, wrap up other half and refrigerate. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 13 inches circle about 1/8 inch thickness. Place a heart shape cake pan on the circle and run a knife around the heart shape pan keeping 2 inches larger than the pan. Carefully transfer the dough on the cake pan and gently pat the bottom and up the sides. If you are using a pie dish just transfer, pat the bottom and the sides up and trim the the overhangs. Cover and refrigerate again.

Cut the remaining half of the dough into 3- 4 pieces and roll  on a lightly floured surface until about 1/8 inch thickness and cut circles with 2 1/2" in diameter. Re-roll and cut at least 18 circles and some leaves until dough is used up. For regular pie dish you need more circles for the flower.

Take 2 round circles and cut in half. Lay 4 pieces of half circle on the top half of each other. Start rolling from the bottom circle and gently press the folds of dough out with fingertip to shape of petals.  Cover and refrigerate again.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pierce the dough all over with a fork so crust won't puff up while baking. Line the crust with a parchment paper. Add dry dried beans to fill the pan. Brush rose dough with buttery spread. Bake the crust and rose dough for 15 minutes on the middle rack. Remove parchment paper and beans and bake only crust for 10 more minutes and cool it on a wire rack. Remove from the pan. If using tart pan don't remove. Place it on a baking sheet.

Spoon the coco mixture first evenly into the dough followed by strawberry mixture. Place the roses and leaves on top of the pie filling. Brush the leaves with buttery spread.

Bake on the middle rack of an oven at 375 degrees 20-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Happy Women's Day!!